PORTRET z HISTORIĄ Brooke Shields

Brooke Christa Shields (ur. 31 maja 1965 w Nowym Jorku) – amerykańska aktorka i fotomodelka. 

Urodziła się w Nowym Jorku. Pochodzi z angielskiej i francuskiej rodziny królewskiej. Jej rodzice, Francis Alexander Shields (1941–2003, kierownik w przedsiębiorstwie z branży kosmetycznej Revlon) i Teri Shields (1933–2012, właśc. Maria Theresia Schmonn, fotomodelka), rozwiedli się niedługo po urodzeniu Brooke. Jej dziadek ze strony ojca, Frank Shields (1910–1975), był znanym tenisistą, a w latach 30. pojawiał się również w filmach. Jego żona Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi (1916–1960) była włoską arystokratką i szwagierką infantki Beatrycze Hiszpańskiej (córki króla Alfonsa XIII). Natomiast babcia jej matki, Elsie Moore, była siostrą dziadka aktorki Glenn Close. 

Karierą Brooke pokierowała jej matka. Jako 11-miesięczne dziecko Brooke pojawiła się w reklamie mydła Ivory sfotografowanej przez Francesco Scavullo. Występowała też w reklamach pieluch, talku kosmetycznego, mleka i – kilka lat później – lalek. 

Mając 9 lat pojawiła się w dramacie telewizyjnym Po upadku (After the Fall, 1974) u boku Faye Dunaway, jako córka Quentina (Christopher Plummer). W wieku 12 lat zadebiutowała na dużym ekranie rolą młodszej siostry tytułowej bohaterki horroru Alicja, słodka Alicja (Communion, 1976). 

W wieku 14 lat była najmłodszą modelką, która kiedykolwiek pracowała dla magazynu „Vogue”. Mając 15 lat jej twarz ukazywała się na okładce „Cosmopolitan”, a także każdego większego magazynu, włączając „Elle”, „Mademoiselle”, „Glamour”, „Harper’s Bazaar” i „Seventeen”.

  Wcielając się w rolę niepełnoletniej prostytutki Violet, uwikłanej w romans z fotografem (Keith Carradine) w kontrowersyjnym dramacie Ślicznotka (Pretty Baby, 1978) zachwyciła na festiwalu filmowym w Cannes. 

W 1979, w wieku 15 lat wywołała skandal, gdy ukazała się na plakatach tylko w jednej części garderoby – dżinsach Calvina Kleina. 

W szkole średniej Lenox School i college’u Dwight-Englewood School w Englewood w New Jersey była cheerleaderką. W latach 1983–1987 studiowała romanistykę na Uniwersytecie Princeton, w stanie New Jersey, gdzie poznała aktora Deana Caina.

„… W wieku 14 lat Brooke Shields była najmłodszą modelką, która kiedykolwiek pracowała dla magazynu Vogue a mając 15 lat jej twarz ukazywała się na okładce Cosmopolitan, a także każdego większego magazynu, włączając Elle, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar. Właściwie prawie każdego dnia znajdowała się na okładkach. W sierpniu 1985 r. w Nowym Jorku miałem możliwość fotografowania Brook Shields. Muszę powiedzieć, że właściwie każde zdjęcie jest unikalne, to niezwykła fotogeniczność…” – Czesław Czapliński.

  Światową sławę zdobyła dzięki głównej roli w melodramacie przygodowym Błękitna laguna (The Blue Lagoon, 1980), gdzie wraz z Christopherem Atkinsem tworzyła parę młodych rozbitków, mieszkających na bezludnej wyspie. Film ten jednak przyniósł jej nagrodę Złotej Maliny dla najgorszej aktorki roku i choć podbił serca młodych widzów, nie spodobał się krytyce. 

Stała się idolką nastolatek lat 80. XX wieku. W latach 1980–1985 pojawiła się na ponad 400 okładkach magazynów. Magazyn „People” uznał ją za jedną z najbardziej intrygujących osób świata w latach 1978, 1980, 1996 oraz za jedną z 50 najpiękniejszych osób świata w roku 1996 i 2000.  

