Hillary Brooke

Hillary Brooke (born Beatrice Sofia Mathilda Peterson on 8 September 1914 in Astoria, Queens, New York) was a striking American actress whose career spanned more than two decades, from the late 1930s through the early 1960s. A 5′6″ blonde of Swedish ancestry, she began as a model while studying at Columbia University, a period that gave her both poise and an eye for fashion that later informed many of her on‑screen personas. After a formative year in the United Kingdom, where she mastered a Received Pronunciation accent, she returned to Hollywood and adopted the stage name Hillary Brooke, explaining that her birth name felt “so long and so heavy.” She quickly became known for playing elegant English women, a niche that earned her roles in three Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes pictures – Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), and The Woman in Green (1945). Her filmography also includes memorable parts in Jane Eyre (1943), The Enchanted Cottage (1945), the 3‑D adventure The Maze (1953), and Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). On television, Hillary Brooke became a familiar face of early 1950s sitcoms, most notably as the sophisticated love interest Roberta Townsend on My Little Margie (1952‑1955) and as herself—a dignified tenant—on The Abbott and Costello Show, where her character was spared the usual slapstick pranks. She also guest‑starred on such series as Perry Mason, I Love Lucy, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective before retiring in 1960. In her personal life, she married three times: first to Alan Shute (1936‑1940), then to assistant director Jack Voglin (1941‑1948), with whom she had a son, Donald, and finally to MGM executive Raymond A. Klune (1960‑1988), gaining two stepchildren. A lifelong Democrat, she supported Adlai Stevenson in 1952. Brooke died of a blood clot in her lungs on 25 May 1999 in Bonsall, California, and was cremated with her ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean. Her contribution to entertainment was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6307 Hollywood Boulevard, cementing her legacy as a graceful yet resolute figure in mid‑century American film and television.