Celebrity Biographies
Barbara Kent
Barbara Kent was possibly the last living silent film star, and the longest-living as she had reached the respectable age of 104 years. The actress herself died on October 13, 2011, in a Palm Desert (California) nursing home, of unspecified natural causes.
Born in Alberta (Canada), on December 16, 1906, Barbara Cloutman (real name of the actress who used the pseudonym Barbara Kent) finished her secondary studies at the Hollywood High School, and shortly after was elected Miss Hollywood Beauty. , in 1925. Although she had not even acted in school plays, Universal offered her a permanent contract as an actress, for which she was given an accelerated acting course.
She made her debut with a role of some importance in the legendary The Devil and the Flesh , from 1926, with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert as protagonists, where she was the innocent Hertha, who prays for the soul of Garbo’s amoral character.
In 1927 she caused some scandal with No Man’s Law , because in one sequence she supposedly swam naked. The scandal made the film a huge success, although she stated that she was actually wearing a nude bathing suit. Curiously, Oliver Hardy appeared on the tape as a villain.
After the arrival of sound, she took singing classes to improve her voice, and in 1929 she starred in Welcome Danger , Harold Lloyd ‘s first sound film , with whom she repeated in ¡Ay, que me caigo! , 1930.
In the early 1930s, she shot various titles such as Vanity Fair and Oliver Twist (1933) where she was the protagonist’s aunt.
In 1932 she married agent and producer Harry E. Edington, for which she temporarily withdrew from the screens. By the time she returned with Reckless Decision , her popularity had waned considerably. After being widowed from her at the age of 42, she definitively retires from the cinema, and from public life, since she does not even grant interviews.
At 104 years old, Barbara Kent has been one of the longest-lived female stars in film history, although Mary Carlisle ( Three Women ), who is 99 years old ( Gloria Stuart reached 100 years), is still alive. Olivia de Havilland is 95..