W 1982 trafiła na nowojorską scenę Radio City Music Hall w spektaklu Night of One Hundred Stars. W 1986 zadebiutowała na Broadwayu jako Suzanne w przedstawieniu The Eden Cinema. W 1986 wystąpiła w roli Suzanne w produkcji off-Broadwayowskiej The Eden Cinema. 

W 1995 odebrała nagrodę teatralną Theater World Award za rolę Rizzo w musicalu broadwayowskim Grease, w którym grała od 11 maja 1994 do 25 czerwca 1998[6]. Powróciła na Broadway jako Sally Bowles w musicalu Kabaret (2001), Ruth Sherwood w Wonderful Town (od 28 września 2004 do 30 czerwca 2005), Roxie Hart w Chicago (2005) i w roli Morticii Addams w muzycznej wersji Rodzina Addamsów (2011). 

Swój talent komediowy ujawniła w sitcomie A teraz Susan (Suddenly Susan, 1996–2000) jako Susan Keane, charyzmatyczna redaktorka bulwarowego amerykańskiego pisma. Za tę rolę była dwukrotnie (1997, 1998) nominowana do nagrody Złotego Globu. 

W kwietniu 1982 tworzyła parę z Tedem McGinleyem na balu maturalnym w jej szkole średniej. 

19 kwietnia 1997 w Pebble Beach, w stanie Kalifornia, wyszła za mąż za światowej sławy tenisistę Andre Agassiego, a po dwóch latach ich małżeństwo zostało anulowane – 9 kwietnia 1999 w Las Vegas. 

4 kwietnia 2001 wyszła powtórnie za mąż za scenarzystę i producenta Chrisa Henchy’ego, z którym ma dwie córki: Rowan Francis (ur. 15 maja 2003) i Grier Hammond (ur. 18 kwietnia 2006). 

Filmy: 1974: Po upadku (After the Fall, TV) jako córka Quentina; 1976: Alicjo, słodka Alicjo (Communion) jako Karen Spages; 1977: The Prince of Central Park (TV) jako Kristin; 1978: Król Cyganów (King of the Gypsies) jako Tita Stepanowicz; 1978: Ślicznotka (Pretty Baby) jako Violet; 1979: Tilt jako Tilt Davenport (Brenda Louise Davenport); 1979: Romans niemal doskonały (An Almost Perfect Affair) – w roli samej siebie 1979: Wanda Nevada jako Wanda Nevada 1979: Just You and Me, Kid jako Kate 1980: Błękitna laguna (The Blue Lagoon) jako Emmeline 1981: Niekończąca się miłość(Endless Love) jako Jade 1983: Sahara jako Dale Gordon 1984: Muppety na Manhattanie(The Muppets Take Manhattan) jako klientka 1984: Mokre złoto (Wet Gold, TV) jako Laura 1984: Blondynki kontra brunetki (Blondes vs. Brunettes, TV) – w roli samej siebie 1988: Brylantowa pułapka (The Diamond Trap, TV) jako Tara Holden 1989: Wyścig armatniej kuli 3 (Speed Zone) jako stewardesa 1989: Brenda Starr jako Brenda Starr 1990: Zaułek marzeń (Backstreet Dreams) jako Stevie 1993: Wszystko tylko nie buty (Freaked) jako Skye Daley 1993: Osaczyć Laurę (I Can Make You Love Me, TV) jako Laura Black 1994: Siódme piętro (The Seventh Floor) jako Kate Fletcher 1994: Amerykański romans (Un Amore americano / An American Love) jako Greta 1994: The Postgraduate(krótkometrażowy) jako żona z fantazji 1995: Dzikie i swobodne (Running Wild) jako Christine Shaye 1995: Nic nie trwa wiecznie (Nothing Lasts Forever, TV) jako dr Beth Taft 1996: Spojrzenie mordercy (Freeway) jako Mimi Wolverton 1998: Perypetie Margaret (The Misadventures of Margaret) jako Lily 1999: Weekend (The Weekend) jako Nina 1999: Kawaler (The Bachelor) jako Buckley 1999: Czarne i białe (Black and White) jako Sam Donager 1999: Napad prawie doskonały (The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery) jako Cyndee Lafrance 2000: After Sex jako Kate 2001: Co tworzy rodzinę (What Makes a Family, TV) jako Janine Nielssen 2003: Dzieci pani Pająkowej ze Słonecznej Doliny (Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids, TV) jako pani Pająkowa (głos) 2004: Nasz włoski mąż (Mariti in affitto) jako Charlene Taylor 2005: New Car Smell (TV) jako April 2005: Nie zapomnisz mnie(Gone, But Not Forgotten, TV) jako Betsy Tannenbaum 2005: Bob kamerdyner (Bob the Butler) jako Anne Jamieson 2005: Wyprawa po świąteczne pisanki (The Easter Egg Adventure) jako Potworna Harriet Hare (głos) 2007: Bag Boy jako pani Hart 2008: Nocny pociąg z mięsem (The Midnight Meat Train) jako Susan Hoff 2008: Justice League: The New Frontier jako Carol Ferris (głos) 2010: Zemsta futrzaków jako Tammy Sanders 2010: Bestia z Wolfsberga (The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, TV) jako madame Olga Varcolac 2013: Weteranki koszykówki (The Hot Flashes) jako Beth Humphrey 2017: Daisy Winters jako Sandy Winters 2021: Świąteczny zamek (A Castle for Christmas) jako Sophie Brown 2024: Matka panny młodej (Mother of the Bride) jako Lana 2024: Zwierzaki na ratunek (Gracie & Pedro: Pets to the Rescue) jako Willow, koń pełnej krwi angielskiej (głos)

