Jean Kent: BFI to mark Golden Age star's centenary

Jean Kent made more than 40 films, including The Man Within with Richard Attenborough (left) in 1947 and The Woman in Question with Dirk Bogarde in 1950

A star of the "Golden Age of cinema" is being honoured by the British Film Institute (BFI) to mark the centenary of her birth.

Actor Jean Kent appeared in more than 40 films in the 1940 and 50s, with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe among her many co-stars.

She died in 2013, aged 92, after a fall at her home in Westhorpe, Suffolk.

BFI curator Josephine Botting said Ms Kent, who started in music hall, was a "versatile and confident performer".

"What she brought to British cinema above all, apart from tons of glamour, was a natural vivacity and a sense of fun that really came across, qualities that made her a forces pin-up," she added.

"As an actress she had considerable range and did everything from Arthur Askey comedies to Terence Rattigan adaptations."

Ms Botting is introducing a screening of the actor's favourite film she appeared in, the musical Trottie True (1949) - in which Ms Kent played the title role - at BFI Southbank, London, on 6 July.

Caravan was one of the biggest box office hits in Britain in 1946

She starred opposite Michael Redgrave in the film version of the Terence Rattigan play The Browning Version in 1951

Jean Kent and Andrew Crawford have a mishap with a balloon in Trottie True (1949), which was released as The Gay Lady in the US

Born Joan Summerfield to two music hall performers in Brixton, south London, on 29 June 1921, Ms Kent made her stage debut as an 18-month-old toddler waving a flag in Madame Butterfly.

The BFI said the turning point in her career came when, aged 19, she appeared at the London Palladium with Dame Vera Lynn and comedian Max Miller, which led to a screen test and a seven-year contract with Gainsborough Pictures.

As Jean Kent, she made dozens of films and was one of Britain's top box office stars.

Her post-war television shows included Up Pompeii!, Crossroads and Lovejoy.

Jean Kent, pictured on her 90th birthday with her friend and executor, Michael Thornton

A widow since 1989, she lived alone and made her final public appearance on her 90th birthday at the National Film Theatre in London.

Her death at the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds in November 2013 was initially investigated by police after Ms Kent was found with severe chest injuries by her housekeeper.

Suffolk coroner Peter Dean concluded she had suffered a fall, which may have been brought on by a heart attack.