George Brent 1904-1979
BRENT, GEORGE (1904-1979), actor, was born George Nolan on March 15th 1904 in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, son of John Nolan, shopkeeper, and Mary Nolan (née McGuinness). Orphaned in 1915, he moved briefly to New York, where he was cared for by an aunt, returning later to Dublin. He took up acting at the Abbey Theatre but, suspected by the British authorities of IRA involvement, he fled to Canada, where he acted in stock companies for two years. He again travelled to New York, founding three stock companies of his own. His appearances on Broadway in the late 1920s were noticed in Hollywood. He was talented, but his good looks and reliability were as important in securing more than 100 screen credits, most of them in Warner Brothers productions between 1930 and 1953.
Never a powerful box-office draw, he was employed by the studio to carry middle-ranking projects and provide support to A-list stars. Unambitious and without pretensions, he was happy to take the money while performing professionally. This led unkind reviewers to describe his performances as having "all the animation of a penguin". He provided competent but understated portrayals, making him an ideal foil for the domineering leading ladies of this period. In 1934 he delivered just such a performance opposite Greta Garbo in the screen adaptation of Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil. He was also a good foil for Merle Oberon, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Mary Astor, Barbara Stanwyck (four times), Ruth Chatterton (four times) and Bette Davis (11 times). Davis was one of the many leading ladies with whom he had affairs and Ruth Chatterton was the second (1932-4) of his six wives. He married two other actresses, Constance Worth and Ann Sheridan.
His best performances were probably in Jezebel(1938), for which Davis won an Oscar; Dark Victory(1939) with Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan; The Rains Came(1939), a disaster movie with Tyrone Power; and The Spiral Staircase(1945), a horror film set in England. He never filmed in Ireland, but starred with James Cagney in a movie about an Irish-American regiment, The Fighting 69th(1940). His career entered a slide in the late 1940s when he appeared in dross such as The Corpse Came C.O.D.(1947), a comedown for someone who had acted in 42nd Street(1933). When the movies dried up he starred in a TV series, Wire Service(1956-9), before retiring to run his horse-breeding ranch in California.
He had one more cameo in movies, playing a judge in the dire Born Again(1978), the story of a Nixon aide's discovery of Christianity when jailed after Watergate. He died of emphysema on May 27th 1979 in California.
From the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie for more details
