Film star Jean Kent who appeared alongside Marilyn Monroe dies aged 92

  • Tributes paid to actress who was a box office star in the 1940's and 1950s
  • She also starred alongside Laurence Olivier and Michael Redgrave
  • Friend and film critic Michael Thornton called her a 'great actress'
  • Ms Kent passed away at her home in Suffolk after suffering a fall

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 05:38 EST, 30 November 2013 | UPDATED: 11:56 EST, 30 November 2013

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

Ms Kent was one of Britain's top box-office stars in the 1940s and 1950s and acted in dozens of films and TV shows in a career spanning 50 years. Her death was announced by close family friend, author and former film critic Michael Thornton.

Mr Thornton said the actress was injured in a fall at her home in the Suffolk village of Westhorpe on Thursday.

One of Britain's box office actresses of the 1940s and 50s, Jean Kent, has died, aged 92

One of Britain's box office actresses of the 1940s and 50s, Jean Kent, has died, aged 92

Jean Kent as Astra and Susan Shaw as her sister Catherine in the 1949 film, The Woman in Question'

Jean Kent as Astra and Susan Shaw as her sister Catherine in the 1949 film, The Woman in Question'

Ms Kent records a message on a vinyl record at the Canada Corner on the Overseas Mail stand at the 1948 Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia

Ms Kent records a message on a vinyl record at the Canada Corner on the Overseas Mail stand at the 1948 Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia

Kent and Shaw in another scene from The Woman in Question

Kent and Shaw in another scene from The Woman in Question

Jean Kent signs her autograph at the Weekend Mail Pleasure Gardens Festival Gala

Ms Kent signs her autograph at the Weekend Mail Pleasure Gardens Festival Gala

Ms Kent, second from right, top, with Sheila Sim, Brenda Bruce, Sally Ann Howes. Bottom, Dulcie Gray, Anna Massey and Thelma Ruby at the Night of 100 stars' at the London Palladium

Ms Kent, second from right, top, with Sheila Sim, Brenda Bruce, Sally Ann Howes. Bottom, Dulcie Gray, Anna Massey and Thelma Ruby at the Night of 100 stars' at the London Palladium

Ms Kent performs on stage during an unknown show

Ms Kent performs on stage during an unknown show

She was taken by ambulance to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds where she died at 3.40am today.

 

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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.'

Ms 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.

Kent, pictured at a castle in 1954

Kent, pictured at a castle in 1954

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.

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

Ms Kent was born as Joan Summerfield in Brixton, south London on June 29, 1921, the only child of variety performers Norman Field and Nina Norre, and started her career in 1931 as a dancer.

She used the stage name 'Jean Carr' when she appeared as a chorus girl in the Windmill Theatre in London and signed to Gainsborough Pictures during the Second World War.

The turning point in her career came when she was given a dramatic part in 1945 film Fanny, by Gaslight. She appeared in several British films during the 1940s and 1950s before turning to television.

She met her husband Jusuf Ramart on the set of one of her best-known films, Caravan, and they married in April 1946. He died from cancer in 1989.

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Jean Kent was married to Josef Ramart from 1946 to his death in 1989. Stewart Grainger was the best man at the wedding.

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She even appeared in Steptoe and Son as Albert's new girlfriend until she saw Harold and realised that they had been lovers many years previously. Very elegant lady.

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did she also appear with tinka and tucka? on atv as aunty jean and open tycross zoo

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Thank you Emma!

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My pleasure... I was born in 1948, and it reminded me of what a lovely world it was when we were growing up.

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I seemed bto remember she had a "Royal" admirer .

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Remember her well. Excellent actress, fine lady.

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Never heard of her!

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Dave Ninetynine. Why go to the trouble of demonstrating your ignorance to the whole world? You never heard of her? Then why comment?

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She had never heard of you either.

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Great British actresses: Jean Kent, Jean Simmonds, Magaret Lockwood, Hazel Court, Jane Hylton, June Laveric and who could forget Sylvia Sims? We turned out some beautiful people in those days.

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Agreed.

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We were just talking about her last Thursday, when we were talking about Stewart Granger and who he married, no mention of Stewart Granger DM?... I believe they were married about ten years.

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I didn't know that, but he was married to Jean Simmons.

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Monroe sniffiily delivered her famous comment ' Some class! ', to which Kent responded with ''Thanks teacher!'.

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