Hillary Brooke Biography

Hillary Brooke (September 8, 1914 - May 25, 1999) was an American film actress. Though American-born, she began cultivating a sophisticated English accent to get more film parts early in her career. It eventually became second nature to her, and she was cast as a British woman in most of her films, including one that was produced in the United Kingdom.

Career

A former model, the 5'6" blonde was born Beatrice Sofia Mathilda Peterson in Astoria, New York. She was a regular on several television series of the early 50s.

On My Little Margie, she was Roberta Townsend, girlfriend to Margie's dad.

On The Abbott and Costello Show, which was broadcast in the early 1950s but 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.

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).

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).

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

She was also 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).

Marriages and personal life

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

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

Death

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; She was survived by a son, Donald (Voglin) Klune of Ketchum, Idaho; a stepdaughter, Carol Klune of Arcata, Calif.; 17 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. For her contribution to the television industry, Hillary Brooke has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6307 Hollywood Boulevard.

Partial filmography

• Counter-Espionage (1942)
• Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
• Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
• Road to Utopia (1943, released 1946)
• Jane Eyre (1943)
• Ministry of Fear (1944)
• The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
• The Woman in Green (1945)
• The Strange Woman (1946)
• Let's Live Again (1948)
• Africa Screams (1949) - Diana Emerson
• Alimony (1949) - Linda Waring
• Bodyhold (1949) - Flo Woodbury
• Unmasked (1950) - Doris King Jackson
• Beauty on Parade (1950) - Gloria Barton
• Lucky Losers (1950) - 'Countess' Margo
• The Admiral Was a Lady (1950) - Shirley Pedigrew
• Vendetta (1950) - Lydia Nevil
• Insurance Investigator (1951) - Addie Wilson
• Skipalong Rosenbloom (1951) - Square Deal Sal
• Lost Continent (1951) - Marla Stevens
• Confidence Girl (1952) - Mary Webb
• Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) - Capt. Bonney
• Never Wave at a WAC (1953) - First Lt. Phyllis Turnbull
• The Lady Wants Mink (1953) - Evelyn Cantrell
• Invaders From Mars (1953) - Mrs. Mary MacLean
• The Maze (1953) - Peggy Lord
• Mexican Manhunt (1953) - Eve Carter
• The House Across the Lake (1954, aka Heat Wave) - Carol Forrest
• Bengazi (1955) - Nora Nielson
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) - Jan Peterson
• Spoilers of the Forest (1957) - Phyllis Warren