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Suggest pagesRand Brooks
| Rand Brooks | |
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| Born | 21 September 1918 St Louis, Missouri, United States, |
| Died | 1 September 2003 (aged 84) Santa Ynez California |
| Occupation | Actor, producer |
| Spouse |
Lois Laurel (dau. of Stan Laurel, div.) Hermine Brooks (m. 1978, until his death, two children) |
Rand Brooks (21 September 1918 – 1 September 2003) was an American film actor. Born in St Louis, Missouri, Brooks was the son of a travelling jewellery salesman who later settled in Los Angeles. After leaving school, he managed to get a screen test at MGM, and was given a bit part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938).
He was better known as the actor who played opposite Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara's ill-fated first husband in Gone with the Wind (1938) and as the first actor who gave Marilyn Monroe her first on- screen kiss in her first starring role in the Columbia Pictures movie “Ladies of the Chorus” (1948).
[edit] Career
After leaving school, he managed to get a screen test at MGM, and was given a bit part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938). His big fame came with his part as Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939). After Gone With the Wind, he had relatively small parts in other movies, then a regular role as Lucky in the Hopalong Cassidy series of westerns in the mid to late 1940s. Among the films, which starred William Boyd as Hopalong, were Hoppy's Holiday, The Dead Don't Dream and Borrowed Trouble.
Television brought new opportunities, again often in westerns. He played Cpl Randy Boone in the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Mr. Brooks had guest roles in '50s western series including The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, The Lone Ranger and Maverick, and in other series such as Perry Mason.
After he left show business, he ran an ambulance service that became the largest private ambulance provider in Los Angeles County. He sold the company in 1994 and retired to the Santa Ynez Valley where he bred champion Andalusian horses.
Brooks died at his ranch in Santa Inez, where he had retired to raise horses. He is survived by his second wife, Hermine (his first wife Lois Laurel, was Stan Laurel´s daughter) and he had four children.
[edit] Filmography
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