Acting 101: At what age did Brooke Shields begin in the biz?

July 8, 7:03 PMActing ExaminerDeborah Smith Ford

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Acting Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

 
Brooke Shields                               (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, pool)

Brooke Christa Shields  is an American actress, author and model.  Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan and Lipstick Jungle.

Shields' career as a model began in 1966, at the age of 11 months. Her first job was for Ivory Soap.

Michael Jackson was honored around the world, and at his, the Michael Jackson memorial, Shields being one of the guest speakers, shared memories about her and Michael's young upbringing in the biz.

Brooke speaking at memorial (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Speaking of Michael, she said that she had told him one day, even though he was a bit older, seven years, that she began in the biz sooner than he did.  She was 11 months old, and he was all of five years.

She shared to the memorial's audience what she said to Michael about that,

You're a slacker."

Another comment she made at the memorial about Michael, when he had made an addition to his act, was,

(AP Photo/Gabriel Bouys,pool)

What's up with the glove?"

She also said that he did try to teach her how to moonwalk, but that he gave up on her and laughed and laughed watching her try to do it.

Later in her life, Shields continued as a successful child model with model agent Eileen Ford, who, in her Lifetime Network biography, stated that she started her children's division just for Shields.

In early 1980 (at age 14), Shields was the youngest fashion model ever to appear on the cover of the top fashion publication Vogue magazine.

Later that same year, Shields appeared in controversial print and TV ads for Calvin Klein jeans.

The TV ad included her saying the famous tagline,

You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."

By the age of 16, Shields had become one of the most recognizable faces in the world, because of her dual career as a provocative fashion model and controversial child actress.

Shields' first major film role was her 1978 appearance in Pretty Baby, a movie in which she played a child who lived in a brothel (and in which there were numerous nude scenes).

After two decades of movies, her best known films are The Blue Lagoon (1980) and Endless Love (1981).

She won the People's Choice Award in the category of Favorite Young Performer in four consecutive years from 1981 to 1984.

Shields put her film career on hold to attend Princeton University, from 1983 to 1987, and graduated with a degree in French literature.

Shields has appeared in a number of television shows. In 1980, she was the youngest guest star to ever appear on The Muppet Show. Then there was NBCs sitcom Suddenly Susan in which she starred from 1996 until 2000

She was also the youngest person to host ABC's Fridays, a Saturday Night Live-like sketch comedy show, in 1981. In 1993 Brooke appeared in an episode of Quantum Leap "Leaping of the Shrew".

Shields made a couple of guest appearances on That '70s Show. In the late 2000s, Shields guest-starred on shows like FX's Nip/Tuck and CBS' Two and a Half Men. In 2007, she made a guest appearance on Disney's Hannah Montana playing Susan Stewart, Miley and Jackson's mother. In 2008, she returned in the primetime drama Lipstick Jungle. 

Shields has appeared in many on-stage productions, mostly musical revivals including Grease, Cabaret, Wonderful Town and Chicago on Broadway, and she also performed in Chicago in London's West End.