Brooke Shields Biography

Brooke Shields found fame at the age of 13 when she was cast as a teenage prostitute in Louis Malle's ‘Pretty Baby’. Although not the first film she had made, ‘Pretty Baby’ caused a stir among religious and anti-pornography groups in the US when it was released in 1978.

Over the next few years she appeared in ‘Tilt’, ‘Wanda Nevada’, ‘Endless Love’ and ‘Just You and Me, Kid’. In 1980, she caused another stir when she starred in ‘The Blue Lagoon’, a film about two young children, stranded on a desert island that fall in love with each other and have a baby.

Shields went on to become a top model next and landed big contracts such as commercials for Calvin Klein jeans in which she uttered the provocative statement, "You know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."

Thanks to her early films and successful modelling career, by the time she was 18 she was one of the most famous faces in America.

Unlike many child stars before and since, however, Shields has dealt with her life's roller coaster ride with large helpings of maturity, intelligence and common sense.

In 1983, she took a four-year sabbatical from movies to attend Princeton as a freshmen with waves of both unwanted publicity and criticism. It wasn't until Shields turned in A+ performances in tough courses that the other students protected her as their own and the paparazzi backed off.

Although she returned to movies following her studies, subsequent films never matched the commercial or critical success of her earlier work.

In 1993, Shields met tennis ace Andre Agassi and, after a four-year courtship, the couple married in Carmel, California, in 1997. However, while the couple became media darlings, the marriage ended in divorce in 1999. During this time Shields' career saw somewhat of resurgence with her role in the hit TV show ‘Suddenly Susan’.

Having talked publicly about her struggle with post-natal depression following the birth of her first child, her book ‘Down Came the Rain’ debuted at number six on The New York Times Best Sellers list. Shields' openness about the drugs that helped her beat her depression led to a public spat with actor Tom Cruise, who accused her of being "misguided".

Recent years have seen Shields take to the stage as Roxie Hart in Chicago in London’s West End and in ‘Wonderful Town’ in New York.