Jean Kent

Kent was born Joan Mildred Field (sometimes incorrectly cited as Summerfield) in Brixton, London in 1921,John Walker, Halliwell's Who's Who of the Movies, London: HarperCollins, 1999, pg. 229; {{ISBN|0-00-255905-6}} the only child of variety performers Norman Carpenter Summerfield, who used the name "Norman Field", and Mildred Lilian, née Noaks, known as "Nina Norre".{{Cite ODNB| url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-108308 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/108308 | chapter=Kent, Jean [real name Joan Mildred Field] (1921–2013), actress | title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | year=2017 | last1=McFarlane | first1=Brian }} She started her theatrical career at age 10 in 1931 as a dancer.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152014789 |title=Jean Kent |newspaper=North-eastern Advertiser |volume=XXXVIII |issue=5 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=21 January 1947 |access-date=29 August 2017 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} She used the stage name Jean Carr when she appeared as a chorus girl in the Windmill Theatre in London from which she was fired by Vivian Van Damm.

Kent signed to Gainsborough Pictures during the Second World War. She had small roles in It's That Man Again (1943), Miss London Ltd. (1943) and Warn That Man (1944). Kent appeared in Two Thousand Women (1944), playing a stripper who is interned by the Germans. She portrayed a Pacific Islander in Bees in Paradise (1944) with Arthur Askey and the ingenue in a Tommy Trinder musical Champagne Charlie (1944).{{Cite web|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/film/k4g9g/bees-in-paradise/|title=Bees in Paradise – review | cast and crew, movie star rating and where to watch film on TV and online|website=Radio Times}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.derekwinnert.com/champagne-charlie-1944-tommy-trinder-stanley-holloway-betty-warren-austin-trevor-jean-kent-guy-middleton-frederick-piper-harry-fowler/|title=Champagne Charlie **** (1944, Tommy Trinder, Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Austin Trevor, Jean Kent, Guy Middleton, Frederick Piper, Harry Fowler) – Classic Movie Review 7080|date=22 May 2018}}

The turning point in her career came when she was given a dramatic part in the Gainsborough melodrama film Fanny by Gaslight (1944).{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jean-kent-actress-8976077.html|title=Jean Kent: Actress|date=1 December 2013|website=The Independent}}{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-ted-black/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=1 December 2024|access-date=1 December 2024|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Ted Black}} She played a part turned down by Margaret Lockwood, that of the childhood friend of the character played by Phyllis Calvert, who becomes the mistress of James Mason's character.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVtVA4EajSgC&q=jean+kent+played+part+turned+down+by+margaret+lockwood+fanny+by+gaslight&pg=PA13|title=James Mason: A Bio-bibliography|first=Kevin|last=Sweeney|date=17 March 1999|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313284960|via=Google Books}} The movie, also starring Stewart Granger, was a box-office success in Britain and established Kent as Gainsborough's back up to Margaret Lockwood.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23092161 |title=With a different hair style for every film, Jean Kent remains the most provocative woman on the screen. MOST POPULAR BRITISH STAR A WICKED LADY |newspaper=The Argus |issue=32,[?] |location=Melbourne|date=16 November 1951 |access-date=29 August 2017 |page=5 (The Argus Magazine) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231720135 |title=BRITAIN |newspaper=The Sun |issue=2191 |location=Sydney |date=8 April 1945 |access-date=29 August 2017 |page=3 (Supplement to The SUNDAY SUN) |via=National Library of Australia}}

Kent played another sexually aggressive young woman in Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), another financial success, with Calvert and Granger.{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440603/credits.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944) Credits|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}} Rank borrowed her to support Rex Harrison in The Rake's Progress (1945) then back at Gainsborough she was in Waterloo Road (1945) with John Mills and Granger.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f4a7a3c|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510223452/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f4a7a3c|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 May 2016|title=Jean Kent|website=BFI}}

Kent shared top billing with Granger in Caravan (1946), playing a gypsy girl in another melodrama.{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440361/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Caravan (1946)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}} It was a financial success and Kent was given a new contract.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article182797279 |title=Jean Kent Star of "Caravan" |newspaper=Glen Innes Examiner |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=25 February 1948 |access-date=29 August 2017 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} Granger and Kent were reunited in The Magic Bow (1946), with Kent again taking a part originally meant for Margaret Lockwood.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1SqXAAAAQBAJ&q=jean+kent+played+part+turned+down+by+margaret+lockwood+the+magic+bow&pg=PA153|title=Casting Might-Have-Beens: A Film by Film Directory of Actors Considered for Roles Given to Others|first=Eila|last=Mell|date=24 January 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476609768|via=Google Books}}

"There was a pecking order at Gainsborough," said Kent later. "First Margaret, then Pat, then Phyllis, then me. I was the odds-and-sods girl. I used to mop up the parts that other people didn't want."{{cite book|first=Matthew|last=Sweet|title= Shepperton Babylon : the lost worlds of British cinema|year=2005 |publisher=Faber and Faber |pages=202–203}}

After a support role in Carnival (1946) with Michael Wilding, Kent was the female lead in The Man Within (1947), a costume adventure from a novel by Graham Greene. Kent had a good part in The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947) and was given a star role in Good-Time Girl (1948), a melodrama about a girl who goes off the rails.{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/440457/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Good-Time Girl (1948)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}} Kent was top billed as one of several names in Bond Street (1948) and was the female lead in a thriller Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948), playing a spy.

