Actress Jean Kent, Who Starred Alongside Marilyn Monroe, Dies

British star appeared alongside James Mason, Laurence Olivier

LONDON — Jean Kent, one of the biggest British film stars of the 1940s and 1950s, has died. She was 92.

Kent was injured in a fall at her home in Suffolk, England, on Thursday, and died in hospital in Bury St. Edmunds on Friday.

She rose to fame playing in a series of costume melodramas for Gainsborough Pictures in the 1940s, such as “Fanny By Gaslight,” in which she starred with James Mason and Stewart Granger. She went on to appear in 45 films.

Among her notable perfs were “The Prince and the Showgirl” (1957), in which she co-starred with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, and “The Browning Version” (1951), where she played alongside Michael Redgrave.

She was honored by the British Film Institute on her 90th birthday in 2011.

Her friend Michael Thornton, an author and former film critic, told the Daily Telegraph: “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.”

Her husband, Austrian actor Josef Ramart, died in 1989.

Popular on Variety

Must Read

Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 2 weeks

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXJ%2Fjp%2BgpaVfnLmwrsClZpqbpKeytL%2BMo5yapl2gsq%2FAjLCfqGWjqa6zvsSdZJqkn6O0tLXDnmSmmaKeubq6jKamp6qfmnqltcSsZGpqYGWGcX%2BTbmho

Larita Shotwell

Update: 2024-07-31

DashVib