Jean Brooks

Jean Brooks

Fluent in Spanish, Jean Brooks began professionally by singing with Enric Madriguera and Orchestra in New York. She had a small role in the New York City-filmed The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) and the second lead in a Broadway play, "Name Your Poison" (1938), with Lenore Ulric, all under her real name of Jeanne Kelly. She was signed by an independent film production company that had gone under by the time she got to Hollywood. She spent several years at Universal as a leading lady in "B" pictures, including several Johnny Mack Brown westerns, but her option was dropped in late 1941. By this time she had married writer (later director) Richard Brooks and, with a certain Broadway hoofer having just signed at MGM, dropped the Kelly and became Jean Brooks. She signed with RKO, where film buffs know her for her three appearances for cult producer Val Lewton, particularly her stunning performance as a haunted devil worshiper in The Seventh Victim (1943). Her clipped delivery and intense, forceful acting style made her a promising bet for stardom, but RKO lost interest in her by mid-'44 and her roles got gradually smaller until she was dropped in 1946. She and Brooks divorced (his later studio biographies omitted her name as one of his ex-wives). For many years she was listed as a "Lost Player" championed in several magazine articles by writer Doug McClelland. She was eventually located in San Francisco, where she had moved after her film career petered out, and was employed as a classified ad solicitor on the "San Francisco Examiner" newspaper. She had married a printer called Leddy. Her death at the Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, California, in 1963 was due to nutritional problems caused by alcoholism, a sad ending for a stylish and talented performer who didn't get the breaks she deserved, both personally and professionally. Date of Death 25 November 1963, Richmond, California  (extreme malnutrition & alcoholism)

  • Popularity : 1.667
  • Known For : Acting
  • Birthday : 1915-12-23
  • Place of Birth : Houston, Texas, USA
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Jean Brooks Movies

  • 1943
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    The Seventh Victim

    The Seventh Victim

    6.429 1943 HD

    A woman in search of her missing sister uncovers a Satanic cult in New York's Greenwich Village and finds that they could have something to do with...

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  • 1948
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    Women in the Night

    Women in the Night

    3.9 1948 HD

    During WW2 six allied nations women at Shanghai University are arrested by the Germans accused of killing a German officer and forced to entertain...

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  • 1943
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    The Leopard Man

    The Leopard Man

    6.4 1943 HD

    When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.

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  • 1945
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    Two O'Clock Courage

    Two O'Clock Courage

    6.2 1945 HD

    A cab driver nearly hits a man with amnesia, then helps him unravel his past, only to discover he's a murder suspect as she falls for him.

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  • 1943
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    The Falcon in Danger

    The Falcon in Danger

    5.6 1943 HD

    Two industrialists disappear from an airplane while the plane is in the air. Also missing is $100,000. The Falcon investigates and discovers a plot...

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  • 1944
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    The Falcon in Hollywood

    The Falcon in Hollywood

    6 1944 HD

    Suave amateur detective Tom Lawrence--aka Michael Arlen's literary hero The Falcon--arrives in Hollywood for some rest and relaxation, only to find...

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  • 1943
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    The Falcon and the Co-Eds

    The Falcon and the Co-Eds

    6.333 1943 HD

    The Falcon is called to a young woman's school to investigate a murder. When he arrives, another victim is discovered.

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  • 1946
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    The Falcon's Alibi

    The Falcon's Alibi

    5.2 1946 HD

    A society sleuth sets out on the trail of a society matron's lost jewels.

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  • 1942
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    The Boss of Big Town

    The Boss of Big Town

    5 1942 HD

    Quality was seldom a consideration in the low-budget films of PRC Studios; still, the company was a welcome harbor for character actors who aspired...

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  • 1944
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    Youth Runs Wild

    Youth Runs Wild

    4.2 1944 HD

    The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war.

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  • 1946
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    The Bamboo Blonde

    The Bamboo Blonde

    6 1946 HD

    A pilot of a B 29 meets Louise Anderson, a singer in a New York nightclub. He falls in love with her, but he had to leave next day for action in the...

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  • 1944
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    A Night of Adventure

    A Night of Adventure

    4.9 1944 HD

    A lawyer tries to clear his wife's lover of murder charges.

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  • 1939
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    Miracle on Main Street

    Miracle on Main Street

    5.5 1939 HD

    On Christmas Eve in the Spanish quarter of L.A. police try to arrest a couple running a shady floor show. Hiding in a church, the young woman finds...

