When Beth Brickell was growing up in Camden, she had big dreams and loved creative pursuits ranging from collecting stamps and actors' photographs to building clubhouses with her father.

And while it was clear from a young age that she'd be a lifelong learner and creative, she never could have predicted all the avenues and adventures her humanities studies would unlock for her — namely achievements spanning acting, screenwriting, directing, writing and even investigative reporting.

But that's exactly what her studies did for Brickell, who is now president of Luminous Films Inc. and the writer-producer and director of a trilogy of award-winning television movies.

As an actress, Brickell has starred in three motion pictures and three TV movies, as well as the CBS series Gentle Ben, along with guest starring in more than 100 episodic TV shows, even receiving Emmy consideration for her roles on Bonanza and Hawaii 5-0.

As if that weren't an impressive enough list of accomplishments, Brickell also worked as a reporter, and her investigative series about the disappearance of Maud Crawford in her childhood hometown was published over a five-month period in 1986 on the front page of the Arkansas Gazette.

Brickell followed that up by then penning four non-fiction books concerning the case.

But back in 1955, while this future path had yet to unfold, for Brickell, deciding to attend college in her beloved home state was an easy choice.

"My heart is very much in Arkansas," she said. "What's so wonderful about Arkansas is that it's so down to earth, [and] that has served me very well in life."

She came to the U of A that year after transferring from the University of Central Arkansas.

"I transferred my sophomore year, and I pledged Pi Phi," she said. "I was very excited to be in Fayetteville at the big university."

"I had a real life-changing experience at the beginning of my sophomore year," she added. "I was on campus near the Kappa Sig house, and there was a group of guys standing outside, and they were all so upset. This was late September 1955. They were saying, 'Oh no, not James Dean.'"

"They carried on about James Dean, who I had never heard of [then] but had been killed in a car accident. I asked them, 'Who is James Dean?' and this guy said, 'What!? You don't know who James Dean is? You have to go downtown immediately to see East of Eden."

Brickell did exactly that and was moved by Dean's raw acting ability.

"He was so real — I had never seen a performance that impacted me emotionally the way his did," she said. "I thought to myself, I want to be able to do what he did."

Brickell majored in history and political science, giving her a solid educational foundation in the humanities, and concurrently continued to dream of becoming an actress, though at the time she wasn't sure what her next steps should be.

After receiving her B.A., she decided to apply for graduate school in Europe. But before leaving, though, she was inspired to write a letter to her acting idol, Grace Kelly.

"I wrote [Kelly] a letter, and I told her I was trying to make a decision about my life, and that I thought she was the only person in the world who could help me," she said. "I hoped that would make her curious enough to meet with me. Sure enough, I got a letter back from the palace saying, 'Her serene highness, Princess Grace would be happy to receive you in an audience at the palace in Monaco.'"

So, Brickell went to visit the Princess of Monaco and shared how surreal the entire experience was.

"[Kelly's] first words to me were, 'I was very curious to know what you wanted to talk to me about,'" she said. "And I told her that, as a teenager, I had collected movie star photos and that I had a dream to become an actress, but maybe it was unrealistic."

"[She] told me she would never tell anyone not to pursue their dream because of an experience she had in New York," she added. "A young man who had just finished Yale drama school asked her advice about going to Hollywood. She talked to him for a few minutes and learned he had a wife and a young son, and she advised him not to go to Hollywood because Hollywood was brutal. Then she told me that man was Paul Newman."

Brickell laughed as she shared this story about the two famous actors and talked about the final bit of her audience with Kelly.

"I asked her, 'How does one even become an actress?' because I had no idea," she said. "[Kelly] said the best teachers are in New York, [and] you have to study first."

"So, I went to New York next, and I studied acting with the two greatest teachers we've ever had for acting: Sandy Meisner and Lee Strasberg," she continued. "My big goal was to become a member of the Actor's Studio, like James Dean. I became a member, and I passed an audition after studying for several years, and then I went to Hollywood."

