Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.
Brooks began her career as a dancer. While dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies in New York City, she came to the attention of Walter Wanger, a producer at Paramount Pictures, and was signed to a five-year contract with the studio. She appeared in supporting roles in various Paramount films before taking the heroine's role in Beggars of Life (1928).
Dissatisfied with her mediocre roles in Hollywood films, Brooks went to Germany in 1929 and starred in three feature films that launched her to international stardom: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Miss Europe (1930); the first two were directed by G. W. Pabst. By 1938, she had starred in seventeen silent films and eight sound films.
After retiring from acting, she fell upon financial hardship and became a paid escort. For the next two decades, she struggled with alcoholism and suicidal tendencies.
Following the rediscovery of her films by cinephiles in the 1950s, a reclusive Brooks began writing articles about her film career; her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim. She published her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, in 1982. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 78.
[preceding biography, edited, from Wikipedia]
Acting
Movie
Pandora's Box
as Lulu
1929
Movie
Diary of a Lost Girl
as Thymian Henning
1929
Movie
Beggars of Life
as The Girl (Nancy)
1928
Movie
The Canary Murder Case
as The Canary
1929
Movie
A Girl in Every Port
as Marie / Mam'selle Godiva
1928
Movie
Miss Europe
as Lucienne
1930
TV
Hollywood
as Self
1980
Movie
Overland Stage Raiders
as Beth Hoyt
1938
Movie
It's the Old Army Game
as Mildred Marshall
1926
Movie
Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu
as Herself (archive footage)
1998
Movie
God's Gift to Women
as Florine
1931
Movie
When You're in Love
as Specialty Ballerina in Chorus
1937
Movie
It Pays to Advertise
as Thelma Temple
1931
Movie
1001 Films
as (archival)
1989
TV
Mysteries and Scandals
as Self (archive footage)
1998
Movie
The Show Off
as Clara
1926
Movie
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
as Self (archive footage)
2007
Movie
Lulu in Berlin
as Self
1984
Movie
The Street of Forgotten Men
as A Moll
1925
Movie
Love 'Em and Leave 'Em
as Janie Walsh
1926
Movie
Windy Riley Goes Hollywood
as Betty Grey
1931
Movie
Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl
as Self (archive footage)
1999
Movie
Now We're in the Air
as Griselle and Grisette
1927
Movie
The Casting Couch
1995