Brooke Shields

BROOKE SHIELDS

Date of Birth: May 31, 1965

Despite efforts to be taken seriously as an actress, Brooke Shields has been unable to escape her youth. In her younger years she was simultaneously a late '70s icon of adolescent wholesome virginal innocence and constantly photographed in manners verging on the mildly pornographic. Shield's early career was managed and pushed by her mother Teri Shields, who placed her daughter in front of the camera before she was even one. As the Ivory Snow baby, Shields was once hailed the "most beautiful baby in America."

Shields made her feature film debut in Alice Sweet Alice (1976), but did not become a bonafide star until French director Louis Malle cast her as a 12-year-old New Orleans prostitute in Pretty Baby (1978). The film was released amidst great controversy because of the scenes in which Shields (or a body double representing her) appeared nude, but the general consensus was that she was not exploited.

Through her teens, Shields was among the world's top fashion models and stirred up more controversy when she did some provocative ads for Calvin Klein. Wearing a too tight pair of jeans, she cooed, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins."

Her film career picked up again with appearances in King of the Gypsies (1978), Wanda Nevada (1979) and The Blue Lagoon (1980), arguably her best known film. In 1981, Shields tried her hand with a more serious role in the teen romance Endless Love, but did not succeed. Deciding it was time for college, she enrolled in Princeton, where she majored in French Literature. While at school she became interested in the theater, gaining experience in two regional productions of Love Letters. After graduating with honors, she returned to acting full-time and appeared in films that were mediocre at best. In 1996, Shields was given her own situation comedy on the ABC network, Suddenly Susan, where she plays a single career girl struggling to reassemble her life following her break-up with her wealthy fiance. She married tennis champ Andre Agassi in April 1997, but the couple split in 1999. She subsequently married writer/producer Chris Henchy in 2001. They have two children together—daughter Rowan, born May 15, 2003 and daughter Grier, born April 18, 2006.

After suffering depression following the birth of her first daughter, she wrote a book chronicling her experience, called "Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression." Since then, she's gone back to work on TV in shows like Hannah Montana (playing Miley's deceased mother) and in films such as Furry Vengeance (2010).