Joseph Brooks | |
|---|---|
%2c_1978.jpg) Brooks in 1978 as he appeared in If Ever I See You Again | |
| Born | Joseph Kaplan (1938-03-11)March 11, 1938 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | May 22, 2011(2011-05-22) (aged 73) New York City, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Suicide by asphyxia |
| Other names |
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| Children | 4 |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, director, producer, screenwriter, musician |
| Instrument | Piano |
Musical artist | |
Joseph Brooks (bornJoseph Kaplan;[1] March 11, 1938 – May 22, 2011)[2] was an American songwriter, composer, filmmaker, and serial rapist. He was a successful author ofcommercial jingles during the 1960s, before pivoting to a filmmaking career. His 1977 romantic dramaYou Light Up My Life, which he wrote, directed, produced, and scored; spawned thehit song of the same name, earning Brooks anAcademy Award,Golden Globe Award, and aGrammy Award.
Brooks became the subject of an investigation after being accused of a series ofcasting-couch rapes. He was indicted in 2009, but killed himself on May 22, 2011, before his trial.
Brooks was born Joseph Kaplan[1] on March 11, 1938 inManhattan, and grew up in Manhattan andLawrence, Long Island, New York.[3] In later interviews, he claimed to have started playing piano at age 3 and writing plays at age 5, following his parents' divorce.[2] As a child, he also developed astutter that, according to his production partner Robert K. Lifton, disappeared when Brooks sang or acted.[2][4] He later attended five different colleges, includingJuilliard, but did not graduate from any.[2]
In the late 1950s, Brooks pursued a career as a singer-songwriter, adopting the name "Joey Brooks"[5] (later changed to "Joe Brooks" or "Joseph Brooks"[1]). He released several albums onCanadian-American Records as Joey Brooks, and onDecca as "Joey Brooks and the Baroque Folk".[6] When his singing career failed, he drifted into advertising and occasional songwriting work,[2] although he sporadically released several more records throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1960s, Brooks composed advertising jingles for clients includingPepsi ("You've Got a Lot to Live") andMaxwell House ("Good to the Last Drop Feeling"). He received numerousClio Awards for his work, as well as aPeople's Choice Award.[7] Credited as "Joey Brooks", he also wrote the song "My Ship Is Comin' In", a Top Ten UK hit in 1966 forthe Walker Brothers.[8]
In the 1970s, after becoming wealthy from his advertising work (at one point claiming to have 150 commercials on the air),[2] Brooks began composing for films. He wrote music for the American release ofThe Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970),Marjoe (1972), andThe Lords of Flatbush (1974), in which he was also an investor.[2][9][10] He wrote "Blue Balloon (The Hourglass Song)", sung byRobby Benson as the theme song for the filmJeremy (1973),[11][unreliable source?] and claimed to have written, cast, and directed most ofJeremy, although Arthur Barron is the sole writer and director of record.[9][12]New York Times film criticRoger Greenspun recognized Brooks's claim, writing, "it seems fair to suggest that, in whatever proportion, both men were involved in the authorship of the film."[13]
Brooks next developed his own film project,You Light Up My Life, which he wrote, produced, directed, and scored on a budget of about $1 million. The romantic drama about an aspiring singer, starringDidi Conn, was a box-office success despite poor reviews.[2][4][14] Brooks'stitle song for the film was an even bigger success; acover version byDebby Boone reached #1 on the U.S.Billboard Hot 100 chart and held that position for 10 consecutive weeks, at that time tied for the longest Number One reign in the chart's history.[15] With sales of over five million copies,[16] the song was the biggest hit of the 1970s[17] and earned Brooks aGrammy Award for Song of the Year, anAcademy Award for Best Original Song, aGolden Globe Award, and anAmerican Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) award.[18]
Brooks attempted to follow up his success with a similar romantic drama,If Ever I See You Again (1978), which he not only co-wrote, produced, directed, and scored, but also starred in, as a composer of TV commercial jingles much like himself, despite no significant acting experience.[3][4][9] Thetitle song became a moderate hit forRoberta Flack, peaking at #24 on the Hot 100 chart, but the movie received very bad reviews and was abox-office bomb.[10] Brooks was subsequently involved in several other films, directing and scoringInvitation to the Wedding (1983), in whichRalph Richardson andJohn Gielgud appeared,[2] and co-producingEddie and the Cruisers (1983) (which he did not score).[4] In the late 1990s, he and his then-wife Christina Bone began developing a film titledSara's Life Before It Became a Movie,[19] which was never released.[7]
Brooks also worked on stage productions, composing and writing for the 1989West End musical adaptation ofMetropolis and writing, directing, and producing theBroadway musicalIn My Life (2005), a love story about aVillage Voicepersonals editor withobsessive-compulsive disorder and a musician withTourette syndrome who are brought together by a jingle-singing God.[2][20]Robert Simonson wrote in Brooks'sPlaybill obituary thatIn My Life was "generally regarded as one of the strangest shows ever to have graced a Broadway stage."[21] When it was panned by critics, includingBen Brantley ofThe New York Times, who called it "jaw-dropping moments of whimsy run amok",[20] Brooks spent $1.5 million on ads saying that the critics were wrong.[2]
Many sources have called Brooks an egomaniac.[2][4][7][22] His career was curtailed in 2008 by a stroke.[23]
In June 2009, Brooks was arrested on charges of raping or sexually assaulting 11 women lured to hisEast Side apartment from 2005 to 2008. His assistant, Shawni Lucier, was charged with helping him.
