What Brooke Shields' Parents Really Did For A Living
Brooke Shields, actor, model, and proud owner of a degree from Princeton, is making waves with her documentary, "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields." Hollywood children have been a hot topic lately, and it's a subject that Brooke explores in her Hulu film. She got her start in front of the camera at just 11 months old in an Ivory Soap commercial and spent her early career managed by her mother, Teri Shields.
While managing Brooke was Teri's longest-running career path, it wasn't the only job she ever held. Teri, born Theresa Anna Lillian Schmon, was a model just like her iconic daughter. The momager also worked as a makeup artist for Lord & Taylor as well as a hairstylist. However, those jobs were short-lived. After she had Brooke in 1965 and went on to separate from Frank Shields Jr., her husband, and Brooke's father, in 1966, Teri quickly turned to marketing her daughter's beauty. It was a role she would hold until Brooke was in her 20s.
Francis Alexander, who went by Frank Shields Jr., was the son of famed tennis player Frank Shields Sr. He did not follow in his father's footsteps, instead trading dreams of Wimbledon for Wall Street. Frank Jr. was a marketing and sales executive for both Estee Lauder and Revlon, based in New York City. On the side, he founded and managed a real estate firm, Frank Shields Associates, out of Palm Beach, Florida. The public hears quite a bit less about Brooke's father than her mother, but the "Blue Lagoon" star maintained a relationship with both of her parents throughout her life.
Brooke's parents didn't see eye to eye
A lot has been said about Brooke Shields' mother's career choices — both for herself and her child. Being both a mom and a manager in Hollywood rarely works out well for families, and such was the case for Teri Shields and Brooke. Teri decided to take advantage of her daughter's beauty, pushing her toward a modeling and acting career. Not only was her choice to manage and market her own child somewhat questionable, but so were the jobs she signed Brooke onto. She allowed Brooke to take risqué modeling gigs like her notorious Calvin Klein ad. Most notably, having Brooke appear nude in the 1978 film "Pretty Baby," in which Brooke was cast as a child prostitute, and her part in "The Blue Lagoon," a cringe-inducing flick about teenage cousins turned lovers after being shipwrecked, raised eyebrows.
For how thoroughly invested in Brooke's career Teri was, Frank Jr. was just the opposite. Brooke confessed to The Sunday Times that her father was disapproving about the roles she took (courtesy of her mother) and her entrance into celebrity. Brooke went on to reveal that her father was a nice escape from the pressures of Hollywood, though she still felt pressure to please him and make him proud. Following Brooke's detour to school post-modeling and movie-making, Brooke recalled how her father said, "I can't believe you turned out so well."
The polar-opposite parents remained a constant in their daughter's life, though each in their own way.
What happened to Brooke Shields' parents?
Teri Shields found her true calling in managing Brooke's career, but her mother's long battle with alcoholism became too much for the "Alice, Sweet Alice" actor in her early 20s. Reportedly, it was at that time Brooke fired her mother. Nevertheless, the model initially stood by her mother's seemingly exploitative choices, stating, "It's so innate when you're an only child of a single mother. All you want to do is love your parent and keep them alive forever, and so I wanted to protect her, and by virtue of protecting her, I was justifying everything," (via The Sunday Times). Teri passed away in Manhattan in 2012 after suffering from dementia. The pair continued to have a relationship, albeit sometimes rocky, right up until Teri's death.
Frank Shields Jr. was only 23 when he married 30-year-old Teri. After their split, he remarried Diana "Didi" Lippert. The couple had three children, and Frank Jr. became a stepdad to Diana's two children from a previous marriage. Eventually, the businessman relocated to Florida, where he became heavily involved (again) in crew and rowing, founding a rowing organization called the Power Ten New York. He died due to prostate cancer in 2003, at which time The National Rowing Foundation created The Frank Shields Fellowships in his memory.
Despite the passing of her parents, it's reported that Brooke is still close with her step-siblings and half-siblings.