While in New York, Brickell acted in television shows, commercials and performed in 25 productions in and out of the city. She then moved to Los Angeles to expand her portfolio and shift her career.

Once in California, she performed primarily in movies, but didn't love that the films she was selected for contained a lot of violence and plots that conflicted with her beliefs.

Brickell was then inspired to create and direct her own stories. This led to her acceptance into the M.F.A. in film directing program at the American Film Institute (AFI), which she said was extremely difficult to get into, particularly as a woman.

"There were only two girls in the class and about 20 young men," she said. "We had a professor who came into the room every morning and greeted us with a 'Good morning, gentlemen' … At that time, Hollywood wasn't hiring any women directors, but I wanted to be a director."

At the AFI, Brickell went on to then be one of six students selected to write and produce a film with grant funding, A Rainy Day, which was filmed in Los Angeles.

Then, AFI and Arkansas PBS affiliate AETN gave Brickell the funding to write, produce and direct Summer's End, which was filmed in Clarendon.

Inspired by some of her own experiences, the coming-of-age short focused on 10-year-old Kathy, who preferred pigtails to curls, and runs away for the day to avoid a hair appointment.

It won 16 TV and film festival awards. Brickell then went on to direct Mr. Christmas, which was filmed in Eureka Springs and backed by private investors Jo Ellen Ford, Hayden McIlroy and John Bell.

"I had so much fun coming back to Arkansas and making those movies, and I got so much support," she said. "I was very grateful."

"When I did Mr. Christmas, I was looking for the right location and the right time," she added. "Someone invited me to Eureka Springs right before Christmas, and it was perfect. The business owners had all kinds of decorations for the Christmas holiday season. I asked them if they would leave them up because we were filming until late February and March, and they did."

After Brickell's directing success, she was signed to the Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles but continued to draw inspiration from her Arkansas roots.

"My agent asked me, 'What do you want to do next?' and I told him what little bit I knew about an unsolved mystery in Camden, my hometown," she said. "He said 'write a screenplay about it.'"

So, Brickell went home and started asking questions about the 1957 Maud Crawford disappearance.

"I learned within the first week that the [case] had never been properly investigated, and that people were actually frightened to talk about it," she said. "This was 29 years after it had happened. Maud Crawford was a very prominent community leader and the only female lawyer in Camden. She was way ahead of her time, and she was especially interested in helping girls."

Brickell launched a 16-month investigation into Crawford's murder.

"I started writing articles that the Arkansas Gazette published on its front page over a five-month period about the case and my findings while I was still investigating," she said.

"Those articles caused such a sensation … so I published them as a book, The Disappearance of Maud Crawford."

After writing a total of four books about Crawford and her disappearance case, Brickell found herself drawn back to Arkansas yet again, this time inspired to engage with state politics. Brickell had previously been involved in politics in California but felt inspired by what was going on in the state she considered to be home.

"I was involved in about five different federal campaigns that had to do with the presidency," she said. "I had come back to Arkansas to get married, [and] after I left that marriage, Bill Clinton was running for president."

"So, I went to work for the Clinton campaign," she added. "The same year, I was asked to be Blanche Lincoln's campaign manager. That was her first campaign when she ran for the house, and she won with 62% of the vote and then went on to have a senate career."

Brickell's life has taken many different directions, but her passion for learning, sense of adventure and dedication to her home state have always been driving forces in her career.

She continues to create today, currently working to adapt her books about Crawford's murder into a screenplay.

"I think that's what's exciting about life is to continue to learn. That's what's exciting to me," she said, adding that her time at the U of A helped change the course of her life and helped set her on a path of lifelong learning and exploration.

"I hope my story will inspire others to follow their dreams and know that it can all start right here, at the University of Arkansas," she said.

More information about Brickell, her movies and books are available at luminousfilms.net.

---

Story by Isabella Sotlar, Fulbright College comunications and creative services intern.

---