[8] After leaving school, Brooks was given a screen test at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and received a bit part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938).

[9] His big break came when he was cast as Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939), a part which he later admitted he despised; he wanted to play more masculine roles.

[13] Brooks served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, eventually reaching the rank of sergeant.

[19] In 1948, he co-starred with Adele Jergens and Marilyn Monroe in the low-budget, black-and-white Columbia Pictures film, Ladies of the Chorus.

[4][23] Brooks had guest roles in 1950s Western series, including Mackenzie's Raiders,[14] The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Gunsmoke, and Bonanza.

[25] In 1962, he directed and produced a movie about brave dogs, Bearheart, but the film was entangled in legal troubles due to his business manager's involvement in crimes such as forgery and graft.

[27] Brooks sold the ambulance company in 1994, and retired to his ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, where he bred champion Andalusian horses.

[4] He attended a Gone with the Wind reunion for Clark Gable's birthday, along with Ann Rutherford and Fred Crane, in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1992.