Patricia Cutts

Patricia Cutts
Cutts as Milady de Winter and Maximilian Schell as D'Artagnan in a 1960 television production of The Three Musketeers.
Born	(1926-07-20)20 July 1926 London, England, UK
Died	6 September 1974(1974-09-06) (aged 48) London, England, UK
Cause of death	Suicide
Other names	Pat Cutts Patricia Wayne

Patricia "Pat" Cutts (20 July 1926 – 6 September 1974)^[1] was an English film and television actress. She was the first person to portray the character of Blanche Hunt in ITV soap opera Coronation Street, appearing in two episodes. After her death, Maggie Jones took over the role.

Biography

Born in London, was the daughter of the writer-director Graham Cutts.^[2] Her first roles were small parts in American films such as I Was a Male War Bride and The Man Who Loved Redheads and the television shows Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Perry Mason, where she played defendant Sylvia Oxman in the 1959 episode, "The Case of the Dangerous Dowager," and murderer Ann Eldridge in the 1966 episode, "The Case of the Bogus Buccaneers." She continued to work consistently in film and television on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the 1950s, including a small appearance in North by Northwest.

As a young actress in 1959, she appeared on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life with football coach Jack Curtice as her co-contestant.^[3] She was a regular panelist on the hit DuMont quiz Down You Go^[4] and starred alongside Vincent Price in The Tingler. In 1958 she appeared in the film Merry Andrew, starring Danny Kaye. In the 1960s, she made guest appearances on such television shows as The Lucy Show, Car 54, Where Are You?, Adventures in Paradise, and Playhouse 90.

Cutts (at left) with Ann Todd and Angela Lansbury from a 1959 Playhouse 90 production.

After several quiet years she returned to acting in the 1972 British television series Spyder's Web^[5] before accepting the role of Blanche Hunt in the top rated ITV soap opera Coronation Street in 1974. It would have been her most high-profile regular role to date. However, producers were shocked when, after appearing in only two episodes, Cutts was found dead at her London flat, aged 48. An inquest into her death produced a verdict of suicide by barbiturate poisoning. ^[6] The role of Blanche Hunt was taken over by Maggie Jones, who played the part until her own death on 2 December 2009.^[7]

Selected filmography

• Just William's Luck (1948) - Gloria's Secretary
• I Was a Male War Bride (1949) - Girl in Doorway (uncredited)
• Madness of the Heart (1949) - Girl at bookstall
• The Adventures of PC 49 Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel (1949) - Joan Carr
• Your Witness (1950) - Alex Summerfield, Roger's Sister in Law
• The Long Dark Hall (1951) - Rose Mallory
• Those People Next Door (1953) - Anne Twigg
• The Happiness of Three Women (1954) - Irene Jennings
• The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955) - Bubbles
• Merry Andrew (1958) - Letitia Fairchild
• North by Northwest (1959) - Hospital Patient (uncredited)
• The Tingler (1959) - Isabel Stevens Chapin
• Battle of the Coral Sea (1959) - Lt. Peg Whitcomb
• Private Road (1971) - Erica Talbot

References

External links

• Patricia Cutts on IMDb
• Patricia Cutts at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Patricia Cutts at Find a Grave