Brooke Shields life and biography

Brooke Shields, born May 31, 1965, in New York City, to Terri and Frank Shields is an American actress. Her father was a Revlon executive and her mother a model. Shields has been in the public eye from the very beginning, as she appeared in an Ivory Snow advertisement when she was a mere 11 months old.

In 1978, Shields made her film debut in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby and followed it up with high-profile roles in The Blue Lagoon (1980) and Endless Love (1981). Meanwhile, Shields caused a sensation with her advertisements for Calvin Klein jeans, in which she claimed that nothing came between her and her Calvins. Shields also endorsed Breck shampoo, Colgate toothpaste, and Band Aids.

Critics who claimed that Shields was more celebrity than actress were delighted when she flopped in Sahara (1983) and Brenda Starr (1989). Shields cut back on her acting to attend Princeton University in New Jersey and graduated in 1988. However, she couldn't totally resist the spotlight and wrote a much-publicized autobiography, On Your Own.

Shields starred in a string of TV-movies following college, before landing the title role in Suddenly Susan in 1996. With a great time slot between Seinfeld and ER, the show achieved moderate success and was later moved to Monday nights, where it began to struggle in the ratings. It was eventually canceled in late 1999. Shields' career remained on track, however, with starring roles in several independent films, including James Toback's Black and White (2000), co-starring Robert Downey Jr. In 2007, she appeared as Miley Cyrus's mother on the hit Disney show, Hannah Montana. The next year, she starred in the television drama Lipstick Jungle. After several promises of renewal, the show was canceled in 2009 after only two seasons.

Previously linked romantically to Michael Jackson, Liam Neeson, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Michael Bolton, Shields married tennis star Andre Agassi in April 1997. The two were separated less than two years later, and the marriage ended in divorce. In April 2001, Shields married ex-Suddenly Susan writer Chris Henchy. The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Rowan, in May 2003.

In the spring of 2005, Shields spoke out about her struggle with postpartum depression after Rowan's birth. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to publicize her book, Down Came the Rain which detailed her experiences with suicide, delayed bonding, and severe depression that came with her traumatic childbirth experiences. After speaking about her troubles, and reaching out to other victims of postpartum depression, she was openly criticized by actor and devout scientologist Tom Cruise. Cruise accused Shields of improperly medicating with the antidepressant drug, Paxil, and spoke out against her use of psychiatric treatment. The two actors became locked in a very public argument about the necessity of medication and psychiatry until Cruise privately apologized to Shields. Their friendship was quickly healed; Brooke and her husband attended Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006.

Shields came into the public eye again on July 17, 2009, when she spoke at the memorial service for Michael Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. In her tearful eulogy she shared a number of heartfelt anecdotes about the pop star.

Career Highlights:
1977: Appears on the album cover of Nektar’s Magic Is a Child
1978:
- Named one of People magazine’s most intriguing people
- Featured as one of twelve promising new actors by John Willis's Screen World
- Stars as a 12-year-old prostitute in the controversial film Pretty Baby
1980:
- Named one of People magazine’s most intriguing people
- Becomes the face of Calvin Klein jeans
- Featured in TV ads for CK jeans wildly claiming, "Want to know what gets between me and my Calvins? Nothing."
- Stars as Emmeline, a child marooned on an island, in The Blue Lagoon (5 JUL)
1981:
- Sues photographer Gary Gross over nude photos of Shields taken at the tender age of 10, claiming the images were upsetting
- Appears on the cover of Time magazine, representing the child of the eighties
- Appears on the cover of Cosmopolitan and Life magazine
1983: Takes a break from acting and modeling to study at Princeton University
- Appears on the cover of Life magazine(FEB)
- Appears on the cover of French Vogue in the latest Parisian haute couture(SEP)
1987: Graduates from Princeton with a degree in French literature and minor in Italian
1996:
- Named one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people in the world
- Appears on the sitcom Friends, as Erika Ford, a potential stalker of Joey Tribbiani(26 JAN)
- Headlines the sitcom Suddenly Susan, as Susan, a copy editor of a magazine
- Appears on the cover of Rolling Stone nude (3 OCT)
FEB, 1997
- 19 APR, 1997: Marries tennis superstar Andre Agassi
1998:
- Photographer Gary Gross holds an exhibit at Manhattan's American Fine Arts Gallery with the revealing shots of Shields (10 SEP)
1999:
- Has marriage with Agassi annulled, allowing her to marry in the Catholic Church again, if so desired(9 APR)
- Stalker Mark Ronald Bailey begins to send copious amounts of letters, verbally harasses, and threatens Shields and her family’s safety
2000:
- Named one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people in the world
- Gets engaged to Chris Henchy while in Mexico (15 JUL)
- Mark Ronald Bailey pleads no contest to the harassment and is sentenced to severe psychological and emotional evaluations, on top of being placed under a restraining order (which includes keeping distance from Shields’s employees, her employers, or any of her agents) (5 SEP)
2001: Marries Chris Henchy(4 APR)
2004: Named one of the most glamorous women of all time by Harper’s Bazaar, alongside Coco Chanel, Nicole Kidman, and Grace Kelly
2005: Named one of the twentieth century's 100 most beautiful women by Harpers & Queen, alongside Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren, and Gloria Swanson
3 MAY, 2005: Publishes Down Came the Rain about her struggle with postpartum depression
16 MAY, 2005: On Access Hollywood Tom Cruise openly criticizes Shields for her anti-depressant drug use
2006:
- Named one of People magazine’s 100 most beautiful people in the world
- Gives birth to Grier Hammond(16 APR)
- Cruise personally goes over to Shields's home to apologize for his disparaging words(31 AUG)
- Makes several cameos in the sitcom Nip/Tuck(5 SEP)
2007:
- Appears on the cover of Life magazine
- Embarrassingly drives into the front of her Beverly Hills house when her shoe gets stuck under the gas pedal
7FEB, 2008: Stars in the television series Lipstick Jungle from the writer of Sex and the City, Candace Bushnell
JUN 2008: Releases a children's book Welcome to your World, Baby
2010: Appears in French Vogue editorial, photographed by Bruce Weber

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