Gainsborough Pictures

She signed to Gainsborough Pictures during the Second World War.^[6] Kent had small roles in It's That Man Again (1943), Miss London Ltd. (1943) and Warn That Man (1944). Kent appeared in Two Thousand Women (1944), playing a stripper who is interned by the Germans.^[6][7] She portrayed a Pacific Islander in Bees in Paradise (1944) with Arthur Askey and the ingenue in a Tommy Trinder musical Champagne Charlie (1944).^[8][9]

The turning point in her career came when she was given a dramatic part in the Gainsborough melodrama film Fanny by Gaslight (1944).^[6] She played a part turned down by Margaret Lockwood, that of the childhood friend of the character played by Phyllis Calvert, who becomes the mistress of James Mason's character.^[10] The movie, also starring Stewart Granger, was a box-office success in Britain and established Kent as Gainsborough's back up to Margaret Lockwood.^[11][12]

Kent played another sexually aggressive young woman in Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), another financial success, with Calvert and Granger.^[13] Rank borrowed her to support Rex Harrison in The Rake's Progress (1945) then back at Gainsborough she was in Waterloo Road (1945) with John Mills and Granger.^[7]

Stardom

Kent shared top billing with Granger in Caravan (1946), playing a gypsy girl in another melodrama.^[14] It was a financial success and Kent was given a new contract.^[15] Granger and Kent were reunited in The Magic Bow (1946), with Kent again taking a part originally meant for Margaret Lockwood.^[16]

"There was a pecking order at Gainsborough," said Kent later. "First Margaret, then Pat, then Phyllis, then me. I was the odds-and-sods girl. I used to mop up the parts that other people didn't want."^[17]

After a support role in Carnival (1946) with Michael Wilding, Kent was the female lead in The Man Within (1947), a costume adventure from a novel by Graham Greene. Kent had a good part in The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947) and was given a star role in Good-Time Girl (1948), a melodrama about a girl who goes off the rails.^[7][18] Kent was top billed as one of several names in Bond Street (1948) and was the female lead in a thriller Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948), playing a spy.^[6]

Kent had her best chance yet playing the lead in a musical Trottie True (1949) which became her favourite film.^[6] She made a comedy in Italy, Her Favourite Husband (1950) and appeared opposite Dirk Bogarde in The Woman in Question (1950).^[5] In 1950, Kent was voted the 9th biggest British star in Britain.^[19] The following year she was 8th.^[20] Kent starred in the melodrama The Reluctant Widow (1951) then had a good role as the wife in The Browning Version (1951).^[6]

Kent was in a thriller The Lost Hours (1952) with American actor Mark Stevens and Before I Wake (1955). She appeared in Arthur Watkyn's historical play The Moonraker in 1952 and in 1953 was in a play Uncertain Joy.^[21] That year she appeared on a TV play with Michael Craig who said she "was on the wane after a successful career as a film star. She didn't like slumming it in television at all and was very grand and one scary lady."^[22]

In 1954, Kent fell ill while touring in a stage production of The Deep Blue Sea in South Africa.^[23]

Later career

Kent's film appearances grew less frequent from the mid-1950s onward.^[24] She had supporting roles in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), and the horror film The Haunted Strangler (1959). She was in the comedy Please Turn Over (1959) and the thriller Beyond This Place (1959).^[7] She was one of several female stars in Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960) with George Sanders.^[25]

She played Queen Elizabeth I in the historical TV adventure series Sir Francis Drake filmed in 1961–62.^[26]

In 1981, she played Jennifer Lamont in the soap opera Crossroads.^[27]

Film

Television