Romney Brent

Romney Brent, born Romulo Larralde on January 26, 1902, in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, was an actor, director, and dramatist whose career spanned stage, film, and television across North America and Europe. The son of a diplomat, Brent received his education in multiple cities around the world, with particular time spent in New York City. He appeared on Broadway from 1922 to 1952 and was also active in London's West End during the 1930s. He died on September 24, 1976, in Mexico City at the age of 74.

Brent trained for the stage under Theodore Komisarjevsky and launched his professional career with the Theatre Guild at the age of 20, taking a role in He Who Gets Slapped. Later that same year he appeared on Broadway in the Theatre Guild's production of The Lucky One, written by A. A. Milne. He built his reputation in what were described as gentle, ingratiating roles, among them the Lion in George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion, the worried groom in Shaw's Getting Married, and Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice. Between 1925 and 1926 he participated in two seasons of the long-running musical revue Garrick Gaieties on Broadway, and he returned to Broadway in 1929–30 with The Little Show.

His London work in the 1930s was extensive. In 1932 he appeared in Noël Coward's revue Words and Music, taking on the role of compère, playing Stanhope in a parody of Journey's End, and performing as a missionary in a sketch featuring Coward's song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen." While based in London during this period, Brent directed a Herbert Farjeon revue and wrote the book for Cole Porter's Nymph Errant. In 1933 he was cast as Paul, Duc de Chaucigny-Varennes in Coward's Conversation Piece but was replaced in the role by Coward himself. On the London stage he also played Tobias in James Bridie's Tobias and the Angel and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Back in New York during the 1930s, Brent created the role of the Reverend Phosphor Hammingtrap in Shaw's The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, a production he also directed. His Broadway credits include The Mad Hopes, Heart of a City, The Deep Mrs. Sykes, and Fool for Love, among other productions. In 1945–46 he appeared as Autolycus in a Theatre Guild production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, which opened in Pittsburgh on September 24, 1945, toured fourteen American cities, and arrived at the Cort Theater in New York City on January 16, 1946. B. Iden Payne was the credited director at the outset of the tour; by the time the production reached New York, both Payne and Brent shared the directing credit. The following year, 1946, Brent directed and appeared as Caius in another Theatre Guild touring Shakespeare production, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Also in 1946–47, he starred on Broadway in Joan of Lorraine.

Brent's work extended beyond the stage. He appeared in numerous films, including East Meets West (1936), Under the Red Robe (1937), Dinner at the Ritz (1937), The Middle Watch (1940), and Adventures of Don Juan (1949). His television career ran from 1930 into the 1960s, with appearances on Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Suspense, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Kraft Theatre, Playhouse 90, Zorro, and The Adventures of Jim Bowie. He portrayed the French detective Maigret in an episode of Studio One and played Dr. Armstrong in a 1959 NBC television film of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. In September 1965, Brent traveled to Manila to direct a stage production of the Broadway musical Carnival for what was then St. Paul College, performed with the Manila Symphony Orchestra. He also directed plays in Spanish in Mexico. During the final seven years of his life he taught drama in Mexico City. Brent was married to American actress and singer Gina Malo.