Known as Evelyn Brent, she began her film career working as an extra under her birth name at New Jersey film studio Fort Lee Studios, appearing in films such as A Man from Mars, A Gentleman From Mississippi and Maurice Tourneur’s The Pit (1914), before her major debut in the 1915 silent film production of Robert W. Service’ poem “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” (1915).
Brent became a protégé of Olga Petrova who was an influence on Brent’s independent-minded attitude and preference for darker vampish movie roles. Brent appeared alongside Petrova in pioneering female filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché’s The Heart of a Painted Woman (1915). Brent was first credited under her stage name Evelyn Brent in The Lure of Heart’s Desire (1916) for Metro Pictures in the role of Little Snowbird, alongside Edmund Breese.
1923 saw Brent’s career receive a major boost when she was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars.
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 (1924), Midnight Molly (1925), Alias Mary Flynn (1925), Smooth as Satin (1925), Lady Robinhood (1925), and Queen o’Diamonds (1925).
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 (1936). 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 with leading men who were at advanced ages and later stages in their careers: Jack Holt in the Columbia serial Holt of the Secret Service (1941), Neil Hamilton in PRC’s production Dangerous Lady (1941), and Lee Tracy in the same studio’s The Payoff (1942). In the early 1940s, she was cast in many productions, 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 (1960) S3 E14 “The Lita Foladaire Story”
She passed away in 1975 from a heart attack, aged 79
