Paul Kent (actor)

Paul Kent
Kent in front of the Melrose Theater in 1975
Born	Paul Inglese October 13, 1930 (1930-10-13) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	October 7, 2011 (2011-10-08) (aged 80) Hollywood Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1956–2011

Paul Kent (October 13, 1930 – October 7, 2011) was an American actor and the founder/artistic director of the Melrose Theatre in West Hollywood.

Biography

Early life

Kent was born as Paul Inglese on October 13, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York. He studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and briefly served in the United States Army during the Korean War. In 1958, he and his parents moved from New York to California, where he trained under Sanford Meisner and later assisted Meisner with his classes. The two became close friends and colleagues during Meisner's life, and when Meisner left Los Angeles to go back to New York, he left his teaching methods to be carried on in the West by Kent who consequently taught acting for many years through his theater.

Kent played a part in the formation of Lucille Ball's Desilu Workshop, where he became the first acting student signed by the workshop. According to Hedda Hopper, when Kent appeared at the workshop to help a female friend at an audition, he was discovered by Ball and promptly signed to an actor-stage manager contract. Kent's acting roles during this period included a small part in an episode of December Bride in 1957.

Acting instruction

In 1964, Kent founded the Melrose Theater in West Hollywood with the assistance of fellow actors including Tom Troupe, Carole Cook, Richard Bull and Don Eitner. Funds for the theater were partially raised by a guest appearance with Lucille Ball and Gary Morton on Password.

Kent later recalled in an interview with The Los Angeles Times:

I was scared to death. I wasn't working steadily, I didn't know where the next rent would come from, and I had no experience in building a theater...I bought seats from a defunct movie house on Washington Boulevard. I'll never forget. Two dollars a seat. Linden Chiles and the students and I literally unbolted the seats from the floor and brought them back here.

In 1976, Kent entered into a partnership with workshop organizer Jomarie Ward to purchase a former bakery and photographer's studio at 733 North Seward Street in Hollywood. With the assistance of Ward and members of the workshop, the building was renovated and converted to the new Melrose Theater in 1977. The new, larger theater became the permanent headquarters of the Melrose, with Kent installed as artistic director and Ward as managing director.

In 1984, Kent decided to create a production employing the largest possible number of Melrose actors, and convened several playwrights at the Mark Taper Forum to write a play in a bar setting to be produced by the theater. The resulting collaboration, The Bar Off Melrose, was credited to fifteen playwrights and employed nearly forty actors. The play premiered successfully in 1986, and is still performed today at various theaters, drama workshops and colleges.

Acting career

While serving as artistic director of the Melrose Theater, Kent also acted in many of its plays, and continued acting in film and television. One of Kent's acting appearances in the 1970s was a small part in the television miniseries Helter Skelter. The part was notable because Kent later played a different character in the 2004 adaptation directed by John Gray. Gray later bought Kent back to play a spirit in an episode of his TV series, Ghost Whisperer ("Mended Hearts"). In addition, Kent often played different characters in multiple episodes of a series, including his appearances in Lou Grant, T. J. Hooker and Falcon Crest.

Kent appeared in one of the highest-grossing films of 1982 when he portrayed Commander Beach, the helmsman and third-in-command of the Starship USS Reliant in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. When the ill-fated starship was commandeered by Ricardo Montalban's Khan, the character of Beach would be marooned on a desolate planet along with the majority of the ship's crew until rescued by the USS Enterprise.

In 1987 Kent played Harry M. Daugherty in a made-for-TV biographical film of J. Edgar Hoover, produced by Showtime. In 1999, he became the third actor to play the character of "Doctor Noel Clinton" in Port Charles, a spinoff of General Hospital, succeeding actors Dean Harens and Ron Husmann. He had a lead starring role as the character of "Miles Mason" in Viagra Falls, a television pilot. One of his final acting roles was his portrayal of Mack Sennett in Return to Babylon, an independent film released in 2013.

In 1975, Kent reflected on his craft to Los Angeles Times reporter Lawrence Christon:

Acting is my sanity, the thing I run to when things go wrong in my life. My special joy is rehearsing, making discoveries about the ins and outs of character. I love it so much that the actual performance, to me, is like the cigarette after the affair.

Personal life

Kent was the father of several children. At the time of his death he was married to actress and author Madelyn Cain.

Death

Kent died on October 7, 2011, six days before his 81st birthday, in Hollywood Hills, California from multiple myeloma. He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.

Partial filmography

Film

Title	Character	Year	Notes
Diane	Groom	1956	Uncredited
Seconds	Party Guest	1966	Uncredited
The Astronaut (TV)	Carl Samuels	1972
Family Flight (TV)	First Controller	1972
The Mad Bomber	Dr. Devincy	1973
The Alpha Caper (TV)	John Woodbury	1973
Pray for the Wildcats (TV)	Doctor Harris	1974
Helter Skelter (TV)	Dennis Ranson	1976
Lifeguard	Jack Gilmore	1976
Ruby	Louie	1977
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Commander Beach	1982
Perfect	Judge	1985
J. Edgar Hoover (TV)	Harry M. Daugherty	1987
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors	Doctor Carver	1987
Programmed to Kill	Carlson	1987
Double Revenge	Judge	1988
The Jigsaw Murders	Captain Matt Ludwig	1989
The Road Home	Coach Dale	2003
Helter Skelter (TV)	Van Nuys Judge	2004
Return to Babylon	Mack Sennett	2013	(final film role)

Television

Title	Episode(s)	Character(s)	Year(s)
My Three Sons	Bub's Butler	Announcer	1963
The Outer Limits	The Man With The Power	Detective	1963
Mission: Impossible	Elena	Frederico (Uncredited)	1966
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.	The Master's Touch Affair	Valandros's Aide	1967
Hawaii Five-O	Strangers In Our Own Land	David Milner	1968
Bonanza	The Night Virginia City Died	Doctor Martin	1970
The Six Million Dollar Man	The Rescue of Athena One	Flight Surgeon Wolf	1974
Starsky and Hutch	The Plague	Lieutenant Anderson	1977
Three's Company	Jack Moves Out/Professor Jack	Alvin Morrell/Doctor Anderson	1979/1981
Diff'rent Strokes	Small Claims Court/Fire	Judge Roscoe C. Briggs/Chief Scott	1980/1982
The Dukes of Hazzard	Cletus Falls In Love	Mister Hodges	1981
Doogie Howser, M.D.	Doogenstein	Philip Leonetti	1990
Coach	Vegas Odds	Mister Burrows	1993
Frasier	Burying a Grudge	Doctor Sternstein	1994
High Incident	Knock Knock	Steven Carlisle	1997
The Practice	Trial And Error	Judge Skully (Uncredited)	1997
Boy Meets World	The Honeymooners	Tourist #1	1999
The West Wing	Inauguration, Part I	Cardinal Patrick	2003
ER	Get Carter	Mister Morgan	2004
Ghost Whisperer	Mended Hearts	Patient	2005

External links

• Paul Kent at IMDb
• Paul Kent at Memory Alpha
• Paul Kent at Find a Grave
• Obituary - Variety