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MARSHA LOVES TO COOK

Elisabeth Brooks caught the attention of the film world with her towering portrayal of “Marsha” in Joe Dante’s THE HOWLING. Her performance of a nymphomaniac who also happens to be a werewolf was as unique as it was sexy; she demonstrated strength of character proving, once again that a woman can be tough without relinquishing her femininity. This performance should have catapulted Elisabeth into a long career as a “B” movie queen, especially with dialog by John Sayles no less. Why it did not is a story in itself..

I got to know ‘Lisa” as she liked to be called in the late eighties, and did my best to help jumpstart her career until she began to get very ill from a procedure that proved toxic, giving her cancer. She was a remarkable woman in real life as she was as an actress.

Lisa was blessed with a son named Jeremy who was around 12 when we first met and she adored him with all her heart. She was a single mom trying hard at a show business career in a town that was as tough as they come to break into and succeed.

During her notoriety in THE HOWLING she was tested several times for the femme fatale in BODY HEAT, losing out finally to Kathleen Turner in the role that made her a star. Lisa worked at odd jobs during this time including working as a hostess at the Roxy on Sunset where she encountered superstar Jack Nicholson, resulting in a six month affair that brought her into the supernova of Hollywood high rollers. She emerged a bit shaken but still the same level-headed woman she would always remain.

Lisa was living in the valley with a guy named Ernie, who was also as good-hearted as they come, and he loved her without question. Lisa and Ernie had a small business they called “Schlep a ride” which provided a service for show folk by taking their kids to school or getting actors to their auditions on time – in other words getting people from one place to another. We even had tee shirts that said “Schlep a ride” on the back. I wore mine a lot and was always surprised when someone would stop me so they could jot the phone number down. The business was making a living for them and for a while Lisa got her share of interviews. Well-meaning Ernie would sometimes find out where she was going to read and would call leaving messages like “Please tell Elisabeth to call Universal very urgent” leaving her more amused than angry since his heart was in the right place after all.

The other important person in Lisa’s life was the young movie star Kristy McNichol who Lisa met while babysitting on a film set years before her stardom. They were as close as sisters, with some of the same ups and downs. Kristy could be the most wonderful person to be around and then her mood could swing into a total depression, making it unclear when to visit or when stay away.

Kristy was living with Liberace’s niece at the time I got to know her and the two girls seemed to have an endless flood of house guests and pool parties. During this time I was representing a script that, once Lisa read it was, she was convinced it was a sure thing for Kristy to star in, so she persuaded me to pitch it to Kristy right away. Well, trying to talk shop at Kristy’s house was never going to happen with all the traffic at the pool, so we agreed to meet at the local Denny’s which I will never forget. Even seated way back at a dark table, people still came up to Kristy for autographs or just to say “Aren’t you Kristy etc…” I could see that all this attention was not happening for Kristy, and I wasn’t surprised when, within a few years, she would retire from acting altogether.

Lisa was the main cheerleader for Kristy’s career and worked on her sets as a helper, or just to be there for Kristy. I remember going to a private screening in 1984 of UST THE WAY YOUR ARE, a charming little film about a handicapped girl (she had a lame leg) who finds love at a ski resort pretending her leg is in a cast from skiing. All through the film Lisa cheered and laughed, so glad to see her friend on the big screen. Lisa had no feelings of bitterness at Kristy’s success. She was a special kind of lady, no doubt about it.

Lisa would make but one film with her friend, the 1990 ghost story THE FORGOTTEN ONE. She gave a good account of herself in the film, making the poor distribution of the project all the more tragic, since Lisa deserved a career more than most in my opinion. All she ever needed was another show-stopper like the Joe Dante film.

Throughout the eighties, up until the ghost film, I would arrange meetings and suggest auditions for plays in and around LA. Lisa was always upbeat and excited. Nothing could or would bring her down, not even the shadow of cancer that hung over her during the late eighties and the beginning of 1990. She was cast in a play on sunset in Hollywood and I took every director I knew to see her. She gave a raw and emotionally charged performance but it just was not seen by that one person who could have made the difference. We stayed in touch, usually on the phone, keeping track with those late night calls, I loved hearing that whiskey-rich deep voice of hers laughing about whatever caught her fancy during the day or something Jeremy did that made her laugh. Soon there would be fewer calls, then she just withdrew from her friends in Hollywood and I learned that she’d taken a place down near Palm Springs to sort things out and try alternative healing methods for the cancer that was sapping up her energy. This was around 1991 or 1992.

I would not learn the circumstances of Elisabeth’s last days until I chanced upon a site devoted to her memory by her friend Gigi Porter, the wife of actor Reggie Bannister from the Phantasm films. It seems we lost Elisabeth Brooks on September 7th 1997 in Palm Springs, and in accordance with her Comanche heritage, a ceremony was performed to release her spirit. Her son Jeremy was present at her bedside. She was just 46 years old.

Of all the actors I have known in Hollywood, Elisabeth Brooks was one of the most deserving and talented ladies of them all, and rarely does a day go by that something happens to remind me that she is gone, yet my heart is not saddened as she is free of pain and must be aware how much she is missed by those she left behind,

HERE’S TO THE LADIES WHO LUNCH…AREN’T THEY THE BEST?

EVERYBODY RISE!

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