Phyllis Brooks (July 18, 1915 – August 1, 1995) was an American actress and model. Brooks was born Phyllis Weiler in Boise, Idaho. (Other sources give her birth name as Phyllis Steiller and her birth year as 1914, rather than 1915.)

Biography

In the late 1930s, Brooks dated Cary Grant, who called her Brooksie, and rumors that the two would be married were circulated. (One source says that the two were engaged.) Brooks, something of a socialite, also dated Howard Hughes.

Brooks married Torbert Macdonald June 23, 1945, in Tarrytown, New York. He went on to become an 11-term Massachusetts Congressman, who had been John F. Kennedy's roommate at Harvard University. Brooks moved East to Cambridge, Massachusetts with her new husband in 1945 so he could complete his studies at Harvard Law School. He had been a Harvard football captain and a decorated PT boat captain in World War II. He died in office in 1976.

Brooks continued performing in summer stock theater after her marriage, and hosted the first television interview program in Boston in the early 1950s (on WBZ-TV). She retired from public performances after that, concentrating on raising her family. The couple had four children, the eldest of whom was President Kennedy's godson.

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