Gayle Hunnicutt

Gayle Hunnicutt Lady Jenkins
Hunnicutt in The Golden Bowl (1973)
Born	(1943-02-06) February 6, 1943 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation(s)	Actress Writer Model
Years active	1966–99
Spouse(s)	David Hemmings ​ ​ (m. 1968; div. 1975)​ Sir Simon Jenkins ​ ​ (m. 1978; div. 2009)​
Children	2, including Nolan Hemmings

Gayle Hunnicutt (born February 6, 1943), is an American film, television and stage actress, who was based in the United Kingdom for many years. She has made more than 30 film appearances.

Early life and education

The daughter of Colonel Sam Lloyd Hunnicutt and Mary Virginia (née Dickerson) Hunnicutt, she was born in Fort Worth, Texas. Hunnicutt attended the University of California, Los Angeles on a scholarship to study English literature and theatre. She worked as a fashion model before pursuing acting.

Marriage and family

On November 16, 1968, Hunnicutt married British actor David Hemmings, with whom she had a son, the actor Nolan Hemmings, before they divorced in 1975.

Hunnicutt married journalist Simon Jenkins in 1978. The couple lived in Primrose Hill, London, where they raised their son, Edward. Jenkins was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to journalism in the 2004 New Year honours, making Hunnicutt “Lady Jenkins”. The couple divorced in 2009.

Hunnicutt has a home in Delray Beach, Florida.

Career

Acting

During her film career, Hunnicutt was typecast as a brunette sexpot. She portrayed Emaline Fetty, a con woman trying to extort money from the Clampetts in two episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1966. She co-starred with James Garner in the film Marlowe (1969), in which her character was a glamorous Hollywood actress.

After she moved to England with Hemmings in 1970, Hunnicutt was able to use the finer range of her acting. She had a prominent role as Charlotte Stant, in Jack Pulman's television adaptation of Henry James's novel The Golden Bowl (1972). She played Lionel's wife in The Legend of Hell House (1973) and Tsarina Alexandra in Fall of Eagles (1974). She appeared as Irene Adler, opposite Jeremy Brett, in the first episode of the TV series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ("A Scandal in Bohemia", 1984). She also appeared in another Marlowe mystery in an episode of HBO's Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983), this time starring Powers Boothe. Hunnicutt returned to the United States in 1989, where she played the role of Vanessa Beaumont in Dallas until 1991.

In 2012, Hunnicutt was featured in an episode of the HGTV reality show Selling London. It followed her during the sale of her Victorian house in Primrose Hill and her subsequent purchase of an English country property to be close to her grandchildren.

Writing

Hunnicutt has written two books; the first, Health and Beauty in Motherhood, was published in 1984. In 2004, she published Dearest Virginia: Love Letters from a Cavalry Officer in the South Pacific, which contains the letters exchanged by her parents during World War II.

Filmography

• The Wild Angels (1966) as Susie
• P.J. (1968) as Maureen Preble
• The Smugglers (1968 TV film) as Adrianna
• Eye of the Cat (1969) as Kassia Lancaster
• Marlowe (1969) as Marvis Wald
• Fragment of Fear (1970) as Juliet Bristow
• Freelance (1971) as Chris
• The Love Machine (1971) as Astrological girl at party (uncredited)
• Running Scared (1972) as Ellen Case
• Voices (1973) as Claire
• Scorpio (1973) as Susan
• The Legend of Hell House (1973) as Ann Barrett
• Nuits rouges aka Shadowman (1974)
• The Spiral Staircase (1975) as Blanche
• Strange Shadows in an Empty Room (1976) as Margie Cohn
• The Sell Out (1976) as Deborah
• Once in Paris... (1978) as Susan Townsend
• The Saint and the Brave Goose (1979) as Annabelle West
• Flashpoint Africa (1980) as Lisa Ford
• The Million Dollar Face (1981 TV film) as Diana Masterson
• Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1983 TV film) as Andrea Mackovich
• Savage in the Orient (1983 TV film) as Julian Clydesdale
• Two by Forsyth (1984 TV film)
• Target (1985) as Donna Lloyd
• Dream Lover (1986) as Claire
• Turnaround (1987) as Pat
• Silence Like Glass (1989) as Mrs. Martin
• Hard to Be a God (1989)

Television

Fantomas (TV French mini-series 1980’s) as Lady Beltham

• The Golden Bowl (TV mini-series 1972) as Charlotte Slant
• Fall of Eagles (TV mini-series 1974) as Tarsina Alexandra
• Thriller – K is for Killing (1974)
• Dylan (1978) as Liz Reitel
• Return of the Saint (1979) as Annabelle West
• A Man Called Intrepid (1979, TV miniseries) as Cynthia
• The Martian Chronicles (1980, TV miniseries) as Ruth Wilder
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984) as Irene Adler
• The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (TV mini-series - 1984) as Mary Sloane
• A Woman of Substance (TV mini-series 1985) as Olivia Wainright
• Strong Medicine (1986) as Lillian Hawthorne
• Dream West (TV mini-series - 1986) as Maria Crittenden
• Dallas (1989–1991)
• The Saint: The Brazilian Connection (1989) as Mrs. Cunningham

External links

• Gayle Hunnicutt at IMDb