Trivia

Last saw his favorite co-star Bette Davis in 1978 when he went to visit her back stage at one of her one-woman shows in San Diego that featured film clips from her vast career. She didn't recognize him at first, as he had grown quite old, white-haired and unhealthily overweight. He died in May of 1979.

Had a tumultuous two-year long affair with Bette Davis, his frequent and most prolific co-star of eleven feature films: So Big! (1932), The Rich Are Always with Us (1932), Housewife (1934), Front Page Woman (1935), Special Agent (1935), The Golden Arrow (1936), Jezebel (1938), Dark Victory (1939), The Old Maid (1939), The Great Lie (1941) and In This Our Life (1942).

He played Jane Powell's father in the film Luxury Liner (1948). Powell claims that the two had a crush on each other and that Brent didn't express it until near the end of his life when he proposed marriage to her when he was in his 70s.

Was to have starred in the film, Death of a Scoundrel (1956), but took ill after a large party scene with many, many extras had been filmed. Rather than an expensive re-shoot, the producers left the scene (with him visible) in the final cut. He was replaced in the lead by George Sanders.

His hair was completely gray by the time he started working for Warner Brothers, and he had to dye his hair black.

Served as a messenger/assassin for the Irish Republican Army during its struggle against the British in the early 1920s. Although only a teenager, he managed to elude capture by the British and was smuggled out of Ireland to Canada by freighter, and then crossed the border to the US.

He was a licensed pilot. You can see him landing an airplane in The Great Lie (1941).

Warner Bros. tested him for the title role in Captain Blood (1935) after Robert Donat turned it down. Despite his reliable tenure at the studio, he was better known as a ladies' man in tearjerkers than a swashbuckler, so newcomer Errol Flynn got the part. It made him an instant star.

A Rochester (NY) newspaper, in its article on his death, included the story that he came home one night to find his wife, Ann Sheridan, in bed with Errol Flynn. According to the article, "Flynn gave poor Brent a beating" before escaping through a window.

Served on Irish rebel Michael Collins' ASU (Active Service Unit) assassin squad (as "George Nolan", his real name), although he could not have been more than 16 or so.

The son of a British officer and IRA guerrilla during the Anglo-Irish War (1919-22). Both of his parents died when he was 11 and he migrated for a time to America in 1915. He later returned to Ireland and began his career doing bits on the Abbey Theatre stage.

He had two children, Barry and Suzanne, with his fifth wife, Janet.

On August 13, 2018, he was honored with a day of his film work during the TCM Summer Under The Stars.

In March 2026 he was recognized as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.