Kent had her best chance yet playing the lead in a musical Trottie True (1949) which became her favourite film. She made a comedy in Italy, Her Favourite Husband (1950) and appeared opposite Dirk Bogarde in The Woman in Question (1950).{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55188169 |title=Jean Kent plays five women in newest film |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=18 |issue=5 |date=8 July 1950 |access-date=29 August 2017 |page=48 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1950, Kent was voted the 9th biggest British star in Britain."Success of British Films." The Times London, England 29 December 1950: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012. The following year she was 8th.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63397098 |title=Vivien Leigh Actress of the Year. |newspaper=Townsville Daily Bulletin |location=Qld. |date=29 December 1951 |access-date=24 April 2012 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} Kent starred in the melodrama The Reluctant Widow (1951) then had a good role as the unfaithful wife in The Browning Version (1951).

Kent was in a thriller The Lost Hours (1952) with American actor Mark Stevens and Before I Wake (1955). She appeared in Arthur Watkyn's historical play The Moonraker in 1952 and in 1953 was in a play Uncertain Joy.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41079663 |title=Sara Quads' day with a movie star |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=21 |issue=16 |date=16 September 1953 |access-date=29 August 2017 |page=29 |via=National Library of Australia}} That year she appeared on a TV play with Michael Craig who said she "was on the wane after a successful career as a film star. She didn't like slumming it in television at all and was very grand and one scary lady."{{cite book|first=Michael|last=Craig|pages=59–60|title=The Smallest Giant: An Actor's Life|publisher=Allen and Unwin|year=2005}}

In 1954, Kent fell ill while touring in a stage production of The Deep Blue Sea in South Africa.{{cite news|title=Jean kent 'seriously ill'|date=16 May 1954|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|112880919}}}}

Kent's film appearances grew less frequent from the mid-1950s onward. She had supporting roles in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), and the horror film The Haunted Strangler (1959). She was in the comedy Please Turn Over (1959) and the thriller Beyond This Place (1959). She was one of several female stars in Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960) with George Sanders.

She played Queen Elizabeth I in the historical TV adventure series Sir Francis Drake filmed in 1961–62.{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/509425/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Sir Francis Drake (1961–62)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}

In 1981, she played Jennifer Lamont in the soap opera Crossroads.{{Cite web|url=https://www.atvtoday.co.uk/48400-jean-kent/|title=Actress Jean Kent dies aged 92|date=30 November 2013}}

Kent was married to Austrian actor Josef Ramart from 1946 until his death in 1989, aged 70.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/jean-kent-1921-2013|title=Jean Kent (1921-2013)|website=British Film Institute|date=3 December 2013 }} They met on the set of Caravan, in which he also appeared.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59351468|title=FILM CABLE FROM LONDON|newspaper=The Sunday Times (Western Australia)|location=Perth|date=17 March 1946|access-date=2 February 2014|page=13 Supplement: The Sunday Times MAGAZINE|via=National Library of Australia}} Actor Stewart Granger, a co-star from this film, was the best man at their wedding. Kent and Ramart also both had roles in the film Trottie True.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1974 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Strand Theatre.{{Cite web|title=This is Your Life (1955-2003) screenshot {{!}} Jean Kent, Moira Lister|url=https://www.silversirens.co.uk/pictures/this-is-your-life-stewart-granger-lockwood-kent/|access-date=2022-01-30|website=Silver Sirens|language=en-GB}} Kent made her last public appearance in June 2011, when she was honoured by the British Film Institute on her 90th birthday. She was a guest at a screening of Caravan at the BFI Southbank.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-13943052|title=Actress honoured on 90th birthday|work=BBC News|date=28 June 2011}}

Kent died in the West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St. Edmunds on 30 November 2013, following a fall at her home in{{cite web|title=Film star Jean Kent dies at 92|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/film-star-jean-kent-dies-at-92.1385806478|work=Herald|date=30 November 2013 |publisher=Herald & Times Group|access-date=30 November 2013}} Westhorpe.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-25166787 |title=Jean Kent: Suffolk Gainsborough melodramas actress dies|work=BBC News|date=30 November 2013|access-date=30 November 2013}} The coroner recorded a narrative verdict that Kent died from accidental injuries and that cardiac disease may have contributed to the fall.

For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted her among the top ten British stars at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald.

• 1950 – 9th
• 1951 – 8th

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-13943052 BBC: Jean Kent at 90]
• {{IMDb name|0448765}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060826220156/http://britishpictures.com/stars/Kent.htm British Pictures Stars]
• [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=439 Photographs of Jean Kent]

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Category:1921 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:English television actresses

Category:English film actresses

Category:Actors from the London Borough of Lambeth

Category:Actresses from London

Category:Accidental deaths from falls

Category:People from Westhorpe, Suffolk

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:Actresses from Suffolk

Category:People from Brixton

Category:Actors from Mid Suffolk District