"She picked the victims, set up travel arrangements, and reassured them", said Lisa Friel, chief of the district attorney's sex crimes unit. At times, she said, Lucier also reassured mothers worried about sending their daughters alone to New York on flights Brooks paid for. And, she said, Lucier was sometimes present in the apartment when the women arrived, but left before the assaults.[24] At least four of the women accused Brooks of sexual assault. He allegedly lured the women to his apartment to audition for movie roles.[25] According to ManhattanDistrict AttorneyRobert Morgenthau, the women responded to a notice Brooks had posted onCraigslist seeking attractive women to star in movie roles, and flew to New York fromPacific Coast states orFlorida, usually at Brooks's expense.
Brooks was indicted on June 23, 2009. He was to be tried in the stateSupreme Court for Manhattan (a trial-level court) on 91 counts of rape, sexual abuse, criminal sexual act, assault, and other charges. In December 2009, prosecutors said they would ask thegrand jury to consider adding even more charges, in part because "additional victims" had come forward.[26] Brooks died by suicide on May 22, 2011, before he could be tried.[2]
Three days after Brooks's death, Lucier pleaded guilty to 10 counts ofcriminal facilitation.[27]
Brooks was the older brother ofGilbert Kaplan, the founder ofInstitutional Investor magazine.[1][7]
In 2008, Brooks had a stroke that left him unable to play the piano and diminished his ability to compose.[23] It was reported that he may have had a second stroke shortly before his death.[28]
Brooks was married four times, but was single at the time of his death.[2] A 1978 news article noted that he was married with 7-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.[3] In the late 1970s, Brooks married Susan Paul,[4] an English model and actress who appeared in the filmsAll That Jazz (1979) andInvitation to the Wedding (1983). They had two children during the 1980s and divorced in the early 1990s.[7] Brooks later married Christina Bone.[19][29]
In 1975, Brooks had a relationship with actressCindy Williams, who was starring at the time in the movieThe First Nudie Musical, written and co-directed by her friend Bruce Kimmel. Brooks became an investor in the film. He originally planned for her to star inYou Light Up My Life,[30] but he and Williams were already having relationship issues and he asked Kimmel to directYou Light Up My Life, saying he couldn't control Williams. He broke up with Williams before the film was made, and the role went to Didi Conn.[31] In 2009, Brooks sued a 22-year-old ex-fiancée, claiming that he had spent $2 million on her before learning she was already married.[32]
Brooks had four children:Amanda (born 1981) and Nicholas (born 1986) (both with Susan Paul),[7] Gabrielle, and Jeffrey.[33] Amanda has said that Brooks abused her as a child and that she and Nicholas had a difficult relationship with him.[7] At the time of Brooks's death, Nicholas, a former student at theUniversity of Colorado, was awaiting trial in New York City for the murder of his girlfriend, swimwear designerSylvie Cachay, in aSoho House hotel room on December 9, 2010.[7] On July 11, 2013, Nicholas was convicted of Cachay's murder.[34] He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in September.[35]
On May 22, 2011, Brooks was found dead in his apartment on theUpper East Side of Manhattan, with a plastic bag over his head near a hose attached to ahelium tank. A suicide note was nearby.[36] According to a law enforcement source, Brooks wrote in the note that he would be exonerated of the charges against him, but complained about his failing health and a woman he claimed had abused him and taken his money.[32]
Shortly before Brooks's death, a former friend sued to seize his condominium to pay off a $3.2 million debt, alleging that Brooks had put up his longtime home as collateral for a $2.4 million loan in 2006.[32]
On May 23, 2011, amedical examiner ruled that Brooks had killed himself, citing asphyxia by helium.[37]
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