Evelyn Brent

Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs;^[1] October 20, 1895^[2][3][4] – June 4, 1975^[5]) was an American film and stage actress.

Brent was born in Tampa, Florida and known as "Betty." When she was 10 years old, her mother Eleanor (née Warner) died, leaving her father, Arthur, to raise her alone. She moved to New York City as a teenager, and her good looks brought modeling jobs that led to an opportunity to become involved in movies.

She began her film career working under her own name at a New Jersey film studio, then made her major debut in the 1915 silent film production of the Robert W. Service poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew".

After World War I, she traveled to Europe, where she visited France before settling in London, England. She had a role in The Ruined Lady, where her co-stars in the play were future Hollywood stars C. Aubrey Smith and Nigel Bruce.

She remained in England for four years, performing on stage and in films, then she moved to Hollywood in 1922.

Her career received a major boost the following year when she was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, alongside Eleanor Boardman and Laura La Plante. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. signed her as his leading lady for a film that was eventually abandoned and his next films, The Thief of Bagdad and The Black Pirate, were unsuitable for her. When the press attempted to create a scandal that Fairbanks was cheating on his wife, Mary Pickford with her, Brent left his company to join Associated Authors.^[6]

After a year-long contract that resulted mostly in minor westerns and melodramas, Evelyn signed with Film Booking Office (FBO), which immediately launched her as the "Queen of the Underworld" with a series of crook dramas including Silk Stocking Sal (directed by the master of macabre, Tod Browning), Midnight Molly, Alias Mary Flynn, Smooth as Satin, Lady Robinhood, and Queen o'Diamonds. The minor stardom that Evelyn received from these popular films brought her to the attention of Paramount Pictures, which signed her to a long-term contract.

Paramount launched her tenure at the company with the lead in the popular shopgirl comedy Love 'Em and Leave 'Em, where her screen impact overshadowed by the appearance of Louise Brooks as Brent's younger sister.

Josef Von Sternberg, an acquaintance from her time in British films and a fan of her FBO series of crook pictures, cast her as "Feathers" (over the objections of Paramount executives, who preferred Estelle Taylor for the role) in the gangster epic Underworld (1927).

Brent appeared in Von Sternberg's The Last Command (1928), an epic war drama starring Emil Jannings and William Powell. Von Sternberg worked with her for the third (and last) time in The Drag Net (1928), which reunited her with her Underworld co-star George Bancroft.

In-between and after her series of films with Von Sternberg, Paramount cast Brent in a string of pictures that sustained her popularity, including a sequel to 1926's hit Beau Geste called Beau Sabreur, the melodrama His Tiger Wife, and her last silent film The Mating Call for director James Cruze.

Brent was later cast as the female lead in Paramount's first all-talking picture Interference. She was then loaned out to Universal Pictures for the musical-drama Broadway, which ran for two years. Her Paramount contract had about a year left to run, and she appeared in Paramount on Parade.

Brent played major roles in several features, most notably The Silver Horde.

By the early part of the 1930s, she was working in secondary roles in a variety of films as well as touring with vaudeville shows. In 1936, she played William Boyd's love interest/femme fatale in Hopalong Cassidy Returns. However, by 1941, she was no longer in demand by major studios, and she found work at smaller, low-budget studios.

Evelyn Brent photographed attractively opposite leading men who were also at advanced ages and later stages in their careers: Jack Holt in the Columbia serial Holt of the Secret Service, Neil Hamilton in PRC's production Dangerous Lady, and Lee Tracy in the same studio's The Payoff. In the early 1940s, she worked in action features for Paramount, produced by Pine-Thomas Productions. Veteran director William Beaudine cast her in many productions as well, including Emergency Landing (1941), Bowery Champs (1944), The Golden Eye (1948), and Again Pioneers (1950). After performing in more than 120 films, she retired from acting in 1950 and worked for a number of years as an actor's agent.

She returned to acting in television's Wagon Train for one episode in 1960, "The Lita Foladaire Story", starring Ward Bond and Diane Brewster. Brent played a housekeeper and her appearance had changed radically.^[7]

Evelyn Brent was married three times: to movie executive Bernard P. Fineman, to producer Harry D. Edwards, and finally to the vaudeville actor Harry Fox. They were married until he died in 1959.^[8]

Brent died of a heart attack in 1975^[9] at age 79 in her Los Angeles home. She is interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

In 1960, Brent was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 6548 Hollywood Boulevard.^[10]

• The New York Times, "Evelyn Brent, 75, Film Star of 1920s", June 8, 1975, Page 55.

• Evelyn Brent at IMDb
• Photographs of Evelyn Brent
• Evelyn Brent at Find a Grave