Gary Kent

Gary Kent was born on a wheat ranch at Walla Walla, Washington, the son of Arthur E. and Iola Kent. He graduated from Renton High School, Renton, Washington, and attended the University of Washington, where he studied journalism, played football and pole-vaulted on the track team. He was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. After college he entered the Naval Air Corps, where he wrote promotion and publicity for the Navy's elite flying team, The Blue Angels. After his stint in the military Gary began a career in theatre, working in productions throughout the South as writer, director and actor. He is an alumnus of both the Playhouse and Alley Theatres, Houston, Texas. In l959 Kent moved to Hollywood, where he carved out a career in motion pictures. Over a 40-year period he has worked with such luminaries as Jack Nicholson, Penny Marshall, Alan Arkin, James Caan, Bruce Willis and Garry Marshall. He has directed action and supplied special effects for, among others, directors Peter Bogdanovich, Brian De Palma, Richard Rush and Monte Hellman. He was Unit Production Manager on the Academy Award-nominated Phantom of the Paradise (1974). In the late 1980s he wrote and directed Rainy Day Friends (1985), which won Best Special Stunt in a Motion Picture at the International Stuntman Awards. In l997 his original screenplay, "Where's Bassett's Body?", won 1st Place, Outstanding Script by a Texas Writer, at the Lone Star Screenplay Competition in Dallas. In July of 2000 he was one of two Guests of Honor at the Bicknell International Film Festival, Bicknell, Utah, and is listed in Who's Who In Entertainment. He has six children: Greg, a theatre director; Colleen, a teacher; and Andrew, an attorney, by first wife Joyce Peacock; Chris, a musician; Alex, a paralegal; and Michael, a visual artist, by second wife Rosemary Gallegly. Kent lives in Austin, Texas, with wife Shirley (Tomi Barrett), four dogs and seven cats.