Jean Kent, born Joan Mildred Field (29 June 1921 − 30 November 2013) was an English film and television actress.
Biography
Kent was born Joan Mildred Field (sometimes incorrectly cited as Summerfield) in Brixton, London in 1921,[2] the only child of variety performers Norman Carpenter Summerfield, who used the name "Norman Field", and Mildred Lilian, née Noaks, known as "Nina Norre".[3] She started her theatrical career at age 10 in 1931 as a dancer.[4] 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.[5]
The turning point in her career came when she was given a dramatic part in the Gainsborough melodrama film Fanny by Gaslight (1944).[6][10] 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.[11] The movie, also starring Stewart Granger, was a box-office success in Britain and established Kent as Gainsborough's back up to Margaret Lockwood.[12][13]
Kent played another sexually aggressive young woman in Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), another financial success, with Calvert and Granger.[14] 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.[7]
Stardom
Kent shared top billing with Granger in Caravan (1946), playing a gypsy girl in another melodrama.[15] It was a financial success and Kent was given a new contract.[16] Granger and Kent were reunited in The Magic Bow (1946), with Kent again taking a part originally meant for Margaret Lockwood.[17]
"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."[18]
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.[22] 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."[23]
In 1954, Kent fell ill while touring in a stage production of The Deep Blue Sea in South Africa.[24]
In 1981, she played Jennifer Lamont in the soap opera Crossroads.[28]
Personal life
Kent was married to Austrian actor Josef Ramart from 1946 until his death in 1989, aged 70.[25] They met on the set of Caravan, in which he also appeared.[26][29] Actor Stewart Granger, a co-star from this film, was the best man at their wedding.[25] Kent and Ramart also both had roles in the film Trottie True.
Kent died in the West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St. Edmunds on 30 November 2013, following a fall at her home in[26]Westhorpe.[32] 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.
^"Jean Kent". North-eastern Advertiser. Vol. XXXVIII, no. 5. Tasmania, Australia. 21 January 1947. p. 3. Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^"BRITAIN". The Sun. No. 2191. Sydney. 8 April 1945. p. 3 (Supplement to The SUNDAY SUN). Retrieved 29 August 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^"FILM CABLE FROM LONDON". The Sunday Times (Western Australia). Perth. 17 March 1946. p. 13 Supplement: The Sunday Times MAGAZINE. Retrieved 2 February 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
