Conrad Brooks

Conrad Brooks was born as Conrad Biedrzycki on January 3, 1931 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the son of Polish immigrants, with a baker father, and had seven brothers and sisters. At seventeen, along with his brothers Henry and Ted, he went to Hollywood, California. Brooks first encountered legendary Grade-Z filmmaker Ed Wood in a donut shop. Conrad first collaborated with Wood on the fifteen minute short movie "Range Revenge." Brooks had three roles in Wood's "Glen or Glenda." He achieved his greatest enduring cult popularity as Patrolman Jamie in "Plan 9 from Outer Space." Conrad briefly popped up in the uproariously awful cheapie clunker "The Beast of Yucca Flats." Brooks took a hiatus from acting in the 1960s and 1970s. He came back with a vengeance in the 1980s and went on to work profusely in a slew of enjoyably tacky low-budget independent fright features. Conrad acted in three amusingly crude comedies for director Mark Pirro: "A Polish Vampire in Burbank," "Deathrow Gameshow," and "Curse of the Queerwolf." Brooks has a small role as a bartender in Tim Burton's wonderful "Ed Wood." Conrad gave a really funny and engaging performance as flaky, good-natured projectionist Oscar in Fred Olen Ray's delightful "Bikini Drive-In." Brooks appeared in a bunch of pictures for director Donald G. Jackson; he's especially memorable as the amiable Swamp Farmer in "Rollergator," "Toad Warrior," and "Max Hell Comes to Frogtown." Conrad also wrote, produced, and directed a few films that include "Gypsy Vampire" and all three "Jan-Gel" movies. Brooks was interviewed in a handful of documentaries about Ed Wood. Moreover, Conrad was also a regular guest at horror movie conventions held all over the country and lived in northeast West Virginia. Brooks died at age 86 on December 6, 2017.