Seriale: 1980: Muppet Show (The Muppet Show) – w roli samej siebie; 1982: The Doctors jako Elizabeth Harrington 1992: Zagubiony w czasie (Quantum Leap) jako Vanessa Foster 1993: Simpsonowie (The Simpsons) – w roli samej siebie 1993: Opowieści z krypty (Tales from the Crypt) jako Norma 1996: Przyjaciele (Friends) jako Erika Ford 1996–2000: A teraz

Susan (Suddenly Susan) jako Susan Keane 2001: Ja się zastrzelę (Just Shoot Me!) jako Erlene Noodleman, siostra Niny 2002: Wdowy (Widows) jako Shirley Heller 2003: Gary the Rat jako Cassandra Harrison 2004: Różowe lata siedemdziesiąte(That ’70s Show) jako Pamela Burkhart 2004: Randka z gwiazdą (I’m with Her) jako Ivy Tyler 2005: Ekipa (Entourage) – w roli samej siebie 2006: Prawo i porządek: Zbrodniczy Zamiar jako Kelly Sloane-Raines 2006: Bez skazy (Nip/Tuck) jako Faith Wolper 2007: Dwóch i pół (Two and a Half Men) jako Danielle Stewert 2007: Batman (The Batman) jako Julie (głos) 2007–2008: Hannah Montana jako Susan Stewart, mama Miley 2008–2009: Szminka w wielkim mieście (Lipstick Jungle) jako Wendy Healy 2010–2018: Pępek świata(The Middle) jako Rita Glossner 2013: Poślubione armii (Army Wives) jako pułkownik Kat Young 2013: Wspaniałe zwierzaki (Wonder Pets!) jako czarownica 2013: Super Fun Nightjako Alison Lockridge 2013–2019: Korniszonek (Mr Pickles) jako Beverly Goodman (głos) 2014: The Michael J. Fox Show jako Deborah 2014–2018: Galaktyka Supersmyka(Creative Galaxy) jako Seraphina (głos) 2016: Głos serca (When Calls the Heart) jako Charlotte Thornton 2026: Królowe krzyku (Scream Queens) jako dr Scarlett Lovin 2017–2018: Prawo i porządek: sekcja specjalna (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) jako Sheila Porter 2018: Murphy Brown jako Holly Mackin Lynne 2018–2019: Jane the Virgin jako River Fields 2020: 9-1-1 jako dr Kara Sandford.

