Actor Gordon Scott, right, portraying Tarzan, stands with actress Eve Brent, portraying Jane, in 1958. Brent, a veteran character actor, died Aug. 17. She was 81.

Eve Brent, a veteran character actress whose most recognizable role was Jane to Gordon Scott’s Tarzan, died Aug. 27 in Sun Valley, Calif. She was 81.

Her death was confirmed by a representative of Pacifica Hospital of the Valley.

Brent rebooted the character of Jane, Tarzan’s civilized love interest, in the 1958 films “Tarzan and the Trappers” and “Tarzan’s Fight for Life,” after Jane was left out of the two previous Tarzan movies. She said she took the part to please her son, who was around 6 at the time. But although it raised her profile, she later concluded that it had been a disastrous career move.

“I really couldn’t get work as an actress because of Jane,” Brent told a Tarzan fan site in 2007. “You get stereotyped, at least in the business at that time.”

She spent the next 10 years or so acting in theater and playing bit parts in movies like the comedy “A Guide for the Married Man” (1967), in which her character was Blowsy Blonde, and the Clint Eastwood action movie “Coogan’s Bluff” (1968), in which she played a prostitute.

She started landing more varied movie roles in the 1970s and won a best supporting actress award from the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films for “Fade to Black” (1980), in which she played a victim of a murderous film buff.

Her later films included the Stephen King adaptation “The Green Mile” (1999), with Tom Hanks; and “Garfield” (2004), with Bill Murray. She also acted on television, most recently on popular sitcoms like “Community” and “Scrubs.”

Her final film, “Hit List,” is scheduled for release in early 2012.

Eve Brent was born Jean Ewers in Texas in 1930. She grew up in Fort Worth and began acting on the radio as a child.

Survivors include a son, James Lewis.

Despite the career drawbacks of playing Jane, Brent told the Tarzan fan site that the role had its rewards.

“The memory of being Jane, and the fact of being Jane, has allowed me to be a part of motion picture history, and a part of all the lives of all the people who have enjoyed Tarzan,” she said.