Hillary Brooke

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Hillary Brooke (September 8, 1914 – May 25, 1999), was an American film actress best known for her work in Abbott and Costello and Sherlock Holmes films. She also played Lou Costello's love interest in the first season of the Abbott and Costello Show.

Career

A former model, the tall (5'6") blonde was born Beatrice Peterson in Astoria, New York but in films spoke with a cultured accent. Brooke developed this early in her career to separate herself from other sexy blonde actresses. She appeared in Africa Screams (1949) and Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) with the comedy team, and was a regular on The Abbott and Costello Show. She also co-starred in three Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, including The Woman in Green (1945).

Her other film credits include Jane Eyre (1944), 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).

In 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 fellow tenant of the rooming house where the two main characters lived. She was treated with deference by the duo and was not a target of pranks and slapstick. As the love interest of Lou Costello, she always addressed him as "Louis". Like the other main characters, her character's name in the show was her real name.

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".

She was also a regular on the 1952–1955 TV series My Little Margie.

Marriages/Personal life

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

Brooke was also married to Jack Voglin.

Death

On May 25, 1999, Brooke died from undisclosed causes at a hospital in Fallbrook, California. She was survived by her children, a brother Arthur Peterson; 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.