Nagrody: 1981 Nagroda „Bravo” Brązowa statuetka Bravo Otto dla najlepszej aktorki Błękitna laguna; (1980) Złota Malina Najgorsza aktorka People’s Choice Award; Ulubiona młoda aktorka filmowa – 1982 – 1983 – 1984 – 1985; Złota Malina Najgorsza aktorka drugoplanowa Sahara (1984); 1990 Złota Malina Najgorsza aktorka drugoplanowa Wyścig armatniej kuli 3 (1989); 1997 People’s Choice Award Ulubiona aktorka w nowym serialu telewizyjnym A teraz Susan (1996); 2002 GLAAD Media Awards Nagroda Złotej Bramy; – 2020 Young Artist Award Legenda.

PORTRAIT with HISTORY Brooke Shields

  Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress. A child model starting at the age of 11 months, Shields gained widespread notoriety for her leading role in Louis Malle's film Pretty Baby (1978), in which she appeared in nude scenes shot when she was 11 years old. She continued to model into her late teenage years and starred in several dramas in the 1980s, including The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love (1981). 

In 1983, Shields suspended her modeling career to attend Princeton University, where she subsequently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Romance languages. In the 1990s, Shields returned to acting and appeared in minor roles in films. She also starred in the NBC sitcoms Suddenly Susan (1996–2000), for which she received two Golden Globe nominations, and Lipstick Jungle (2008–2009). 

In 2017, Shields returned to NBC with a major recurring role in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the show's 19th season. Shields voiced Beverly Goodman in the Adult Swim animated series Mr. Pickles (2014–2019) and its spin-off Momma Named Me Sheriff. 

Shields was born in Manhattan, New York City, on May 31, 1965, the daughter of actress and model Teri Shields (née Schmon) and businessman Francis Alexander Shields. Her mother was of English, German, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh descent, while her father had English, French, Irish, and Italian ancestry. 

According to research by William Addams Reitwiesner, Shields has ancestral links with a number of noble families from Italy, in particular from Genoa and Rome. These are namely (in chronological order of descent from 1355 to 1965) the Gattilusi-Palaiologos-Savoy, Grimaldi, Imperiali, Carafa, Doria, Doria-Pamphili-Landi, Chigi-Albani, and Torlonia dynasties. Her paternal grandmother was Italian noblewoman Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, who was the daughter of an Italian prince and an American socialite. Her great-uncle was the Italian Prince Alessandro Torlonia, the husband of Infanta Beatriz of Spain. In a 2010 episode of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, Shields discovered she is a descendant of Victor Amadeus I of Savoy and his wife Christine of France (a daughter of King Henry IV of France and Maria de' Medici) through the Torlonia dynasty. 

When Teri announced that she was pregnant, Francis's family paid her a sum to terminate the pregnancy. Teri took the money, but violated the agreement and gave birth to Brooke. Francis married Teri, but they were divorced when Shields was only five months old. She has two stepbrothers and three half-sisters. When Shields was only five days old, her mother openly stated she wanted her to be active in show business, saying: "She's the most beautiful child and I'm going to help her with her career." Growing up, Shields took piano, ballet, and horse-riding lessons.

  Shields was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. For her confirmation at age 10, she took the name Camille, after Camillus de Lellis. While attending high school, she resided in Haworth, New Jersey. Shields has stated that her first encounter with the paparazzi was in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria New York at the age of 12, stating that she "stood like a statue wondering why they were all hired to photograph me" and that she "debuted at the Waldorf."

  Shields attended the New Lincoln School in New York City until eighth grade. She graduated from the Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1983. 

Shields began her career as a model when she was 11 months old in 1966. Her first job was for Ivory Soap, when she was photographed by Francesco Scavullo. She continued as a successful child model with model agent Eileen Ford, who, in her Lifetime biography, stated that she started her children's division just for Shields. Ford said of her: "She is a professional child and unique. She looks like an adult and thinks like one." 

After appearing in the 1974 TV adaptation of Arthur Miller's play After the Fall, Shields made her feature film debut in the New Jersey-shot horror film Alice, Sweet Alice(1976), portraying a young girl who is murdered during her first communion. She was cast in the part after director Alfred Sole had seen her in a print advertisement for Voguemagazine. The film was later re-released in 1981, capitalizing on Shields's rising fame at the time. Next, Shields worked with director Woody Allen in his 1977 film Annie Hall, but her role was cut out of the final edit of the film. 

