Teri Shields raised eyebrows when she let her 11-year-old daughter, Brooke, be cast as a prostitute in 1978’s “Pretty Baby.”
A few years later, she let a teenage Brooke Shields do the provocative Calvin Klein jeans commercials in which the star famously said, “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.”
Teri Shields died last week in Manhattan, according to Jill Fritzo, a spokeswoman for Brooke Shields. She was 79.
The elder Shields died following a long illness related to dementia.
She started promoting her daughter as an actress and model when Brooke was still an infant, and managed her until the young woman was in her 20s.
Shields described her daughter’s fan appeal in a 1978 interview: “They see total innocence, which is totally there. And two, they have the sexy child, too, they have the sexy person — that appeals to them.”
Brooke Shields parted ways professionally with her in 1995, describing it as “the hardest thing.” She told Rolling Stone the following year that “something didn’t feel right.”
“I had hopes and dreams, and I wasn’t doing anything to go toward them,” Brooke said. “The focus was on creating a persona rather than a talent.”
Teri Shields said in 1996 that she was proud of her daughter for taking control of her life and career.
She is also survived by a sister and two granddaughters.