Brooke Shields, 60, Bares Her Comedy Chops in a New Series

It was the lick that launched a million laughs — 52.9 million, to be exact — and a sitcom career for Brooke Shields.

Thirty years ago, the Endless Love star had hit a post-university career lull when she guest-starred on the most-watched episode of Friends. Playing a delightfully unhinged stalker of Matt LeBlanc’s Joey, she reached across a table, took his hand — and ran her tongue all over it with gleeful abandon.

MEMBERS ONLY

“Believe me, I would’ve done it a couple of decades before,” says Shields of her bold comedic turn. “But that wasn’t what people wanted of me,” she adds, speaking over Zoom from her home in New York City. “They wanted me to be this, I don’t know, sex symbol ... and that was fine.”

Because while teen Brooke drew headlines for those sultry Calvin Klein jeans ads, she was also earning serious slapstick cred under the tutelage of the legendary Bob Hope, yukking it up and entertaining the troops across 27 of his USO shows. “Doing sketch comedy,” says Shields, a self-described dork, “I was always happiest.”

“It‘s a funny mystery series,” says actor, author and entrepreneur Brooke Shields about her new show. Her experience in comedy includes working with the legendary Bob Hope.

John Nacion/Getty Images

At 60, she’s back at it, headlining a TV show for laughs for the first time since Suddenly Susan, for which Shields earned two Golden Globe nominations. In the limited series You’re Killing Me (premiering May 18 on Acorn TV), she plays an “aging out” mystery novelist who teams up with a much younger true-crime podcaster (Amalia Williamson) to solve a murder.

In the spirit of Only Murders in the Building, “it’s a funny mystery series,” Shields points out — and one that puts her squarely at the center of the generational ribbing. “And there’s a lot of physical comedy in it for me.”

As she chats, Shields moves around her kitchen, circling bottles of olive oil, jars of wooden spoons and her puppy, Clooney. She’s wearing a perfect pair of … not Calvin’s but Levi’s.

In 1996, Shields guest-starred on the most-watched episode of “Friends,” playing a delightfully unhinged stalker of Matt LeBlanc's Joey and launching her sitcom career.

NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection

“I’ve gone back to the OGs,” she says with a smile. “Can’t do any of these new, fancy ones. I have only vintage Levi’s. I’m not the same size as I was at 17, but ... that’s not the goal.”

Trust me; she’s still in long-legged, Blue Lagoon form. See for yourself in the Pilates-toned bikini pics she shared on Instagram celebrating her 60th birthday.

As it happens, her latest book, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, is about women flipping the script on what it means to grow older. Menopause has long been such a taboo topic, she says: “Doctors weren’t even educated about it. They never learned about it.”

Shields starred in her first comedy series, “Suddenly Susan,” from 1996 to 2000. In it, she played a magazine writer adjusting to single life, along with castmates Barbara Barrie (left) and Kathy Griffin.

Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

Since her book’s release last year, “People say to me, ‘Oh my God, thank you for having these discussions.’ It’s in the zeitgeist now.”

Also on Shields’ plate this past year: Commence, her hair care line designed for older women, which launched in 2024.

Get her talking about it and she’ll happily dive into hyaluronic acid and the “skin-ification” of the scalp, sounding every bit the passionate scientist. In fact, if you spot her at the mall, she’ll be eager to chat with you about those shrinking pores on your head.