Elisabeth Brooks; Portrayed Villain in Film ‘The Howling’

Elisabeth Brooks, actress in several television roles but best remembered for her role as the villainess Marsha in the 1981 motion picture “The Howling,” has died. She was 46.

Brooks died of cancer Sept. 7 at the Haven, a hospice near her Palm Springs home.

The actress was a regular on the daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” and appeared in such popular series as “The Rockford Files,” “Hart to Hart,” “Starsky and Hutch” and “The Six-Million Dollar Man.”

Brooks was also known for her work with children, coaching them to act in plays that taught them about the environment and how they could work with parents to improve their community. One example was her play “Orphan Dreams,” which she wrote and directed first at Calabasas High School and again at Chamber Theatre in Studio City.

“I’m extremely influenced by Native American beliefs,” she told The Times in 1992. “There was a conscious understanding about respecting the Earth, giving back what was taken out. We need to learn this lesson, sooner, not later.”

Brooks is survived by her son, Jeremy.