Discover Louise Brooks’ Allure: 10 Captivating Photos of the Silent Film Star

Louise Brooks was the Platonic ideal of a silent film star. Gorgeous, funny, stylish, and deeply expressive without uttering a single word, Brooks was a ’20s icon who defined the sleek, empowered flapper style of the era.

Watching Brooks’ films, such as Pandora’s Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), it’s hard to believe she was acting nearly 100 years ago, given how modern and vibrant she seems.

Brooks has been a huge influence on fashion and beauty ever since she first hit the scene. If you’ve ever considered getting your hair cut into a flirty bob, you have her to thank. Brooks played a major part in popularizing the hairstyle, and her legacy of chic style and seductive yet complex roles made her one of the silent era’s all-time greats.

Sadly, like many movie stars, Brooks eventually fell on hard times. She retired in 1938 and struggled with financial woes, alcoholism, and mental illness. In later decades, she experienced something of a comeback when she began writing about her career and had sharp insights about her time in the film industry. She published an acclaimed memoir, Lulu in Hollywood, in 1982, and died of a heart attack at age 78 in 1985.

Here’s a look back at Louise Brooks‘ singular star power in 10 stunning black-and-white photographs.

It doesn’t get cuter than this shot of Brooks smiling impishly while holding stuffed dogs.

Is it just us, or does Brooks look straight out of a ’70s disco here? She was truly ahead of her time in every way.

Brooks started out as a teenage dancer and showgirl. She learned a lot from being a dancer, saying, “I learned to act while watching Martha Graham dance, and I learned to move in film from watching Chaplin.”

Androgynous looks are all the rage now, but Brooks was rocking short hair and a suit way back in 1925. Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn would bring menswear for women into the mainstream in the ’30s and ’40s, but Brooks wore it even before they did, and the photo above feels like it could’ve been taken just yesterday.

Brooks flashed a mischievous grin in this 1926 headshot. The star was known for her sass. In an interview, she said, “I was always late, but just too damn stunning for them to fire me.”

Brooks embodied young and modern flapper style with a knee-length, kicky dress, a cloche, and of course, her signature bob and perfectly painted makeup.

This photo of Brooks smiling while holding a koala is one of the most precious things we’ve ever laid eyes on.

Brooks had no formal training as an actress. As she described it, “When I acted, I hadn’t the slightest idea of what I was doing. I was simply playing myself which is the hardest thing in the world to do — if you know that it’s hard. I didn’t, so it seemed easy. I had nothing to unlearn.”

This starkly glamorous image of Brooks posing with a long string of pearls while fading into a black background is one of the most frequently referenced of the silent film era.

In this shot from the 1929 crime film The Canary Murder Case, Brooks wore an eye-catching art deco costume while playing a scheming showgirl. The actress gravitated toward assertive roles, saying, “I don’t want to play a part where I race around a funny man all the time. And I won’t.”