Despite her efforts to be taken seriously as an
               actress, Brooke Shields has been unable to escape
               her youth, during which time she found herself in the
               precarious position of simultaneously being idolized as
               a late-'70s icon of adolescent wholesome virginal
               innocence and being constantly photographed in
               manners verging on the mildly pornographic. Shields'
               early career was managed and pushed by her mother,
               Teri Shields, a small-time actress who placed her
               daughter in front of the camera before she was even
               one. As the Ivory Snow baby, Shields was once
               hailed as the "most beautiful baby in America." After
               spending many years hawking products, she was in
               such demand that her mother started marketing her
               under the logo "Brooke Shields & Co." 

               Shields made her feature film debut in Alice Sweet
               Alice (1976), but did not become a bona fide star
               until French director Louis Malle cast her as a
               12-year-old New Orleans prostitute who becomes
               the romantic obsession of a much older painter in
               Pretty Baby (1978). The film was released amidst
               great controversy because of the scenes in which
               Shields (or a body double representing her) appeared
               nude. But while she did participate in some adult
               scenes, those moments were handled with taste and
               discretion by Malle and his cinematographer, Sven
               Nyquist, and the general consensus was that Shields
               was not exploited in the film. Thus far, her acting in
               Pretty Baby remains Shields' best.

               Through her teens, Shields was among the world's
               top fashion models and her countenance was
               everywhere. Controversy again stirred when she did
               some provocative ads for Calvin Kline in which she
               was seen wearing a too tight pair of jeans and cooed,
               "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins." This
               was in contrast to her other ads in which she advised
               young girls to abstain from sex and a different
               campaign against smoking. At the peak of her fame,
               Shields appeared three times on the cover of Life
               magazine and once on the cover of Time. Her film
               career picked up around this time with appearances
               in such venues as King of the Gypsies (1978) and
               Wanda Nevada (1979), but her best-known film is
               the so-bad-it's-good The Blue Lagoon (1980) in
               which she and teenage hunk Christopher Atkins find
               themselves shipwrecked for years on a desert island. 

               Ostensibly, the film is a tender tale about innocence
               and true love, but it's primarily a titillating romp filled
               with plenty of flesh shots of Shields and Atkins' taut,
               tanned, and partially clad bodies. In 1981, Shields
               tried her hand with a more serious role in Franco
               Zeffirelli's tepid teen romance Endless Love, but did
               not succeed. Shields decided it was time for college
               and so enrolled in Princeton, where but for the
               occasional appearance on a Bob Hope television
               special, made-for-TV movie, or other special event,
               she immersed herself in college life. While there, she
               majored in French Literature and also became
               interested in the theater, gaining experience in two
               regional productions of Love Letters. Shields
               graduated from Princeton with honors. Upon her
               graduation, Shields returned to acting full time and
               appeared in films that can most kindly be described
               as mediocre. In 1996, Shields was given her own
               situation comedy on NBC network's Suddenly
               Susan, where she played a single career girl struggling
               to reassemble her life following her breakup with her
               wealthy fiancé. Though never among the most natural
               and relaxed of actresses, Shields gradually grew into
               her role and proved to be a competent, charismatic
               comedy actress. She was married to tennis great
               Andre Agassi.