Shields and her mother Teri appeared on the cover of the September 26, 1977 issue of New York Magazine, in a cover story about her modeling career. The main headline on the cover read: "Meet Teri and Brooke Shields" while the subtitle read, Brooke is twelve. She poses nude. Teri is her mother. She thinks it's swell. 

Although the September 26, 1977 issue was listed in a 2008 collection of classic covers on the New York Magazine website for its 40th anniversary, unlike the other listed issues, there is no link to the cover story about Shields' career as a nude model. 

The 11-year-old Shields was cast as the lead in French director Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978), in which she played a child named Violet who lived in a brothel, the daughter of a prostitute played by Susan Sarandon. There were numerous nude scenes in the film, including those in which Shields appeared naked. Her appearance in the film spurred significant controversy, as public worry regarding child sexual abuse had begun to rise at the time of its release. Gossip columnist Rona Barrett called the film "child pornography", and director Malle was described as a "combination of Humbert Humbert and Roman Polanski". Her scenes in the nude also caused the film to be banned in Argentina, South Africa, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan. The film's ban in Ontario was lifted in 1995.  

She appeared on the cover of the May 29, 1978 issue of People, which bore the headline "Brooke Shields, 12, stirs furor over child porn in films." 

She or her body double also appeared in a dorsal nude scene in the 1979 release Just You and Me, Kid, which co-starred George Burns. In the movie, Shields also appeared in a scene where she apparently is naked, covered only by a deflated car tire inner tube while lying in the trunk of Burns' vintage automobile. Shields also was portrayed as nude in a third scene where she was being held hostage. For her work in the movie, she was paid a fee of $250,000 (equivalent to $940,000 in 2024 dollars), plus six percent of the profits.

Just You and Me, Kid received poor reviews. Critic Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times newspaper review, gave the film two out of four stars, calling the film "a charming disappointment." On his Sneak Previews TV show with Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel, both Ebert and Siskel gave the film a thumbs down. Siskel said, "Brooke Shields is not very interesting when she's on the screen," and called her a model "who just can't act." Siskel's newspaper review further stated that her part in the film had "no substance, and she is incapable of appearing fresh. It's a stilted, nervous performance from a teen-ager who has not had a single acting lesson and could use a dozen." 

Other movies Shields appeared in, in the wake of Pretty Baby, were Wanda Nevadaand Tilt, both of which were released in 1979. 

In 1980, 14-year-old Shields was the youngest fashion model ever to appear on the cover of Vogue. Later that same year, Shields appeared in controversial print and TV ads for Calvin Klein jeans. The TV ad included her saying the famous tagline: "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." Brooke Shields ads would help catapult Klein's career to superstar status.  

She next appeared as a lead in The Blue Lagoon (1980), which included nude scenes between teenage lovers stranded on a tropical island (Shields later testified before a U.S. Congressional inquiry that older body doubles were used in some of them). The same year, she was the youngest guest star to ever appear on The Muppet Show, in which she and the Muppets put on their own version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She was also the youngest person to host ABC's Fridays, a Saturday Night Live-like sketch comedy show, in 1981. 

Her next major film role was in Franco Zeffirelli's drama Endless Love (1981). The MPAA initially rated Endless Love with an X rating. The film was re-edited to earn an R rating. For her performance in the film, she received her first Razzie Award nomination for worst actress. 

She won the People's Choice Award in the category of Favorite Young Performer in four consecutive years from 1981 to 1984. During this same period, she starred in the USPHS PSA sponsored by the American Lung Association as an initiative that VIPs should become examples and advocates of non-smoking. 

By the age of 16, Shields had become one of the most recognizable faces in the United States, because of her dual career as a provocative fashion model and child actress. Time magazine reported in its February 9, 1981, cover story that her day rate as a model was $10,000 (equivalent to $29,000 in 2024). In 1983, Shields appeared on the cover of the September issue of Paris Vogue, the October and November issues of American Vogue and the December edition of Italian Vogue. During that period Shields became a regular at New York City's nightclub Studio 54. 

In the mid-1980s, Shields began her support of the USO by touring with Bob Hope. 

