- Born
- Died
- Birth nameElisabeth Brooks Luyties
- Nickname
- Lissa
- Elisabeth Brooks Luyties was born on July 2, 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Elisabeth Brooks began acting at age five with her career encompassing both stage and screen. She started appearing in television roles in the mid-1970s and managed to pursue her acting career as a single mother while working a variety of jobs to support herself and her son. She regularly appeared on the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives (1965), and in such popular television series as The Rockford Files (1974), Hart to Hart (1979), Starsky and Hutch (1975), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) and Emergency! (1972). She is probably best remembered for her role as the villainess Marsha Quist in the horror film The Howling (1981), a role that brought her considerable notoriety within the genre.
Brooks was not only a beautiful actress, but also an accomplished writer, poet and musician. She had a wonderful deep, sultry voice and can be heard singing briefly in the film The Forgotten One (1989) - a horror film she appeared with longtime friend Kristy McNichol. She and McNichol had separated, but McNichol came back to care for Brooks on her final days. Brooks was also known for her spirituality and her encouragement to others. She created her own production company and became an established acting coach. She wrote and produced plays that taught children about the environment, and how they could work with parents to improve their community. An example of this was "Orphan Dreams", which she directed first at Calabasas High School and again at Chamber Theatre in Studio City.
Elisabeth Brooks, after a three-year struggle with cancer, died in a hospice near her Palm Springs, California home at age 46. As Gigi Bannister wrote in a Tribute to Elisabeth Brooks, "let it be said, Elisabeth Brooks was no quitter. She was a fighter... a true warrior to the end".
- IMDb mini biography by: Tripp, MyPrivateEmail@go.com
- Had one son: Jeremy Brooks (born 1973); she was unmarried.
- She wrote and directed two stage plays: "Orphan Dreams" (1993) and "Orphan Dreams Too" (1995).
- Although she appeared nude in one key scene in The Howling (1981), Brooks was always very vocal in her objection to scenes that required full-frontal nudity. She said she had no issue being totally nude before the crew while filming that scene, but she had no idea they would show as much of her nudity as they had done in the movie. With no heat waves or smoke, the scene showed her disrobing near the embers of a very small blaze and clearly revealing her breasts and pubic hair. She was shocked and angry. This ended up being her only nude scene in a movie during her career.
- She appeared in publicity photos and movie stills to have mild hypertropic strabismus (a condition in which one eyeball has a tendency to look upwards more than the other). It is unknown whether or not this had any connection to her deadly brain cancer.
- Longtime friends with actress/singer Kristy McNichol.
- [on The Howling (1981)] In the past, I've always refused to do nude magazine work because I believe in the Bible and have morals. I was signed to do the movie on my acting ability alone. I was told that the (nudity) would be smoke-screened by a bonfire and that you wouldn't be able to see anything. I had no issue being totally nude in front of the crew while filming that scene, but I had no idea they would show as much of my nudity as they did in the film.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
