[Deathwatch] Rand Brooks, actor, 84

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

'Gone with the Wind' Actor Brooks Dies in Calif.
Thu Sep 4, 3:22 PM ET
	
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rand Brooks, the actor who played Scarlett
O'Hara's ill-fated first husband in "Gone with the Wind" and who gave
Marilyn Monroe (news) her first screen kiss, has died at the age of 84,
friends and family said on Thursday.

Brooks also appeared as a sidekick in a string of Hopalong Cassidy
westerns and played Cpl. Randy Boone in the 1950s TV series "The
Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" before quitting acting in the 1960s to start
up an ambulance business in suburban Los Angeles.

Brooks was one of the few surviving actors with major parts in the 1939
screen classic "Gone with the Wind." But in recent years he revealed
his distaste for his role as Charles Hamilton, the Confederate Army
officer who marries Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara on the rebound but
dies of measles before ever going into battle.

"It didn't help my career. It hurt it at the time," Brooks told
journalists in 50th anniversary interviews of the "Gone with the Wind"
premiere. "It was such an asinine role. He was so in love it was
sickening. I got typecast that way."

Brooks said he hated his part so much that he voted for "Of Mice and
Men" for best film in the Academy Awards race that year.

Brooks went on to become a successful leading man, giving Monroe her
first screen kiss in the 1948 movie "Ladies in the Chorus" -- her first
feature film.

Brooks gave up his acting career and in 1966 founded a private
paramedic firm that contracted with the city of Los Angeles for
emergency services. He sold the company in 1995 and went to live with
his second wife, Hermine, on a ranch near Santa Barbara, raising
championship horses.

"I love acting, but I hated being an actor. There are demands the
public makes on you, and I'm more of a private person," Brooks told
journalists in 1989.

Brooks died of cancer on Monday at his home. He is survived by his
wife, two children and five grandchildren.