From 1981 to 1983, Shields, her mother, photographer Garry Gross, and Playboy Press were involved in litigation in the New York City Courts over the rights to photographs her mother had signed away to Gross (when dealing with models who are minors, a parent or legal guardian must sign such a release form while other agreements are subject to negotiation). Gross was the photographer of a controversial set of nude images taken in 1975 of a then ten-year-old Brooke Shields with the consent of her mother, Teri Shields, for the Playboy Press publication Sugar 'n' Spice. The images portray Shields nude, standing and sitting in a bathtub, wearing makeup and covered in oil. The courts ruled in favor of the photographer due to wordings in New York law. The ruling would have been decided otherwise if Shields had been considered a child "performer" rather than a model.

 In 1983, in the wake of the legal battle over ownership of the photos, artist Richard Prince photographed one of Gross' photos of the 10-year-old Shields standing naked in a bathtub. He developed it, put it in a gilding frame and, displayed it without labelling or explanation, in a shopfront in a then rundown street in Lower East Side of Manhattan. 

“…At the age of 14, Brooke Shields was the youngest model ever to work for Vogue, and by 15 her face appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan as well as every major magazine, including Elle, Mademoiselle, Glamour, and Harper’s Bazaar. In fact, she was on magazine covers almost every day. In August 1985, in New York, I had the opportunity to photograph Brooke Shields. I must say that practically every shot is unique — she has an extraordinary photogenic quality…” – Czesław Czapliński.

In 2005, Prince released a work titled Spiritual America IV. It was photographed in collaboration with Shields when she was 40 years old. It depicts the actor in a near-identical pose as the original Spiritual America, but wearing jewellery and a bronze bikini, while leaning against a Vengeance chopper motorbike. 

Shields played a romantic lead in Sahara (1983) for a fee variously reported as $1 million or $1.5 million. Her mother Teri Shields was executive producer of the picture, with a fee of $25,000. The movie was a critical and financial failure, released only in the Western United States after poor previews and grossing $1.2 million against a budget of $15 million (equivalent to $3.2 million and $41 million, respectively, in 2024). 

For Sahara, Shields earned the distinction of being the only actress ever to win the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor. At the 1984 Razzies, she was nominated for both the Worst Actress Award and Worst Supporting Actor, as "Brooke Shields (with a moustache)".

  After making a minor appearance in The Muppets Take Manhattan, Shields took a career hiatus to focus on her academic studies. She enrolled at Princeton University in the fall of 1983 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature in 1987. She was a member of the Princeton Triangle Club and the Cap and Gown Club. Her autobiography, On Your Own, was published in 1985. Her 1987 senior thesis was titled "The Initiation: From Innocence to Experience: The Pre-Adolescent/Adolescent Journey in the Films of Louis Malle, Pretty Baby and Lacombe Lucien." 

Shields aboard USS Midway during a USO tour on January 1, 1991 Shields played the eponymous lead in the 1989 movie Brenda Starr, which had been shot in 1986 for an intended 1987 release but was held up for years over legal problems due to the rights to the comic strip and demands from Shields' mother that she receive top-billing in the picture, which co-starred Timothy Dalton. When the film was finally released in 1993, it was roasted by critics and bombed at the box office. 

Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Brenda Starr (citywide) arrives after some five years of legal disputes over distribution rights. It would have been an act of kindness for all concerned, including the paying customer, to have left it on the shelf where it belongs." 

Peter Travers, writing for Rolling Stone, gave the film a negative review, writing, "There's been so much negative insider buzz about Brooke's 'Brenda' that you might be harboring a hope that the damned thing turned out all right. Get over it. Brenda Starr is not as bad as the also-rans that Hollywood traditionally dumps on us before Labor Day... it's a heap worse." 

Entertainment Weekly would later place the film on its list of "21 Worst Comic-Book Movies Ever". 

In 1993, Shields made a guest appearance in a fourth-season episode of The Simpsons, called "The Front".[69] The following year, she starred as Rizzo in the 1994 Broadway revival of Grease. 

