George Brent

George Brent, born George Brendan Nolan on 15 March 1904 in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland, was an Irish-American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television. He died on 26 May 1979. His father, John J. Nolan, worked as a shopkeeper, and his mother, Mary, née McGuinness, was originally from Clonfad, Moore, County Roscommon. In September 1915, Brent and his younger sister Kathleen relocated to New York City to join their mother, who had separated from her husband and was already living in the United States.

In February 1921, Brent returned to Ireland during the Irish War of Independence and became involved with the Irish Republican Army, as well as with the Abbey Theatre. He later claimed his IRA role was limited to serving as a courier for Michael Collins, though a bounty was reportedly placed on his head by the British government. Researchers writing in Ballinasloe Life noted that the wartime records of three different men named George Nolan — Brent and two others from County Dublin and County Offaly — appear to have been conflated, which may account for inconsistencies in accounts of his birth year and activities during the 1919–1922 period. Brent left Ireland and traveled through England to Canada before returning to the United States in August 1921.

Determined to pursue acting professionally, Brent made his Broadway debut under director Guthrie McClintic in The Dover Road. Throughout the 1920s he appeared in numerous productions, including Abie's Irish Rose, which he toured for two years, as well as Stella Dallas, Up in Mabel's Room, Elmer the Great, Seventh Heaven, White Cargo, and Lilac Time. He also operated several of his own stock companies, working at venues including the Elitch Theatre in Denver, Colorado in 1929, and in Rhode Island, Florida, and Massachusetts. In 1927 he appeared on Broadway in The Texas Nightingale. In 1930 he returned to Broadway in Love, Honor, and Betray, a production in which Clark Gable also appeared.

Brent subsequently moved to Hollywood, where he made his first film, Under Suspicion, for 20th Century Fox in 1930. He followed that with supporting roles at Fox in Once a Sinner, Fair Warning, and Charlie Chan Carries On, all in 1931. At Universal he appeared in Ex-Bad Boy and The Homicide Squad, both in 1931, and then took a role in the Mascot Pictures serial The Lightning Warrior, a Rin Tin Tin production. Warner Bros. signed him in 1931, and his role opposite Barbara Stanwyck in So Big! in 1932 established him as a leading man. That same year he appeared in The Rich Are Always with Us alongside Ruth Chatterton, whom he married in 1932, and in several other productions including Week-End Marriage with Loretta Young and Miss Pinkerton with Joan Blondell.

At Warner Bros., Brent became closely associated with Bette Davis, ultimately appearing in eleven films with her. Among the most prominent were Jezebel in 1938, in which he played the second male lead behind Henry Fonda, and Dark Victory in 1939, a major commercial success. The Old Maid, also released in 1939 and directed by Edmund Goulding as Dark Victory was, featured Davis and Miriam Hopkins competing for Brent's character. Additional films with Davis included Front Page Woman, Special Agent, The Golden Arrow, The Great Lie, and In This Our Life, the last of which, made in 1942, was their final collaboration.

Beyond his work with Davis, Brent appeared opposite a wide range of prominent actresses. He was Greta Garbo's leading man in The Painted Veil in 1934, played opposite Ginger Rogers in In Person in 1935, and appeared with Myrna Loy in Stamboul Quest in 1934 on loan to MGM. He supported Merle Oberon in Til We Meet Again in 1940 and appeared with Hedy Lamarr in Experiment Perilous in 1944 at RKO. His five films with Stanwyck concluded with My Reputation, filmed between November 1943 and January 1944 but not released until 1946. He also appeared in The Spiral Staircase at RKO in 1946, which was a significant commercial success.

In November 1937, Brent became an American citizen. During World War II, having attempted and failed to enlist in the armed services due to his age, he temporarily left film work to serve as a civilian flight instructor with the Civilian Pilot Training Program and later flew as a pilot with the US Coast Guard. He also worked in radio during this period. Although he returned to acting after the war and continued to appear in major productions, he did not regain the level of popularity he had achieved in the late 1930s and early 1940s.