Hillary Brooke

About Hillary Brooke

Who is it?: Actress
Birth Day: September 08, 1914
Birth Place:  Astoria, New York, United States
Died On: May 25, 1999(1999-05-25) (aged 84)\nBonsall, California, U.S.
Birth Sign: Libra
Other names: Hillary Brook
Alma mater: Columbia University
Occupation: Actress
Years active: 1937–1960
Spouse(s): Alan Shute (m. 1936–1940)) Jack Voglin (m. 1941–1948) Raymond A. Klune (m. 1960–1988) (his death)
Children: Donald Voglin Carol V. Klune (step daughter) from Lillian and Raymond A. Klune

Hillary Brooke Net Worth

Hillary Brooke was born on September 08, 1914 in  Astoria, New York, United States, is Actress. 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 Peterson to a middle-class American family in Long Island, NY (she was the sister of Arthur Peterson, best-known as the demented "Major" in 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 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, and her best known work was as the object of comic Lou Costello's affections in the classic The Abbott and Costello Show (1952), in which she disproved the old show-business axiom that beautiful women can't do comedy. She had no compunction 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 with such veteran scene-stealers as Abbott, Costello and Sid Fields. One somewhat quirky characteristic her character--also named Hillary Brooke--had was that while she usually addressed the male characters on the show as "Mr." (as in "Mr." Fields or "Mr." Bacciagalupe), even Bud Abbott (although she on rare occasions called him "Bud"), she always addressed Costello affectionately as "Louis", even though everyone else called him "Costello".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 (she worked once again with Abbott and Costello in their second color film, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952), in which she played a pirate chief), and is also fondly remembered for her role as little David MacLean's mother who is taken over by the Martians in the sci-fi classic Invaders from Mars (1953). She played Doris Day'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, CA, in 1999, only a few months before she would have turned 85.
Hillary Brooke is a member of Actress

💰Hillary Brooke Net worth: $5 Million

Some Hillary Brooke images

Biography/Timeline

1941

Brooke was also married to Jack Voglin (1941–1948) and had one son Donald Voglin.

1942

She co-starred in three Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) and The Woman in Green (1945).

1943

Her other film credits include Jane Eyre (1943), The Enchanted Cottage (1945), Lucky Losers (1950) with The Bowery Boys, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), the 3-D film The Maze (1953), and the sci-fi B-movie classic Invaders from Mars (1953).

1950

On The Abbott and Costello Show, produced in the early 1950s and syndicated for decades afterwards, Brooke played the role of a straitlaced, classy tenant of the rooming house where the two main characters lived. She was treated with reverence by the duo and was not a target of pranks and slapstick. As the love interest of Lou Costello, he worshipped her and she always addressed him as "Louis". Like the other main characters, her character's name in the show was her real name. She also appeared in Africa Screams (1949) and Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) with the comedy team.

1952

She was a regular on the 1952–1955 Gale Storm TV series My Little Margie, playing Roberta Townsend, the glamorous love interest of Margie's father Vern Albright (Charles Farrell).

1957

On September 28, 1957, she played Doris Cole in the second episode of Perry Mason, titled "The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece". Brooke also played Angela Randall in I Love Lucy's "The Fox Hunt", which aired February 6, 1956. She retired from television in 1960 following guest appearances on Richard Diamond, Private Detective as Laura Renault and in Michael Shayne as Greta Morgan.

1988

Hillary Brooke was married to Raymond A. Klune, an executive at MGM, from 1960 until his death on September 24, 1988. She had a stepdaughter Carol V. Klune.

1999

On May 25, 1999, Brooke died from a blood clot in the lung at a hospital in Fallbrook, California. Her brother, actor Arthur Peterson, died in 1996; For her contribution to the television industry, Hillary Brooke has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6307 Hollywood Boulevard.