George Brent

At 80 years old, George Brent has this physical status:

George Brent (born George Patrick Nolan, 15 March 1904 – May 1979) was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor.

Early life

Brent was born in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland, on March 15, 1904, to John J. and Mary (née McGuinness) Nolan. His father was a shopkeeper and his mother was a native of Clonfad, Moore, County Roscommon. In September 1915, he and his younger sister Kathleen immigrated to New York City. There, they met their mother, who was living in the United States after her husband's divorce.

Brent returned to Ireland in February 1921, during the Irish War of Independence (191919-2022), and was a member of the Irish Republican Army. During this period, he became interested in the Abbey Theatre.

He left Ireland with a bounty on his head from the British government, but later claimed only to have been a courier for guerrilla leader and tactician Michael Collins. According to Ballinasloe Life (Vol. 2, number 4; one from County Dublin and the other from County Offaly), three men named George Nolan (Brent and two others) were apparently conflated, which may account for some of Brent's year of birth, life, and activities during the 1919 to 1922 period.

Personal life

Brent was married five times, including Helen Louise Campbell (1925–1927), Ruth Chatterton (1932-1934), Constance Worth (1937), Ann Sheridan (1942–1974), and Janet Michaels (1947–1974). They were actors Chatterton, Worth, and Sheridan; Warner Bros.'s Chatterton and Sheridan were actors; Chatterton and Sheridan were actors.

Janet Michaels, a former model and dress designer, married him for 27 years until her death in 1974. Suzanne (born August 3, 1950), and Barry (born November 26, 1954) had two children.

Brent had affairs with actress Greta Garbo and Bette Davis, the former being a regular Warner Bros. co-star.

In 1979 in Solana Beach, California, he suffered from emphysema and died of natural causes.

Source

Career

Brent went from England to Canada and then back to the United States in August 1921.

He wanted to be a professional actor. In director Guthrie McClintic's The Dover Road, he made his Broadway debut. During the 1920s, he appeared in numerous productions, including several of his own stock companies. He appeared in the productions of Abie's Irish Rose (on tour for two years), Stella Dallas, Up in Mabel's Room, Elmer the Great, Seventh Heaven, White Cargo, and Lilac Time. He worked in stock companies at Elitch Theatre in Denver, Colorado (1929), as well as Rhode Island, Florida, and Massachusetts. He appeared on Broadway in Love, Honor, and Betray in 1930, alongside Clark Gable.

Brent travelled to Hollywood and made his first film for 20th Century Fox, Under Suspicion (1930). In Once a Sinner (1931), Fair Warning (1931), and Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), he continued in supporting roles for Fox.

He was seventh-billed for Ex-Bad Boy (1931) and fifth for The Homicide Squad (1931), then appeared in Rin Tin's The Lightning Warrior (1931) at Mascot Pictures.

Brent was signed by Warner Bros. in 1931, where he starred Barbara Stanwyck's leading man in So Big! (1932), establishing him as a leading figure. Bette Davis played a small part.

Brent appeared in The Rich Are Always With Us (1932) with Ruth Chatterton (who became his second wife that year), in which Davis also played a supporting role.

It was followed by Week-End Marriage (1932) with Loretta Young, The Crash (1932) with Stanwyck, Miss Pinkerton (1932) with Chatterton (1932) with Young, and They Call It Sin (1932) with Young.

Brent Jones, the leading man in Luxury Liner (1933), was borrowed by (1933). He was one of many studio names in 42nd Street (1933), as Bebe Daniels' lover.

In The Keyhole (1933), Chatterton (1933), and Stanwyck in Baby Face (1933), he returned to supporting female actors: Kay Francis in The Keyhole (1933).

In October 1933, he and Chatterton refused to make a film they had been given, Mandalay, and they were joined by Lyle Talbot and Kay Francis. Brent's salary was then $1,000 a week.

He was top-billed in From Headquarters (1933) with Margaret Lindsay; then MGM borrowed him to play Myrna Loy's leading man in Stamboul Quest (1934). Chatteron applied for divorce in September 1934.

Brent was the highest paid actor in Housewife (1934) with Bette Davis, who was his co-star. In Desirable (1935), he was leading man to Jean Muir (1935), but MGM used him for The Painted Veil (1934) with Greta Garbo (1934).

In The Right to Live (1935), Brent supported Josephine Hutchinson, who died in Living on Velvet (1935) and Stranded (1935). After that, he made two films with Davis, where she was top billed: Front Page Woman (1935) and Special Agent (1935).

Brent appeared in The Goose and the Gander (1935) with Kay Francis, then RKO to make In Person (1935) with Ginger Rogers. He was top billed in the comedy Snowed Under (1936), then Walter Wanger borrowed him to play Madeleine Carroll's leading man in The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936).

