Jean Kent obit

Film star Jean Kent dies at 92

 

She was not on the list.

Former film star Jean Kent has died aged 92, it has been announced.

Kent was one of Britain's top box-office stars in the 1940s and 1950s.

Her death was announced by a close family friend, author and former film critic Michael Thornton.

He said the actress was injured in a fall at her home in the Suffolk village of Westhorpe on Thursday. She was taken by ambulance to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds where she died at 3.40am today.

Kent made her last public appearance in June 2011 when she was honoured by the British Film Institute (BFI) on her 90th birthday. It screened one of her films, Caravan, at BFI Southbank in London.

Her career included regular appearances in Gainsborough melodramas, which were popular with large numbers of newly-independent women following the outbreak of the Second World War.

Her co-stars during her film career included Marilyn Monroe, Michael Redgrave and Laurence Olivier.

Kent was born in Brixton, south London on June 29, 1921, the only child of variety performers Norman Field and Nina Norre.

She met her husband Jusuf Ramart on the set of Caravan and they married in April 1946. He died from cancer in 1989.

Mr Thornton said: "I knew Jean for more than 50 years. She was a feisty, funny, outspoken character who never took herself too seriously. She knew what it meant to be a star, and regarded it as her job to live up to that position and never to disappoint the public."

He added: "Because she became one of the most famous stars of the Gainsborough era, with its bodice-ripping melodramas, she was underrated as an actress. But she was a great actress."

Filmography

Film

Year     Title     Role     Notes

1935    The Rocks of Valpre               Credited as Joan Summerfield

1935    Who's Your Father      Mary Radcliffe           

1939    A Ship in the Bay        Iris       Credited as Jean Carr

1943    It's That Man Again    Kitty   

1943    Warn That Man           Frances Lane  

1943    Miss London Ltd.       The Encyclopaedia Girl         

1944    Bees in Paradise          Jani     

1944    Fanny by Gaslight       Lucy Beckett   AKA, Man of Evil

1944    Champagne Charlie    Dolly Bellwood          

1944    Two Thousand Women           Bridie Johnson           

1945    Madonna of the Seven Moons            Vittoria           

1945    Waterloo Road            Toni    

1945    The Wicked Lady       Captain Jerry Jackson's doxy 

1945    The Rake's Progress    Jill Duncan      AKA, Notorious Gentleman

1946    Caravan           Rosal  

1946    The Magic Bow          Bianca

1946    Carnival           Irene Dale      

1947    The Man Within          Lucy    AKA, The Smugglers

1947    The Loves of Joanna Godden Ellen Godden 

1948    Good-Time Girl          Gwen Rawlings          

1948    Bond Street     Ricki Merritt   

1948    Sleeping Car to Trieste            Valya  

1949    Trottie True     Trottie True     AKA, The Gay Lady

1950    The Reluctant Widow Helena

1950    Her Favourite Husband           Dorothy Pellegrini       AKA, The Taming of Dorothy

1950    The Woman in Question         Agnes / Astra   AKA, Five Angles on Murder

1951    The Browning Version            Millie Crocker-Harris 

1952    The Lost Hours           Louise Parker  AKA, The Big Frame 

1955    Before I Wake Florence Haddon        AKA, Shadow of Fear

1957    The Prince and the Showgirl  Maisie Springfield      

1958    Bonjour Tristesse         Helen Lombard          

1958    The Haunted Strangler            Cora Seth       

1959    Beyond This Place      Louise Burt     AKA, Web of Evidence

1959    Please Turn Over        Janet Halliday

1960    Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons Julienne Guillin          

1976    Shout at the Devil       Mrs. Smythe   

Television

Year     Title     Role     Notes

1947    Cinderella        Prince Charming         TV miniseries

1949    Big Ben           Grace Green    TV film

1955    London Playhouse      Elsa Carter      Episode: "A Call on the Widow"

1956    Theatre Royal Ada Weston     Episode: "The Lovebirds"

1956    Pantomania, or Dick Whittington       Dick Whittington         TV film

1956    The Errol Flynn Theatre         Henrietta          Episode: "1000th Night of Don Juan"

1956, 1958      Sunday Night Theatre Polly Tremayne, Jeanne Liron            Episodes: "Morning Star", "The Sulky Fire"

1957    The Twelve Pound Look         Lady Sims       TV film

1957    ITV Television Playhouse       Alicia Collins  Episode: "Love Her to Death"

1958    Web     Rita Carpenter Episodes: "The Painting", "The Other Warren", "The Gallery"

1958    Sword of Freedom      Valeska            Episode: "The Lion and the Mouse"

1958    Dick Whittington and His Cat Dick Whittington         TV film

1959    Epilogue to Capricorn Lady Kerwin   TV series

1959, 1962      ITV Play of the Week Molly, Ariane  Episodes: "The Signal", "Coach 7, Seat 15"

1960    Hotel Imperial Madame Trazini          Episode: "The Leopardess in 424"

1961    Debt to a Spy  Madame Sophie          TV short

1961–62          Sir Francis Drake        Queen Elizabeth I       Main role

1963    Maupassant     Marquise Obardi         Episode: "Yvette"

1963, 1965      No Hiding Place          Paula Hudson, Mrs. Black      Episodes: "A Pocketful of Bones", "Rat in a Trap"

1963–1965      Emergency Ward 10   Gillian Blaine  Guest role

1964    Love Story      Zoe Slater        Episode: "The Smile on the Face of a Tiger"

1964    The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling Mrs. Threegan Episodes: "Three: And an Extra", "The Sending of Dana Da", "The Rescue of Pluffles"

1966    This Man Craig           Joyce Maitland            Episode: "Period of Adjustment"

1966–67          United!            Margie Stringer           Guest role

1967    Vanity Fair      Mrs. O'Dowd  Episode: "The Celebrated Battle Scene"

1968    Comedy Playhouse     Aggie Plunkett            Episode: "The Family of Fred"

1968    Detective         Miss Mayberry            Episode: "The Deadly Climate"

1968    The Wednesday Play   Mrs. Da Tanka Episode: "A Night with Mrs. Da Tanka"

1968–69          Thicker Than Water    Aggie Plunkett            TV series

1969    The Doctors    Mrs. Randall   Episodes: "1.8", "1.9"

1970    ITV Playhouse            Beatrice           Episode: "Brother and Sister"

1970    Up Pompeii!    Aphrodite        Episode: "Exodus"

1970    Steptoe and Son          Daphne Goodlace       Episode: "Two's Company"

1971    Doctor at Large           Mrs. Bentinck Episode: "Trains & Notes & Veins"

1971    A Family at War          Dora Martin     Episode: "Flesh and Blood"

1972    Public Eye       Mrs. Podmore Episode: "Mrs. Podmore's Cat"

1974    Thriller            Mrs. Garrick    Episode: "Color Him Dead"

1976    Angels Miss Buckle    Episode: "Legacies"

1978    Do You Remember?    Milly Billet      Episode: "Night School"

1978    Tycoon Mary Clark      TV series

1980    Time of My Life         Mrs. Wordsworth        Episodes: "1.4", "1.5"

1981    Crossroads       Jennifer Lamont          Episode: "1.3543"

1985    Lytton's Diary Margot Shelley            Episode: "The Silly Season"

1990    Missing Persons          Phillida Meadowhite   TV film

1990    After Henry     Mrs Judd Skefferton    Episode: Party Politics

1991    Lovejoy           Madelene Gilbert        Episode: "National Wealth"

1991    Shrinks            Charlotte Merrick        Episode: "1.5"