Montclair Actress Who Spent 6 Decades on Stage and Screen Dies at 82

Montclair native Jacqueline Brookes, a theater, film and television actress whose career spanned 60 years, has died, according to a report on Playbill.com. She was 82.

Brooke's film credits include playing Admiral Brand in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Commissioner Brumford in Naked Gun 2 1/2, and Naomi Feed in The Gambler, Playbill reported Monday. 

But she is best remembered for her theater roles in classic works, playing a full range of Shakespearean leading ladies and starring as Phaedra in The Cretan Woman, for which she won a Theatre World Award in 1955, according to the Playbill Vault.

Brookes taught at the Circle in the Square Theatre School from 1974.

Some of her memorable stage performances, according to her bio on Circle in the Square Theatre School's website, include roles in Buried Child, Oedipus Rex, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Abelard and Heloise, and The House of Blue Leaves.

Theatre World, the New York Times reported, called Brookes among “the most promising personalities of the stage,” along with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummber.

Brookes was born in Montclair on July 24, 1930. Her parents were Maria Victoire and Fredrick Jack Brookes.

She earned a bachelor’s at the University of Iowa and studied at the London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Brookes died April 26 in Manhattan, Playbill reported.