Phyllis Brooks

Biography

Phyllis Brooks (July 18, 1915 – August 1, 1995) was an American actress and model. She was born Phyllis Seiler in Boise, Idaho. Some sources have also inaccurately cited 1914 as her year of birth, but 1915 is the correct year according to Social Security records.

== Career ==

=== Modeling ===

Brooks was a model for two years before progressing to a career in film. She stated, "I started posing for photographers as a lark, and it was a lot of fun." She had been known as the "Ipana Toothpaste Girl", due to her work for that product.

=== Film === Initially known as Mary Brooks, she began her career in films in 1934 at age 20, in I've Been Around. Brooks, who had about 30 performances in films, was a B-movie leading lady during the 1930s and 1940s, with roles in such films as In Old Chicago (1937), Little Miss Broadway (1938) and The Shanghai Gesture (1941).

She appeared in Sidney Toler's Charlie Chan series, in the Shirley Temple films Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and in Little Miss Broadway.

=== Stage === On Broadway, Brooks appeared in Stage Door (1936–37), Panama Hattie (1940–42), The Night Before Christmas (1941), and Round Trip (1945).

== Wartime activities ==