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  • 1941
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    Man from Montana

    Man from Montana

    1 1941 HD

    A sheriff tries to prevent a range war between cattlemen and homesteaders.

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  • 1940
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    The Devil's Pipeline

    The Devil's Pipeline

    6 1940 HD

    A secretary sends a coded plea for help in her monthly report; two detectives investigate and find out that men are jailed on phony charges, forced...

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  • 1936
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    Frankie and Johnnie

    Frankie and Johnnie

    5 1936 HD

    The story of a woman, Frankie, and the man who has done her wrong, Johnnie.

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  • 1939
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    The Invisible Killer

    The Invisible Killer

    4 1939 HD

    Reporter Sue Walker has too much inside information on the local gambling rackets to suit her sweetheart, Detective Lieutenant Jerry Brown, chief of...

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  • 1940
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    The Green Hornet Strikes Again!

    The Green Hornet Strikes Again!

    6.2 1940 HD

    Second serial featuring The Green Hornet and Kato.

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  • 1940
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    The Invisible Man Returns

    The Invisible Man Returns

    6.2 1940 HD

    The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness.

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  • 1935
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    The Crime of Doctor Crespi

    The Crime of Doctor Crespi

    4.5 1935 HD

    A crazed scientist invents a serum that induces a catatonic state in anyone who gets the injection. He uses the serum to paralyze his enemies, in...

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  • 1941
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    Riders of Death Valley

    Riders of Death Valley

    6.5 1941 HD

    The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick...

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  • 1941
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    A Dangerous Game

    A Dangerous Game

    5 1941 HD

    Detectives Dick Williams and Andy McAllister find themselves trying to solve several crimes at an isolated mentally-ill hospital, where the patients...

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  • 1941
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    Meet the Chump

    Meet the Chump

    1 1941 HD

    A comedy about a man who tries to avoid giving up the $10,000,000 trust he's been administering so well that there's hardly any money left.

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  • 1941
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    Buck Privates

    Buck Privates

    6.6 1941 HD

    Petty con artists Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown mistakenly join the Army evading the cops. The cop chasing them winds up as their drill instructor....

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  • 1940
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    Son of Roaring Dan

    Son of Roaring Dan

    1 1940 HD

    In this exciting western, Roaring Dan is the meanest old cuss around. He and his "son" are constantly bickering. But things are not as they seem as...

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  • 1940
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    Junior G-Men

    Junior G-Men

    6.1 1940 HD

    A gang of urban street kids and a club of suburban would-be federal agents, at first rivals, join forces to rescue the father of one of the kids, the...

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  • 1940
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    Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

    Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

    5.658 1940 HD

    A mysterious plague, the Purple Death, ravages the earth. Dr. Zarkov, investigating in his spaceship, finds a ship from planet Mongo seeding the...

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  • 1942
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    Klondike Fury

    Klondike Fury

    3.9 1942 HD

    In this Alaskan adventure, a surgeon becomes a pilot after he messes up an operation. Unfortunately, he crashes during a storm and finds himself...

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  • 1942
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    Boot Hill Bandits

    Boot Hill Bandits

    5.8 1942 HD

    Bolton's men blow up the wagon carrying the mine payroll and Marshal Crash Corrigan is supposedly killed in the explosion. A man finds his badge and...

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  • 1941
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    Fighting Bill Fargo

    Fighting Bill Fargo

    6 1941 HD

    Johnny Mack Brown essays the title role in Universal's Fighting Bill Forgo. Returning to his home town, Bill Fargo takes over the operation of his...

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  • 1941
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    Badlands of Dakota

    Badlands of Dakota

    5.6 1941 HD

    In the Dakotas during the days of the Great Gold Boom, brothers Jim and Bob Holliday are bumping heads over the affections of pretty Anne Grayson....

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  • 1935
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    Tango Bar

    Tango Bar

    7.8 1935 HD

    Ricardo Fuentes (Carlos Gardel) leaves Buenos Aires after loosing in horse races to go to Barcelona, where he plans to open a tango bar, a new...

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  • 1935
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    Obeah

    Obeah

    1 1935 HD

    A sailor, known as the Adventurer, searching for a lost American explorer discovers him being held hostage on a remote island in the South Sea. The...

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