Louise Brooks

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Brooks began her career at age 15 as a dancer with the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, performing opposite Ted Shawn before being fired in the spring of 1924. She then worked as a chorus girl in George White's Scandals and as a semi-nude dancer in the 1925 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies. Her work in the Follies led to a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures, signed in 1925. She appeared in supporting roles before taking the heroine's role in Beggars of Life (1928). During this time, she became an intimate friend of actress Marion Davies and joined the social circle of press baron William Randolph Hearst at Hearst Castle. Dissatisfied with mediocre Hollywood roles, Brooks went to Germany in 1929 and starred in three feature films that launched her to international stardom: Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Miss Europe (Prix de Beauté) (1930); the first two were directed by G. W. Pabst. By 1938, she had starred in 14 silent films and 10 sound films. After retiring, she fell upon financial hardship and became what she termed 'a kept woman' to three wealthy men. For the next two decades, she was alcoholic and suicidal. Following the rediscovery of her films by cinephiles in the 1950s, a reclusive Brooks began writing articles about her film career; her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim. She published her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, in 1982. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 78.

Reader's Guide

Louise Brooks remains a significant figure in film history primarily for her role as an icon of the flapper culture of the 1920s, a symbol of modern womanhood that she helped define through her distinctive bob hairstyle and on-screen persona. Her career, however, was marked by a sharp contrast between her early Hollywood work in light comedies and her later, more artistically ambitious films in Germany. The three films she made with director G. W. Pabst—Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, and Miss Europe—are considered her most important contributions to cinema, showcasing a depth and complexity that her Paramount roles had not allowed. Her legacy was revived in the 1950s when cinephiles rediscovered her work, leading to a second career as a writer of insightful essays about her own film career. Her memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, published in 1982, cemented her status as a thoughtful commentator on the film industry. Brooks's life story, including her early sexual abuse at age nine by a neighborhood man, her tumultuous personal relationships, and her later struggles with alcoholism and suicidal thoughts, adds a layer of tragic complexity to her public image as a carefree flapper.

Did You Know?

• Brooks was fired from the Denishawn dance company at age 17 when Ruth St. Denis told her, 'I am dismissing you from the company because you want life handed to you on a silver salver.'
• In Beggars of Life (1928), the boom microphone was invented for the film by director William Wellman.
• Brooks had a two-month affair with Charlie Chaplin in the summer of 1925 while he was married to Lita Grey.
• After refusing to return to Paramount for sound retakes of The Canary Murder Case (1929), the studio allegedly claimed her voice was unsuitable and hired Margaret Livingston to dub her lines.
• Brooks's closest friend and companion, Pepi Lederer, committed suicide by jumping from a hospital window after being committed to a mental institution by William Randolph Hearst.