Brooke Christa Shields Bio

Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. She started out as a young model, and was praised by the press at the age of 12 due to her role in the film of Louis Malle Pretty Baby (1978). She continued to model until her teens, and appeared in a variety of dramas in the 1980s, for instance, The Blue Lagoon (1980) as well as Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love (1981).In 1983, Shields suspended her career as a model and enrolled at Princeton University, where she obtained a bachelor's diploma in Romance Languages. In the 90s, Shields returned to acting and appeared in small roles in movies. She was also a star in the NBC sitcoms Suddenly Susan (1996-192000), for which she won two Golden Globe nominations and Lipstick Jungle (2008)-2009. Shields was back on NBC in 2017, reprising her role as a prominent regular character in Law & Order: Special Victims Unified's 19th season. Shields portrays Beverly Goodman in Adult Swim's animated series Mr. Pickles since 2014. Brooke Christa Shields was born in Manhattan, New York on May 31, 1965, the daughter of actress and model Teri Shields (nee Schmon, 1933-2012) and businessman Frank Shields (1941-2003). The mother of the couple was English, German, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh descent, while her father was of English, French, Irish as well as Italian ancestry.According to research by William Addams Reitwiesner, Shields is a descendent of many noble families from Italy and, specifically, from Genoa and Rome. These are namely (in chronological order of descent from 1355 to 1965) the Gattilusi-Palaiologos-Savoy, Grimaldi, Imperiali, Carafa, Doria, Doria-Pamphili-Landi, Chigi-Albani, and Torlonia dynasties. Marina Torlonia of Civitella Cisi of Civitella Cisi is an Italian noblewoman, and daughter of the American prince, was Teri's paternal grandmother. Her uncle was Alessandro Torlonia from Italy, who was married to Infanta Beatriz of Spain. Teri's family paid Frank an amount to end her pregnancy.