This friendly individual was born in San Diego on September 20, 1954, under the name Charlene Elizabeth Brinkman. Of course, the lure of the entertainment business always fascinated her, which explains her participation in many school plays and her role as editor of the official college paper. Oddly, it’s in marine biology that Brinke obtained her diploma from San Diego State University. Soon after, she worked as a scientist in a nuclear facility! Talk about a change of career!
After some modeling, she began a big screen career in becoming a body double, replacing shy actresses who refused to do any nude scenes. This resulted in small roles in many no-budget productions, all this around the start of the eighties. These roles were invariably those of a girl screaming in the shower, a dancer in rock videos or a victim of some crazed serial killer.
Brinke was briefly wed to artist Dave Stevens, famous for his creation The Rocketeer, which was adapted for the screen in 1991. Of course, Brinke posed for him many times. She began to enjoy more substantial roles in B-movies with eccentric titles like The Slumber Party Massacre, Body Double, Attack of the B-Movie Monster, Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, Nightmare Sisters and my favorite Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama.
Brinke has knowledge of seven different languages; in fact, she’s considered a big brain. She even wrote some screenplays (like Teenage Exorcist in 1991), some short stories for horror anthologies and is interested in production. For Femme Fatales magazine, she penned some biographical articles on some fellow Sirens. And she used to be in an all-female rock band, The Skirts. To top it all, a comic book was created for her, entitled Brinke of Destruction, where she’s the principal character. Lastly, she hosted a compilation of videocassettes having as subject the whole industry of horror cinema. Busy girl!
If we come back to Femme Fatales magazine (and no, they still don’t put a final “S” to Femme, which is the correct French grammar), Brinke had the honor of gracing the first ever cover of this popular publication, an image that I consider a real classic. I personally own a t-shirt reproducing this photograph and I used to be quite the sensation at sci-fi conventions… is my life pathetic or not? Getting back on track, Brinke remains an artist close to her fans. She has her own website, like many other Sirens, where they inform fans of their next projects and whereabouts.
We can’t say that she looks her age, as she’s now 52 (!). I can’t admit to having seen many of her movies, as they are more often than not difficult to get hold of (let’s mention some recommendations: Mommy, Eyes Are Upon You, Roots of Evil and why not Vampirates with makeup wiz Tom Savini?). I admire her more for her personality than her movie work, as she remains an important figure in all this Scream Queens mythology, and is considered a friendly person, with a nice writing style, to boot. No doubt that if she ever played some major role in a big production, she could get away with it easily.
Worth mentioning: Brinke remains one of the rare (if not the only?) modern Scream Queen to display a small chest, having probably refused to put silicone in strategic places! For this kind of courage before her competition, she has my eternal admiration.
Filmography
1972 Necromancy 1981 …All the Marbles 1982 Slumber Party Massacre; Sole Survivor; Let’s Do It! 1983 The Man Who Wasn’t There; Private School 1984 Emanuelle 4; Red Hot Rock; Savage Streets; The Forgotten Ones; Body Double; This Is Spinal Tap; Surf II; Fatal Games 1985 Los Angeles Streetfighter 1986 Three Amigos! 1987 Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity; Nightmare Sisters 1988 The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!; Warlords; Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama; The Jigsaw Murders 1989 Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge; Grandma’s House 1990 Spirits; Transylvania Twist; Murder Weapon; Mob Boss; Haunting Fear; Chinatown Connection; Dark Romances (volumes I & II) 1991 Teenage Exorcist; Shadows in the City; Bad Girls from Mars 1992 Munchie; Roots of Evil 1995 Invisible Mom; Mommy; Over the Wire; Jack-O; Droid Gunner 1996 Repligator; Masseuse; Illicit Dreams 2 1997 Mommy II: Mommy’s Day; Hybrid; Eyes Are Upon You 1998 Some Nudity Required; Mom, Can I Keep Her?; Victoria’s Shadow 1999 The Kid with X-ray Eyes 2000 Submerged; Julia Wept; To Dance With Death; Sideshow 2001 The Vampire Hunters Club; Hell Night; HorrorVision; Web of Darkness; The Frightening; Witchouse 3: Demon Fire; Vampirates; American Nightmare; Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market 2002 Mark of the Astro-Zombies; Attack of the B-Movie Monster; We’re Coming to Help; Hell Asylum; Bleed; Zombiegeddon; Death Island; Dr. Horror’s Erotic House of Idiots; Cheerleader Massacre; Blood Reaper; The Bad Father 2003 Corpses Are Forever; Birth Rite; Deadly Stingers; Dead Clowns; Zobmiegeddon; Delta Delta Die!; 5 Dark Souls, Part III: Retribution; Blood Reaper; Vicious; Expendable 2004 Tele-Zombie; Vampires vs. Zombies; Heads Are Gonna Roll; Spacemen, Go-go Girls and the True Meaning of Christmas; 2005 It Came from Trafalgar; October Moon; Heaven Help Me, I’m in Love; Exterminator City; Slaughter Party; The Naked Monster; Dead Things; Demon Sex 2006 Evil Ever After; Revenge Live; Skeleton Key; Demon Familiar; Demon Treasure 2007 November Son; The Two Sisters; Crazy Animal; Silent Vengeance; Terror Toons 2; Sigma Die! 2008 Psychosomatika; Her Morbid Desires; Blood Scarab; Bryan Loves You 2009 The Ritual; It Came from Trafalgar; Blood Siblings; The Ritual; Demon Divas and the Lanes of Damnation; Caesar and Otto’s Summer Camp Massacre; George’s Intervention 2010 Psychosomatika; Post-Mortem; Diary of Death 2011 The Summer of Massacre; Shy of Normal: Tales of New Life Experiences; Bloodstruck; Bleed 4 Me 2012 1313: Cougar Cult; No Strings 2: Playtime in Hell; Caesar and Otto’s Deadly Christmas; Jonah Lives 2013 Axeman at Cutter’s Creek; The Trouble with Barry
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