In a 1996 episode of the popular comedy sitcom Friends, Shields played Joey Tribbiani's stalker. This role led directly to her being cast in the title role of the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan, in which she starred from 1996 until 2000, and which earned a People's Choice Award in the category of Favorite Female Performer in a New Television Series for her, in 1997, and two Golden Globe nominations.  

In 1998, she played a lesbian, Lily, in The Misadventures of Margaret. 

In 2001, Lifetime aired the film What Makes a Family, starring Shields and Cherry Jones in a true story of a lesbian couple who fought the adoption laws of Florida.[71] For four months, beginning July 2001, Shields portrayed Sally Bowles in the long-running Broadway revival of Cabaret. 

In 2004, Shields made several recurring guest appearances on That '70s Show playing Pam Burkhart, Jackie's (Mila Kunis) mother, who later was briefly involved with Donna's (Laura Prepon) father (Don Stark). Shields left That '70s Show when her character was written out. 

In September 2004, she replaced Donna Murphy in the role of Ruth Sherwood in the 2003 revival of Wonderful Town until the show closed four months later. Her performance was widely praised.[73] Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised the "goofy sweetness" she brought to her interpretation of the role, but wrote that she fell short of Donna Murphy's "perfection." In April 2005, Shields played Roxie Hart in a long-running production of Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End. Later the same year, she reprised the role in the Broadway revival, from September 9 to October 30. This made her the first performer to have starred in Chicago, Cabaret, and Grease on Broadway, three long-running revivals noted for "stunt casting" of celebrities not known for musical theatre.

  Shields recorded the narration for the Sony/BMG recording of The Runaway Bunny, a concerto for violin, orchestra, and reader, by Glen Roven. It was performed by the Royal Philharmonic and Ittai Shapira. 

In the late 2000s, Shields guest-starred on shows like FX's Nip/Tuck and CBS's Two and a Half Men. In 2005, Shields appeared in a second-season episode of HBO's Entourage, entitled "Blue Balls Lagoon". In 2007, she made a guest appearance on Disney's Hannah Montana, playing Susan Stewart, protagonist Miley Stewart's (Miley Cyrus) mother, who died in 2004. In 2008, she returned in the prime time drama Lipstick Jungle. The series ended a year later.

  Starting in 2010, she made guest appearances on The Middle as the mother of a brood of terror-inducing children and the nemesis of Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton). She also appeared as a featured celebrity in NBC's genealogy documentary reality series, Who Do You Think You Are?, where it was revealed that, through her father's ancestry, she is the distant cousin (many generations removed) of King Louis XIV of France, and thus a descendant of both Saint Louis and Henry IV of France. 

Shields took over the role of Morticia Addams in the Broadway musical The Addams Family beginning on June 28, 2011. 

Starting in 2013, Shields has been an occasional guest co-host in the 9:00 hour of Today on NBC. She also recurred during Season Nineteen of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sheila Porter, the maternal grandmother of Olivia Benson's (Mariska Hargitay) adopted son, Noah Porter. 

Shields is the subject of the 2023 documentary, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, directed by Lana Wilson, who also directed the Taylor Swift documentary, Miss Americana. The two-part series, which aired on Hulu on 3 April 2023, is "A look at actor, model and icon Brooke Shields as she transforms from a sexualized young girl to a woman discovering her power." 

In 2024, Shields was elected the president of the Actors' Equity Association and starred in the Netflix film Mother of the Bride opposite Miranda Cosgrove. 

Shields is the author of three books. In 2006, she penned the memoir Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, in 2015 she published There Was a Little Girl about the relationship she had with her mother, who suffered from alcoholism throughout Shields's life, and in 2025 she published Brooke Shields is not Allowed to Get Old about aging as a woman. 

In 2022, she launched a podcast called Now What? focusing on how people respond to adversity. 

As a child, Shields lived with her mother on Manhattan's Upper East Side. In 1990, she purchased a ranch near Big Timber, Montana. She also maintained a home in Los Angeles, which she purchased in 1998 and sold in 2022. 

In the 1990s, Shields promoted physical fitness as an extension of femininity, maintaining that femininity and athletics are compatible. 

Despite coming out against the fur industry in 1989, Shields later went on to create her own mink fur coat at Kopenhagen Fur. She dated actor Dean Cain while studying at Princeton University.