George Brent

George Brendan Nolan, the favorite leading man of star Bette Davis, was born in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland, though his place of birth has also been cited as Raharabeg, County Roscommon, and Shannonbridge, County Offaly. He was the youngest of five children of shopkeeper John J. Nolan and Mary (McGuinness) Nolan, who lived on Main Street in Ballinasloe. After his parents separated, he became an orphan at the age of eleven. From 1915, he lived with relatives in New York until he was old enough to support himself. To earn money, he briefly worked as a sheep herder and crossed the Atlantic to seek work in the gold fields of South Africa. George eventually returned to Ireland to study at the University of Dublin. By 1921, he had become a dispatch courier for Irish Republican Army guerrilla leader Michael Collins during "The Troubles," despite his paternal ancestors' service in the British Army. At the time, he was hunted by the Black and Tans, with a bounty on his head. George had developed an interest in acting and joined the Abbey Theatre Players, partly to conceal his nightly activities for Sinn Fein. After being tipped off by a double agent about an imminent arrest by British soldiers, he went into hiding and later fled the city. His return to acting was driven by the need for a stable income. By August 1921, he had returned to the U.S. via Canada. Back in New York four years later, he toured with the hit play *Abie's Irish Rose* and then performed with stock companies in Colorado, Florida, and Massachusetts, appearing in the ensemble cast of *The Nightingale* on Broadway (1927). Three years later, George co-starred (with Alice Brady and Clark Gable) in the short-lived play *Love, Honor and Betray*. He worked in Hollywood from 1930, initially playing roles such as farmers and doctors and appearing with Rin Tin Tin, before Warner Brothers recognized his potential as a handsome leading man for some of their more temperamental female stars. One of those was Ruth Chatterton, who cast him opposite her in *The Rich Are Always with Us* (1932). This was the first of four films he made with the actress, whom he eventually married. They divorced after two years. Specializing in dapper, sophisticated gentlemen, George provided reliable support to stars such as Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis (with whom he appeared in 11 films). However, he was rarely described as dynamic. In his own words, all a good leading man needed "was a good haircut since an audience was only ever likely to see the back of his head." He was also able to accumulate six marriages, one of his wives being another Warner Brothers star, Ann Sheridan. At his best opposite Davis (with whom he had an affair), the two appeared in 11 films together, including *Front Page Woman* (1935), *Dark Victory* (1939), *The Old Maid* (1939), and *The Rains Came* (1939). When lead roles became scarce, he appeared against type as the maniacal murderer in the Robert Siodmak-directed thriller *The Spiral Staircase* (1946). Following that, he appeared in several B-movies on both sides of the Atlantic, after which Brent retired from acting to concentrate on breeding race horses. He died of emphysema in 1979 at the age of 75.