I note your queries about George Brent (writes a correspondent). Actually he is the son of a Dublin newspaper man, and his real name is Nolan.
Though his father was a journalist, most of his paternal ancestors were soldiers - officers in the British Army - and I think Brent himself claims that it was a Captain Nolan, a grand-uncle or other near relation, who "carried the order for the immortal charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava: he was killed just as the charge began."
Brent learned his acting at the Abbey Theatre. That is his own account, at any rate. He says he spent his days working for "Mick" Collins during the "Troubles," and his nights at the Abbey. I think I remember he said once in an interview that, as he was too young at the time for active armed service, the I.R.A. used him as a despatch rider.
"Things becoming too hot for him" (I am quoting from a Hollywood publicity sheet sent to me many years ago), young Nolan, not yet 21, fled to London and thence to Canada - on a freight schooner. He drifted to New York, joined a stock company of actors, and adopted the name of Brent for stage purposes. After some experience he went to Hollywood.
The Irish Times, March 16th, 1940.