The world lost Conrad Brooks on December sixth.
Brooks wasn't so much a forgotten actor, but instead one who was known to a select few fans of bad movie history. As near as I can tell he was the final surviving member of Edward D. Wood's ragtag repertoire of movie misfits.
Conrad Brooks appeared in Wood productions such as Glen or Glenda?, Jail Bait, The Sinister Urge, Night of the Ghouls, Bride of the Monster, and of course, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Believe it or not, his acting career went downhill from there.
Brooks was in some decent low budget movies: Curse of the Queerwolf, Puppetmaster 3, I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, Bikini Drive-In, and The Beast of Yucca Flats. This might seem like faint praise, but you haven't seen bad movies until you've witnessed things like F.A.R.T. The Movie, Zombiegeddon, Conrad Brooks Vs. the Werewolf, or Toilet Gator. Okay, I haven't seen Toilet Gater, but credit me with a little intuition.
The highlight of the later 'career' of Conrad Brooks was undoubtedly being cast alongside other Wood veterans Paul Marco and Gregory Walcott in Tim Burton's celebrated Ed Wood biopic.
It must have been a heady experience for a young would-be actor to be in those Ed Wood pictures. Appearing with matinee scream idol Bela Lugosi alone had to have been incredible.
Conrad Brooks kept busy in his later years, working on microbudget productions. I doubt that he was making much in the way of living expenses, but he always seemed cheerful to me. I used to see Brooks at Horrorfind Weekend conventions, where he would hawk his shoestring movies.
Conrad would talk people into buying DVD-Rs of his own meager productions. I'll never forget him wheedling me to buy something "For da kids, for da kids". Well, my kids wouldn't have wanted anything to do with these movies. Nor would any other kid I can imagine, but Brooks was so sweet that it was difficult to resist throwing him a few bucks. I bought Jan-Gel 3: Hillbilly Monster, which was written, directed and starred Mr. Brooks himself, just as his old mentor Edward Wood did. Only you'll wish you were watching Glen or Glenda if you had the misfortune to see Hillbilly Monster. I only made it through a few excruciating minutes of it.
I don't hold that against Conrad Brooks, who was a living, breathing piece of exploitation movie history. He scraped along somehow, and everyone seemed to like him. How could you not? Conrad Brooks was guileless and lovable.
It seems fitting that I am pondering the lives of Conrad Brooks and Ed Wood on the morning of the day in which I plan to see James Franco's The Disaster Artist. For no other movie I can think of encompasses the low budget charm of Plan 9 and other Wood films as does The Room. Not the self-aware movies that purposely attempt to recreate the bad movies yesteryear, but someone with passion and drive, but little talent, shamelessly trying to make movie history. Ed Wood somehow did it, and so did Tommy Wiseau.
Goodbye, Conrad Brooks, and goodbye to an era that married old Hollywood with modern exploitation trash. These movies may lack cinematic expertise, but they possess endless charm. And so did Conrad Brooks.
Conrad is on the left.
Brooks wasn't so much a forgotten actor, but instead one who was known to a select few fans of bad movie history. As near as I can tell he was the final surviving member of Edward D. Wood's ragtag repertoire of movie misfits.
Conrad Brooks appeared in Wood productions such as Glen or Glenda?, Jail Bait, The Sinister Urge, Night of the Ghouls, Bride of the Monster, and of course, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Believe it or not, his acting career went downhill from there.
Brooks was in some decent low budget movies: Curse of the Queerwolf, Puppetmaster 3, I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, Bikini Drive-In, and The Beast of Yucca Flats. This might seem like faint praise, but you haven't seen bad movies until you've witnessed things like F.A.R.T. The Movie, Zombiegeddon, Conrad Brooks Vs. the Werewolf, or Toilet Gator. Okay, I haven't seen Toilet Gater, but credit me with a little intuition.
The highlight of the later 'career' of Conrad Brooks was undoubtedly being cast alongside other Wood veterans Paul Marco and Gregory Walcott in Tim Burton's celebrated Ed Wood biopic.
It must have been a heady experience for a young would-be actor to be in those Ed Wood pictures. Appearing with matinee scream idol Bela Lugosi alone had to have been incredible.
Conrad Brooks kept busy in his later years, working on microbudget productions. I doubt that he was making much in the way of living expenses, but he always seemed cheerful to me. I used to see Brooks at Horrorfind Weekend conventions, where he would hawk his shoestring movies.
Conrad would talk people into buying DVD-Rs of his own meager productions. I'll never forget him wheedling me to buy something "For da kids, for da kids". Well, my kids wouldn't have wanted anything to do with these movies. Nor would any other kid I can imagine, but Brooks was so sweet that it was difficult to resist throwing him a few bucks. I bought Jan-Gel 3: Hillbilly Monster, which was written, directed and starred Mr. Brooks himself, just as his old mentor Edward Wood did. Only you'll wish you were watching Glen or Glenda if you had the misfortune to see Hillbilly Monster. I only made it through a few excruciating minutes of it.
I don't hold that against Conrad Brooks, who was a living, breathing piece of exploitation movie history. He scraped along somehow, and everyone seemed to like him. How could you not? Conrad Brooks was guileless and lovable.
It seems fitting that I am pondering the lives of Conrad Brooks and Ed Wood on the morning of the day in which I plan to see James Franco's The Disaster Artist. For no other movie I can think of encompasses the low budget charm of Plan 9 and other Wood films as does The Room. Not the self-aware movies that purposely attempt to recreate the bad movies yesteryear, but someone with passion and drive, but little talent, shamelessly trying to make movie history. Ed Wood somehow did it, and so did Tommy Wiseau.
Goodbye, Conrad Brooks, and goodbye to an era that married old Hollywood with modern exploitation trash. These movies may lack cinematic expertise, but they possess endless charm. And so did Conrad Brooks.
Conrad is on the left.
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