Brooke Adams was born on February 8, 1949 in New York City, to Rosalind (Gould), an actress, and Robert Kaufmann Adams, a former CBS vice president, as well as actor and producer. She was educated at the prestigious High School for the Performing Arts and the School of the American Ballet.
Starting her career on the stage, her film career took off with a break through role opposite
Richard Gere and
Sam Shepard in
Terrence Malick's
Days of Heaven (1978). She also starred in
Philip Kaufman's
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), and repeated her off-Broadway role in the film version of
Kevin Wade's romantic comedy
Key Exchange (1985). Other film credits include
Gas Food Lodging (1992),
The Dead Zone (1983) opposite
Christopher Walken,
Cuba (1979) with
Sean Connery, and
Tell Me a Riddle (1980). She produced and starred in
Made-Up (2002), written by her sister
Lynne Adams.
Her stage credits include The Heidi Chronicles on Broadway, Key Exchange at the Orpheum, Split at The Second Stage, The Old Neighborhood at A.R.T. If Memory Serves at the Pasadena Playhouse, The Philanderer at Yale Rep, The Cherry Orchard at The Atlantic Theatre Co. and Lend Me a tenor on Broadway with her husband
Tony Shalhoub directed by
Stanley Tucci. She has most recently starred in Samuel Becket's Happy Days with her husband Tony Shalhoub.
On television, she has appeared in
Thirtysomething (1987),
Moonlighting (1985),
Family (1976),
The Lion of Africa (1987),
Special People (1984), the miniseries
Lace (1984) and
Lace II (1985), 5 episodes of
Monk (2002),
BrainDead (2016) on CBS and is writing, producing, directing, and starring in a web-series,
All Downhill from Here (2015).