Brooks was born in
Portland, Oregon, to Jewish parents and earned a
Bachelor of Music degree from the
University of Washington, where he trained as a classical
baritone. He won a scholarship to the
Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia, where he pursued graduate studies in opera. While a student at Curtis he began appearing in plays and musicals in Philadelphia which ultimately led to his being signed with a talent agent. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1944 as Jeff Calhoun opposite
Celeste Holm as Evalina in the original production of
Harold Arlen's
Bloomer Girl. The show was a big hit and effectively launched a major career for Brooks as a stage actor and later stage director and producer. L.A. Times on October 11, 1944, headlined "Stage Singer Brooks Signed by Paramount." Scouts had seen him in "
Bloomer Girl." Brooks ended up making just one film, in 1944, as a character named Angus McNab in the Paramount musical short "
Bonnie Lassie.” He entered musical theater history on March 13, 1947, when he originated the role of Tommy Albright in the original Broadway production of
Lerner and Loewe's
Brigadoon at the
Ziegfeld Theater. He performed the role 581 times before the production closed on July 31, 1948. After the production ended, Brooks moved to
Milan, Italy, where he worked as a director and producer of plays during the early 1950s. While there he became involved with the
avant-garde theater scene, notably staging works by Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett. With the company he helped produce the U.S. premieres of Beckett's
Endgame, Ionesco's
The Bald Soprano and
Joyce's
Ulysses in Nighttown, all
Off-Broadway. He was also active as a director for Off-Broadway productions, and worked with
Leonard Bernstein on his 1955 opera
Trouble in Tahiti. Brooks returned to Broadway in 1963 after an eight-year absence to portray Governor Harmon Bardahl in
Irving Berlin's
Mr. President. He was also the standby performer for President Stephen Decatur Henderson. He returned to Broadway a few more times during his career, portraying Grand Duke Charles in
The Girl Who Came to Supper (standby, 1964), Jim in
The Sunday Man (1964), the Man in
Park (1970), and Judge Paul Barriere in the 1981 revival of
Can-Can. He also made a handful of television appearances. He died at the age of 83 at the Jewish Home and Hospital in
Manhattan. He was survived by his longtime life partner Frances Kessler. ==References==