In Give Me Your Heart (1936), at Warners, he was reunited with Davis in The Golden Arrow (1936) and Francis in Give Me Your Heart (1936). In More Than a Secretary (1936), Columbia borrowed Jean Arthur to help Jean Arthur (1936). The woman and the man were together in God's Country and the Woman (1936) with Margaret Lindsay.

Brent made Mountain Justice (1937) with Hutchinson and The Go Getter (1937) with Anita Louise. Brent's first male-orientated film, Submarine D-1 (1937) with Pat O'Brien and Wayne Morris, was released by Warners. He became an American citizen in November 1937.

Brent made Gold Is Where You Find It (1938) with Olivia de Havilland, then made Jezebel (1938) with Davis, only his second male lead, with Henry Fonda playing Davis' primary love interest.

Warners put him in a "B" film with Humphrey Bogart, Racket Busters (1938) and then reunited with Francis in Secrets of an Actress (1938). With de Havilland and John Payne, he was involved in the military drama Wings of the Navy (1939-1939).

With Davis, he appeared in Dark Victory (1939), a huge success. Davis and Miriam Hopkins clashed over Brent in 1939, as did The Old Maid (1939), where Davis and Miriam Hopkins battled over the Brent. Edmund Goulding supervised both films.

Brent was a key support actor in The Rains Came (1939), and the twentieth Century Fox borrowed Brent for a vital support role. In The Battle 69th (1940), James Cagney and O'Brien were among the 69th survivors of Warner Brothers.

In 1940, He was borrowed from Adventure in Diamonds (1940), where he had top billing over Isa Miranda. He was Merle Oberon's leading man in 'Til We Meet Again (1940) and South of Suez (1940). In The Great Lie (1941), he helped Ann Sheridan in Honeymoon (1941) and Davis in The Great Lie (1941).

Columbia recruited him for the lead role in They Dare Not Love (1941) with Martha Scott and Edward Small. He was also used in two films, International Lady (1941) with Ilona Massey and Twin Beds (1942) with Joan Bennett.

Brent made one last film with Davis, In This Our Life (1942), alongside Havilland. Stanwyck (1942) was top-billed in You Can't Escape Forever (1942), with Brenda Marshall and Silver Queen (1942) with Priscilla Lane.

Brent, an exceptional pilot who had tried and then failed to enlist in the Armed services briefly, but later switched to teach flying with the Civilian Pilot Training Program and later became a pilot in the US Coast Guard during the war.

My Reputation with Barbara Stanwyck, shot from November 1943 to January 1944, Warner Bros.'s last film, My Reputation, was not released until 1946, except for military audiences. During this time, Brent appeared on radio.

Although Brent recovered from his acting career after WWII, he never recovered his fame in the immediate aftermath, but he was also a star of major budget films. In Experiment Perilous (1944), RKO used Hedy Lamarr as the company's leading man. Hal Wallis did The Affairs of Susan (1945) with Joan Fontaine (1945) and Tomorrow Is Forever (1946) at International with Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles.

He returned to RKO for The Spiral Staircase (1946), a huge success. He was teamed with Lucille Ball in Lover Come Back (1946), then he joined Temptation (1946) with Oberon and Edward Small at International.

Brent went to Eagle Lion to perform Out of the Blue (1947) and Columbia for The Corpse Came C.O.D. Blondell (1947) with Blondell. In Slave Girl (1947), Universal teamed him with Yvonne De Carlo.

Brent was one of many names on Christmas Eve (1947) at MGM for Benedict Bogeaus and Luxury Liner (1948), a reimagining of the 1933 film in which Brent appeared.

He went to the Republic to appear in Angel on the Amazon (1948) and in Universal's Red Canyon (1949) played the father of actress Ann Blyth's Red Canyon (1949). He was third lead in Illegal Entry (1949) before he took the lead in a "B" The Kid from Cleveland (1949). At RKO, he supported Colbert in Bride for Sale (1950).

Brent's films' budgets continued to shrink. He did two for Lippert Pictures: F.B.I. Girl (1951) and The Last Page (1952), the latter shot in England with Diana Dors. With Jane Russell and two others for Monogram: Tangier Incident (1953) and Mexican Manhunt (1953).

Brent entered television in the early 1950s as a guest on The Revlon Mirror Theatre, Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson, Climax!, Stage 7, The Science Fiction Theatre, Shlitz Playhouse, and the religion anthology series, Crossroads.

He appeared in the lead in the 1956 television series Wire Service, which had a total of 39 appearances.

Brent resigned after appearing on Rawhide and The Chevy Mystery Show.

He made one last film, Born Again, in 1978.

Brent was one of two celebrities in 1960 to be inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was shot at 1709 Vine Street and a second actor at 1612 Vine Street for his television work.

Source