BORN ON THIS DAY

IAN BANNEN (1928-1999). The Oscar-nominated Scottish actor starred in movies Braveheart, and on TV in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Dr Finlay’s Casebook. A drinking buddy of Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, he gave up booze after getting hepatitis. He died in a car accident near Loch Ness. He met Marilyn, his wife of 40 years, when she parked her old van in his reserved space at the Royal Shakespeare Company. JEAN KENT (1921-2013). The London-born actress, who starred opposite Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, was the ‘bad girl’ of British movies in the Forties and Fifties. An obituary said the redhead specialised in ‘trollops, minxes and brazen hussies’. The Fanny By Gaslight star said: ‘If they opened a script and read, “A girl appears in cami-knickers”, they would send for me.’