Shields was born and raised in
Newark, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Theresa (née Dollinger), a house cleaner, and John Schmon, a chemist. She was of German, English, Scots-Irish, French-Canadian and Welsh ancestry. In 1964, she married
Francis Alexander Shields. Several months later, they filed for divorce. When Brooke was a child, they lived in a
townhouse on the
Upper East Side. She acted alongside her daughter in
Wanda Nevada,
Endless Love, and
Backstreet Dreams. In 2009, Brooke announced that her mother was suffering from
dementia. On October 31, 2012, Shields died at age 79 following a long illness related to dementia. == Filmography ==