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IMDbPro

Hillary Brooke(1914-1999)

  • Actress
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Hillary Brooke in Ministry of Fear (1944)
Major Joe Nolan heads a rescue mission in the South Pacific to recover a downed atomic rocket. The crew crash lands on a mysterious island, and spends much time rock-climbing.
Play trailer1:25
Lost Continent (1951)
4 Videos
62 Photos
Hillary Brooke's image as the epitome of glacial, regal, upper-class British gentility is muted somewhat by the fact that she was born Beatrice Sofia Mathilda Peterson to a middle-class American family in Long Island, New York. She was the sister of actor Arthur Peterson, best-known as the demented "Major" on the soap-opera satire Soap (1977). Always a beauty, she had a successful career as a photographer's model before breaking into show business. Her "British" accent came about when she realized that she was just one of innumerable tall, good-looking blondes vying for roles, and needed something to make her stand out among them. She came up with affecting a British accent and it worked; she began to get more and more roles that called for a "British" blonde, so she kept the accent.

Her film debut was in New Faces of 1937 (1937), in which -- billed as "Beatrice Schute" -- she played a showgirl. She began working steadily in films in the early 1940s, and appeared in such major productions as The Woman in Green (1945), The Fuller Brush Man (1948), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Wake Island (1942), Jane Eyre (1943) and The Enchanted Cottage (1945), in addition to the usual run of "B" westerns and thrillers in which many up-and-coming young actresses had to put in time. In the early 1950s she began appearing on television including 23 appearances on The Abbott and Costello Show (1952) as "Hillary Brooke", the object of Lou Costello's affections. She had worked previously with the duo in their second color film, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952), in which she played a pirate chief.

She had no compunctions about taking a pie in the face, a vase on the head, a pratfall, or tussling with Bingo the chimp, and more than held her own. She also had a similar role as the girlfriend of Vern Albright (Charles Farrell) in My Little Margie (1952) and alternated between television and film roles in the 1950s. One of her better-known roles was as little David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt)'s mother, Mary, who is taken over by the Martians in the sci-fi classic Invaders from Mars (1953). She also played Doris Day's character's best friend in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and, the next year, had her final film role in Spoilers of the Forest (1957), after which she turned exclusively to television.

She retired from the film industry in 1960, after marrying film executive Raymond A. Klune, and died in Bonsall, California, aged 84, in 1999.
BornSeptember 8, 1914
DiedMay 25, 1999(84)
BornSeptember 8, 1914
DiedMay 25, 1999(84)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Awards

Photos62

Hillary Brooke in Jane Eyre (1943)
Basil Rathbone, Hillary Brooke, Nigel Bruce, and Milburn Stone in Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
John Archer and Hillary Brooke in Dragon's Gold (1954)
John Archer and Hillary Brooke in Dragon's Gold (1954)
Ray Milland and Hillary Brooke in Ministry of Fear (1944)
Ray Milland and Hillary Brooke in Ministry of Fear (1944)
Hillary Brooke in Ministry of Fear (1944)
John Archer and Hillary Brooke in Perry Mason (1957)
Hillary Brooke, Stanley Clements, and Phillip Reed in Big Town Scandal (1948)
Hillary Brooke, George Murphy, and Ann Sothern in Up Goes Maisie (1946)
Hillary Brooke and George Houston in The Lone Rider Rides On (1941)
Hillary Brooke, George Dolenz, and Faith Domergue in Vendetta (1950)

Known for

Doris Day and James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
The Man Who Knew Too Much
7.4
  • Jan Peterson
  • 1956
Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire in The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
The Enchanted Cottage
7.5
  • Beatrice Alexander
  • 1945
The Strange Woman (1946)
The Strange Woman
6.6
  • Meg Saladine
  • 1946
Lola Albright, Hillary Brooke, and Willard Parker in Bodyhold (1949)
Bodyhold
5.8
  • Flo Woodbury
  • 1949

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Richard Denning in Michael Shayne (1960)
    Michael Shayne
  • David Janssen in Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957)
    Richard Diamond, Private Detective
  • Ronald Reagan in General Electric Theater (1953)
    General Electric Theater
  • Peter Brown and John Russell in Lawman (1958)
    Lawman
  • Father Knows Best (1954)
    Father Knows Best
  • X Brands and Jock Mahoney in Yancy Derringer (1958)
    Yancy Derringer
  • Frank Jenks and Alan Mowbray in Colonel Humphrey Flack (1953)
    Colonel Humphrey Flack
  • December Bride (1954)
    December Bride
  • Perry Mason (1957)
    Perry Mason
  • Vera Ralston in Spoilers of the Forest (1957)
    Spoilers of the Forest
  • Private Secretary (1953)
    Private Secretary
  • West Point (1956)
    West Point
  • Studio 57 (1954)
    Studio 57
  • Doris Day and James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
    The Man Who Knew Too Much
  • The Star and the Story (1955)
    The Star and the Story

Videos4

Trailer
Trailer 1:25
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:57
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Trailer 1:52
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:51
Official Trailer

Personal details

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    • September 8, 1914
    • Astoria, New York, USA
    • May 25, 1999
    • Bonsall, California, USA(blood clot in lung)
    • Raymond A. KluneMarch 12, 1960 - September 24, 1988 (his death)
    • Arthur Peterson(Sibling)

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Although she spoke with an English accent, she was not British; she was actually from Astoria, New York. She said that she cultivated that accent at the beginning of her career in order to set her apart from all the other tall blondes she would be competing with for roles. The tactic worked so well that producers who hired "the blonde with the British accent" expected to hear a blonde with a British accent on the screen, so she was forced to use the accent whenever she worked, and wound up using it all the time, even off screen.
  • Quotes
    I never thought I was a great actress. Maybe I would have been better if I'd worked harder at it. But I really enjoyed my career and the wonderful people I worked with.

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