Brooke Adams was born on February 8, 1949 in New York City, to Rosalind (Gould), an actress, and Robert Kaufmann Adams, a former CBS vice president, as well as actor and producer. She was educated at the prestigious High School for the Performing Arts and the School of the American Ballet.
Starting her career on the stage, her film career took off with a break through role opposite Richard Gere and Sam Shepard in Terrence Malick's In der Glut des Südens (1978). She also starred in Philip Kaufman's Die Körperfresser kommen (1978), and repeated her off-Broadway role in the film version of Kevin Wade's romantic comedy Key Exchange (1985). Other film credits include Verlorene Herzen (1992), Dead Zone: Der Attentäter (1983) opposite Christopher Walken, Explosion in Cuba (1979) with Sean Connery, and Tell Me a Riddle (1980). She produced and starred in Made-Up (2002), written by her sister Lynne Adams.
Her stage credits include The Heidi Chronicles on Broadway, Key Exchange at the Orpheum, Split at The Second Stage, The Old Neighborhood at A.R.T. If Memory Serves at the Pasadena Playhouse, The Philanderer at Yale Rep, The Cherry Orchard at The Atlantic Theatre Co. and Lend Me a tenor on Broadway with her husband Tony Shalhoub directed by Stanley Tucci. She has most recently starred in Samuel Becket's Happy Days with her husband Tony Shalhoub.
On television, she has appeared in Die besten Jahre (1987), Das Model und der Schnüffler (1985), Eine amerikanische Familie (1976), Durch die Hölle Afrikas (1987), Special People (1984), the miniseries Lace (1984) and Lace II (1985), 5 episodes of Monk (2002), BrainDead (2016) on CBS and is writing, producing, directing, and starring in a web-series, All Downhill from Here (2015).
