Phyllis Brooks on AllMovie

Phyllis Brooks entered films at age 20 after establishing herself as a model -- at the time of her "discovery," Brooks was known as the "Ipana Toothpaste Girl." Early on, she was billed as Mary Brooks and she spent most of her formative film years at 20th Century-Fox in such vehicles as Another Face (1935) and You Can't Have Everything (1937). Her performance as the born-to-lose heroine in 1938's City Girl was so impressive that it inspired a written bouquet by no less than William Saroyan. Phyllis Brooks left filmmaking behind when she married Harvard football star Torbert MacDonald in 1945.