Jean Kent, a vivacious star of British films, was born with striking hazel eyes and strawberry hair. She was the daughter of variety performers Norman Field and Nina Norre, and was convent-educated. By the age of ten, Jean accompanied her mother on tour, later spending several years in the chorus line at London's Windmill Theatre in the West End.
Honing her acting skills on the provincial repertory stage, Jean signed with Gainsborough Pictures in 1943. Her first notable performance was in Man of Evil (1944),for which she received fifth billing. Through sheer determination and hard work, Jean quickly moved up the ladder to integral roles as willful, "scarlet women" in juicy melodramas.
These roles often involved playing characters that other leading actresses refused to play, such as her gypsy wildcat Rosal in Caravan (1946),which was even considered "too awful" by Margaret Lockwood. Using her training to best advantage, Jean performed some striking dance numbers in the film.
She was the femme fatale wartime audiences loved to hate, an early British sex symbol, most effectively paired with the likes of Stewart Granger or James Mason. In one of her best-remembered performances, Jean took sole limelight as the titular star of the cautionary drama Good-Time Girl (1948),as a juvenile delinquent who falls in with spivs and gangsters and ends up in prison.
However, within just a few years, Jean's box-office appeal had waned, possibly attributable to having portrayed a woman ten years older than herself in The Browning Version (1951),although the film itself was a box-office and critical success. Her remaining screen career was thereafter confined to appearances on the small screen, including the much-derided soap opera Crossroads (1964),as Queen Elizabeth I in the excellent Sir Francis Drake (1961),and as Daphne Goodlace, potential seductress of both Albert and Harold, in Steptoe and Son (1962).
