American actress and model whose films include “Communion,” 1977, “The Blue Lagoon,” 1980, “Brenda Starr,” 1989 and “Backstreet Dreams,” 1990. In 1994, she made her stage debut in “Grease” on Broadway.
When Shields was five months old, her parents divorced. Good looks ran in the family and the little girl was totally beautiful with silky brown hair, luminous eyes and delicately pouty lips. Her lush sensuality later helped to sell blue jeans by the time she was 15.
She was a pro photographic model from the age of 11 months, posing nude at age 10 and in a major motion picture at age 12. Her controversial first film, “Pretty Baby,” portrayed the gorgeous youngster as a child prostitute. Two years later, she was a teen-age millionaire who had done five more movies. The famous photographer, Scavullo, who has taken pictures of her through babyhood, teen years and budding young woman, said that she was an incredible subject. “She went through all those stages and was always fabulous to work with, never showing any temperament or lack of cooperation.”
In spite of her fresh beauty, Shields was actually a churchgoing Catholic who disapproved of premarital sex. She never did drugs and tried smoking once, at age nine. Her mother, Teri, kept her on curfew and supervised her daughter’s social scene.
At the age of 20, Shields wrote her first autobiography, “On Your Own.” She then took time off to complete her education at Princeton University, graduating in 1987 with A grades. During school, she commuted to the 15-room mini mansion in New Jersey that she shared with her mom, three cats, three dogs and three horses. Planning to take Hollywood by storm, she instead entered a series of forgettable films and Bob Hope specials on TV. Close to six feet tall and beautiful, she was nonetheless considered wooden.
In the ’90s, Shields turned 30, went into therapy, and asked herself some tough questions.
In 1993 she briefly met five-year-younger tennis star Andre Agassi (born 29 April 1970). They had both been child stars, were both religious and both in a career slump. They began sending each other notes and faxes, then talking on the phone for hours. By the time they got together in December, meeting in an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles, Shields said she was already smitten. Their excitement together spilled over into their professional lives. Agassi got a new coach and a nine-figure contract from Nike, He won the U.S. Open in 1994, the Australian Open in 1995 and the Olympic Gold Medal in 1996 with Brooke nearby. Shields landed a part in “Grease” in 1994 as the gum-chomping, fast-talking Rizzo, a different image from her usual pristine princess. She fired her mother as her agent and signed with the William Morris Agency. She entered the competitive world of series TV with the debut of her sitcom, “Suddenly Susan,” on 19 September 1996. This was her break-through, showing a sense of timing and fun in the light hearted comedy. Despite some tough reviews from the critics, the show proved itself a solid success.
In February 1996, while she and Agassi were vacationing in Hawaii, he proposed with a spectacular 16-carat diamond ring. On 19 April 1997 at 6:45 PM and in Monterey, California, Shields and Agassi were married. They divided their time between Los Angeles and a new, $2 million house in Las Vegas, one they were well able to afford with a combined worth of some $80 million. Within two years, they filed for divorce, on 9 April 1999.
On 4 March 2001, Shields and TV writer-producer Chris Henchy (born 23 March 1964 in New York according to their second daughter’s birth certificate) were married secretly on Santa Catalina Island. Eight weeks later, on 26 May 2001 at 6:45 PM (concluding in a 25 min ceremony), they repeated their vows before 75 relatives and guests in a Catholic ceremony at a private home in Palm Beach, Florida. Brooke and Chris became friends while working together on the 1998 NBC special “Christmas in Washington,” and after her marriage to Agassi folded, they became inseparable. They betrothed their engagement in July 2000 at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Following a series of hormone treatements and artificial insemination she miscarried a child in December 2001. She delivered a healthy baby girl on 13 May 2003 in Manhattan, New York, just three weeks after the death of her father. She admitted later that she had suffered from post-partum depression which she treated with prescription drugs. Tom Cruise publicly criticized her use of such drugs. Several months later, she and her husband Chris Henchy welcomed their second daughter, named Grier Hammond Henchy, on 18 April 2006. Their child was born on the same day and in the same Los Angeles area hospital as Suri Cruise, a bit ironic given Tom Cruise’s vocal public criticism of Shields’ use of drugs to help with the post-partum depression she experienced after the birth of her first baby. Shield’s second daughter was delivered by Caesarean and Shields reported no sign of the post-partum depression she suffered after the birth of her first child.
Link to Wikipedia biography