Jean Kent

Jean Kent

  • Birthday: 1921-06-29
  • Deathday: 2013-11-30
  • Place of birth: Brixton, London, England, UK
  • Also know as: Joan Mildred Summerfield

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jean Kent (29 June 1921 - 30 November 2013) was a British film actress. She signed to Gainsborough Pictures during the Second World War. Kent's first good role in Two Thousand Women (1944), playing a stripper who is interned by the Germans. She was a Pacific Islander in Bees in Paradise (1944) with Arthur Askey and was the ingenue in a Tommy Trinder musical Champagne Charlie (1944). The turning point in her career came when she was given a dramatic part in the Gainsborough melodrama film Fanny by Gaslight (1944). The movie established Kent as Gainsborough's backup to Margaret Lockwood. Kent played another sexually aggressive girl in Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) with Calvert and Granger. It was a big hit. Rank borrowed her to support Rex Harrison in The Rake's Progress (1945). Kent continued to have success in films. Her favorite film was musical Trottie True (1949) where she played the lead. Kent's film appearances grew less frequent from the mid 1950s onward. She had support roles in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) and Bonjour Tristesse (1958) and a good part in 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. Kent was married to Austrian actor Josef Ramart from 1946 until his death in 1989, aged 70. They met on the set of Caravan. Actor Stewart Granger was the best man at their wedding. They appeared together in the films Caravan and Trottie True. Kent made her last public appearance in June 2011, when she was honoured by the British Film Institute on her 90th birthday. Kent died in the West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St. Edmunds on 30 November 2013, following a fall at her home in Westhorpe. The coroner recorded a narrative verdict that Kent died from accidental injuries and that cardiac disease may have contributed to a fall. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jean Kent, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography

Bonjour Tristesse

1958

As Mrs. Helen Lombard

The Prince and the Showgirl

1957

As Maisie Springfield

The Woman in Question

1950

As Agnes / Madame Astra / Parrot (voice)

Champagne Charlie

1944

As Dolly Bellwood

Waterloo Road

1945

As Toni

The Big Frame

1952

As Louise Parker

The Browning Version

1951

As Millie Crocker-Harris

Please Turn Over

1959

As Janet Halliday

Before I Wake

1955

As Florence Haddon

Good-Time Girl

1948

As Gwen Rawlings

Grip of the Strangler

1958

As Cora Seth

Web of Evidence

1959

As Louise Burt

Fanny by Gaslight

1944

As Lucy Beckett

The Rake's Progress

1945

As Jill Duncan

The Magic Bow

1946

As Bianchi

Bluebeard's 10 Honeymoons

1960

As Julienne

Bond Street

1948

As Ricki Merritt

Carnival

1946

As Irene Dale

The Loves of Joanna Godden

1947

As Ellen Godden

Shout at the Devil

1976

As Mrs. Smythe

Trottie True

1949

As Trottie True

Caravan

1946

As Rosal

The Reluctant Widow

1950

As Elinor Cheviot

The Wicked Lady

1945

As Jackson's Doxy

Warn That Man

1943

As Frances Lane

It's That Man Again

1943

As Kitty

The Man Within

1947

As Lucy

Two Thousand Women

1944

As Bridie Johnson

Her Favourite Husband

1950

As Dorothy Pellegrini

Bees in Paradise

1944

As Jani

The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind

1988

As Self (archive footage)

Miss London Ltd.

1943

As The Encyclopedia Girl

Soldier, Sailor

1944

As Cigarette Girl

K is for Killing

1974

As Mrs. Garrick

Missing Persons

1990

As Phillida Meadowhite

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