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Arlington Rand Brooks Jr.[1] (September 21, 1918 – September 1, 2003) was an American film and television actor.
Early life
Brooks was born in Wright City, Missouri. He was the son of Arlington Rand Brooks,[2] a farmer.[3][a] His mother and he moved to Los Angeles when he was four,[4] though he continued to spend summers in Wright City.[2] Brooks continued to make visits to his hometown of Wright City into the 1950s, up to and following the death of his father in 1950.[5][6][7]
After leaving school, Brooks was given a screen test at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and received a bit part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938).[9] His big break came when he was cast as Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939), a part which he later admitted he despised; he wanted to play more masculine roles.[10] He was making $100 per week under contract at MGM, but when he was on loan to Selznick International Pictures for Gone with the Wind, he was paid $500 per week.[11]
After Gone With the Wind, he had relatively small parts in other movies including Babes in Arms,[12] then a regular role as Lucky in the Hopalong Cassidy series of Westerns in the mid-1940s;[13] Brooks succeeded Russell Hayden in the role.[14] Among the films starring William Boyd as Hopalong, were Hoppy's Holiday, The Dead Don't Dream, and Borrowed Trouble. He received positive notice for his work in Fool's Gold, with Variety reporting that he did "an excellent job."[15] In edited, half-hour versions of some of the films, he appeared in 12 of the 52 episodes of the Hopalong Cassidy television series.[13]
Military service
Brooks served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, eventually reaching the rank of sergeant.[1] He trained at Buckley Field in Colorado, in March 1943[16] and was stationed in Springfield, Missouri, as of May 1943.[17] Brooks was for a time at San Antonio Air Field. He trained for flying, but did some theatre work under General Arnold.[18] He was ill for a time during his service and in 1944 worked in recruitment in Louisiana.[19]
Post-military film and television work
In 1948, he co-starred with Adele Jergens and Marilyn Monroe in the low-budget, black-and-white Columbia Pictures film, Ladies of the Chorus. Brooks became the first actor to share an on-screen kiss with Monroe, who in a few years was one of the world's biggest movie stars.[4] Filmed in just 10 days, the film was released soon after its completion.[20][21]
In 1962, he directed and produced a movie about brave dogs, Bearheart, but the film was entangled in legal troubles due to his business manager's involvement in crimes such as forgery and graft.[4] The film was finally released in 1978, under the title Legend of the Northwest.
After he left show business, Brooks owned and operated a private ambulance company, Professional Ambulance, in Glendale, California. He commented that he "died in more pictures than almost anyone" and that though he was never very big in show business, he was willing to return to it.[27] Brooks sold the ambulance company in 1994, and retired to his ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, where he bred champion Andalusian horses.[4] He attended a Gone with the Wind reunion for Clark Gable's birthday, along with Ann Rutherford and Fred Crane, in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1992.[28][11]
Personal life
Variety reported that Brooks married Clover Barrick on April 18, 1945.[1]
In Like Flint (1967) - Missile Control Officer (uncredited)
Double Indemnity (1973, TV Movie) - Conductor (uncredited)
The Sex Symbol (1974, TV Movie) - Edward Kelly (final film role)
Notes
^Though his obituary in the Guardian mentions a traveling salesman father and birth in St. Louis, earlier newspaper reports in the Warrenton Bulletin state he was the son of a local farmer and left the area as a child; the 1920 census has him living in Wright City, Missouri.
References
^ abc"Marriages". Variety. Vol. 158, no. 7. 1945-04-25. p. 45 – via Proquest.
^ ab"Rand Brooks Gets Big Movie Role". Warrenton Banner. 1939-02-03. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
