Silent film stars are like World War One vets. They’re dying off and will soon be an extinct species. “Baby Peggy”(Diana Serra Cary), born October 26, 1918 is still with is as is 91-year old Mickey Rooney, who starred in silent shorts (as Mickey MGuire) and Dickie Moore, another child star from the silents. But Barbara Kent may have been the last one standing to have achieved substantial fame during the silent film era as an adult.
Born in Canada, the 4’11″ Ms Kent began her movie career in 1925 and ended it ten years later. She was known for comedies, starring opposite Harold Lloyd and Reginald Denny, but her most famous role may be as the heroine pitted against Great Garbo’s femme fatale in Flesh And Blood in 1926. She made the transition to talkies smoothly enough but married talent agent Harry Edington in 1932 and dropped out of the movies three years later.
Born in Canada, the 4’11″ Ms Kent began her movie career in 1925 and ended it ten years later. She was known for comedies, starring opposite Harold Lloyd and Reginald Denny, but her most famous role may be as the heroine pitted against Great Garbo’s femme fatale in Flesh And Blood in 1926. She made the transition to talkies smoothly enough but married talent agent Harry Edington in 1932 and dropped out of the movies three years later.
- 10/24/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
One of the last stars of the silent movie era
It is in the nature of cinema that an actor who made her last film appearance more than seven decades ago, and who retreated from public view in the late 1940s, refusing photographs and interviews ever since, can still be appreciated on screen as young, as lovely and as fresh as ever. Barbara Kent, who has died aged 103, was one of the last surviving stars of the silent era. She appeared in the last great silent American film, Lonesome (1928), Paul Fejos's masterpiece of urban poetry. Kent played Mary, a switchboard operator, who meets Jim (Glenn Tryon), a factory worker, in Coney Island. They spend the day together, fall in love, and then lose each other in the crowd. The simple tale of "little people" is raised by the sincerity of the performances and by the director's expressive use of location,...
It is in the nature of cinema that an actor who made her last film appearance more than seven decades ago, and who retreated from public view in the late 1940s, refusing photographs and interviews ever since, can still be appreciated on screen as young, as lovely and as fresh as ever. Barbara Kent, who has died aged 103, was one of the last surviving stars of the silent era. She appeared in the last great silent American film, Lonesome (1928), Paul Fejos's masterpiece of urban poetry. Kent played Mary, a switchboard operator, who meets Jim (Glenn Tryon), a factory worker, in Coney Island. They spend the day together, fall in love, and then lose each other in the crowd. The simple tale of "little people" is raised by the sincerity of the performances and by the director's expressive use of location,...
- 10/21/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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