Bio
Brooke Shields is an American actress and supermodel best known for her role as Emmeline in the 1980 feature film The Blue Lagoon, and as Susan Keane in the television sitcom Suddenly Susan, from 1996-2000.
She starred in the drama series Lipstick Jungle as Wendy Healy, the top executive at Parador Pictures, from 2008-2009.
Career
She began her professional career at only 11 months of age when she was selected as the Ivory Snow Baby, and by age three was a runway model.
Since that time, Shields has graced the covers of hundreds of magazines - most notably Time as the "Face of the Eighties," as well as Life on three separate occasions. Shields continues to be featured worldwide in publications and in product endorsements.
At age nine, Shields began her extensive feature film career when she won her first acting role in Holy Terror, and went on to greater parts as a child film star in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby - the Palme D'or Award winner at the Cannes Film Festival - as well as Franco Zeffirelli's Blue Lagoon.
Shields has worked with such film greats as Susan Sarandon, Shelley Winters, Henry and Peter Fonda, George Burns, Charles Durning, Hal Holbrook and Kiefer Sutherland.
Shields also had starring roles in The Weekend, Black and White, The Bachelor and After Sex.
While at Princeton University where Shields was an honours graduate, she pursued her love for the theatre. After graduation, she made her Broadway debut as Rizzo in the hit musical Grease and earned the Theatre World Award in 1994 for "Outstanding Debut on Broadway."
Shields has received numerous awards and accolades. In 1997 and 1998, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy for Suddenly Susan, and was also nominated for the American Comedy Awards' Funniest Female Performer in a Television Series-Leading Role.
Shields is the recipient of five People's Choice Awards as "Favorite Young Performer" in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 and Favorite Female Performer in a New Television Series in 1997.
In 1999, Shields received the Genii Award for Outstanding Success in Television, Stellar Achievements in Television Performances and Good Citizenship in the Television Community.
Shields is the author of The Brooke Book, On Your Own and Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.
In addition to her professional career, she continues to be a strong advocate for children's rights and literacy and is the national spokesperson for Tupperware's Chain of Confidence campaign.
Personal Life
Shields was born in New York City into a well-known American society family with links to Italian nobility. Her father was Francis Alexander Shields, and her mother is Teri Shields (née Maria Theresia Schmonn).
Shields adopted her middle name, Camille, for her Confirmation at age 10.
Shields' parents divorced when she was a child, and her father later married Diana Lippert Auchincloss, the former wife of Thomas Gore Auchincloss (a half-brother of Gore Vidal and a stepbrother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis).
The actress has three half-sisters: Marina (who married Thomas William Purcell), Olympia, and Christina Shields. She also has two stepsiblings, Diana Luise Auchincloss and Thomas Gore Auchincloss Jr.
She attended the all-girl Lenox School. She graduated from Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey.
Her paternal grandparents were Francis Xavier Shields, a tennis star of Irish descent, and his second wife, the Italian princess Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, a half-Italian, half-American socialite who was a sister of Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi, the husband of Infanta Beatriz of Spain (an aunt of King Juan Carlos I of Spain).
Through her grandmother she is related to several Italian noble families (most notably Borgia, Medici, d'Este, di Savoia).
Shields' great-grandfather Don Marino Torlonia, 4th prince of Civitella-Cesi, paternal grandmother was Princess Donna Anna Sforza-Cesarini, a descendant of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan and patron of Leonardo da Vinci.
Torlonia's maternal grandmother was Princess Donna Leopoldina Doria-Pamphilli-Landi, the granddaughter of Leopoldina of Savoy, a princess of the royal family of Piedmont and Sardinia, which later became the Royal Family of Italy.
The descendant of many popes, Torlonia inherited the administration of the Banca Torlonia, which worked the finances of the Vatican and several other investments. He was one of the richest noblemen in Italy around the beginning of the twentieth century, and introduced the first motor car in Rome.
Shields is a second cousin once removed of the actress Glenn Close. Shields's great-grandmother Mary Elsie Moore (wife of Don Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince di Civitella-Cesi) was Close's great-aunt, a sister of Close's maternal grandfather, Charles Arthur Moore.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Shields' romantic relationships were the subject of many tabloid articles. Among the celebrities she dated were Ted McGinley (her high school prom escort), Dean Cain (her Princeton roommate), John F. Kennedy Jr., Michael Bolton, Prince Albert II of Monaco, George Michael and Michael Jackson (his date to the 1984 Grammy Awards).
Shields was married from April 19, 1997, to April 9, 1999, to professional tennis player Andre Agassi; their marriage was annulled.
Since April 4, 2001, she has been married to television writer Chris Henchy. They have two daughters: Rowan Frances (b. May 15, 2003) and Grier Hammond (b. April 18, 2006).
Postpartum Depression
In the spring of 2005, Shields spoke to magazines and appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to publicize her battle with postpartum depression, an experience that included depression, thoughts of suicide, an inability to respond to her baby's needs, and delayed maternal bonding.
The illness may have been triggered by a traumatic childbirth, the death of her father three weeks earlier, stress from in vitro fertilization, a miscarriage, and a family history of depression, as well as the hormones and life changes brought on by childbirth.
Her book, Down Came the Rain, discusses her experience.
In May 2005, Tom Cruise, a Scientologist whose beliefs frown upon psychiatry, condemned Shields both personally and professionally, particularly for both using and speaking in favour of the antidepressant drug Paxil.
As Cruise said, "Here is a woman, and I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman, you look at [and think], where has her career gone?"
Shields responded that Cruise's statements about anti-depressants were "irresponsible" and "dangerous." She said he should "stick to fighting aliens", (a reference to Cruise's starring role in War of the Worlds as well as some of the more exotic aspects of Scientology doctrine and teachings), "and let mothers decide the best way to treat postpartum depression."
The actress responded to a further attack by Cruise in an essay War of Words published in The New York Times on July 1, 2005, in which she made an individual case for the medication and said:
"In a strange way, it was comforting to me when my obstetrician told me that my feelings of extreme despair and my suicidal thoughts were directly tied to a biochemical shift in my body. Once we admit that postpartum is a serious medical condition, then the treatment becomes more available and socially acceptable. With a doctor's care, I have since tapered off the medication, but without it, I wouldn't have become the loving parent I am today."
On August 31, 2006, according to USAToday.com, Cruise privately apologised to Shields for the incident, and Shields accepted, saying it was "heartfelt."
Three months later, she and her husband attended the wedding of Cruise and Katie Holmes, in November 2006.