Gayle Hunnicutt

Gayle Hunnicutt, Lady Jenkins (February 6, 1943 – August 31, 2023) was an American film, television and stage actress. She starred in more than 30 films.

Gayle Hunnicutt
Hunnicutt in The Golden Bowl (1972)
Born	(1943-02-06)February 6, 1943 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Died	August 31, 2023(2023-08-31) (aged 80) London, England
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation(s)	Actress, writer, model
Years active	1966–1999
Spouses	David Hemmings ​ ​ (m. 1968; div. 1975)​ Sir Simon Jenkins ​ ​ (m. 1978; div. 2009)​
Children	2, including Nolan Hemmings

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, then became an actress.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Acting

During her film career, Hunnicutt was typecast as a brunette sexpot.^[1][2] She portrayed Emaline Fetty, a con woman trying to extort money from the Clampetts in two episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1966.^[3] She co-starred with James Garner in the detective film Marlowe (1969), in which her character was a glamorous Hollywood actress.

She moved to England with husband David Hemmings in 1970. She and Hemmings co-starred in two horror films in the early 1970s, Fragment of Fear (1970) and Voices (1973). She played Charlotte Stant in the Jack Pulman television adaptation (1972) of Henry James's The Golden Bowl. She played Ann Barrett in The Legend of Hell House (1973) and Tsarina Alexandra in the television miniseries Fall of Eagles (1974). She appeared as a housewife and mother in an episode of The Martian Chronicles in 1979. 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") in 1984. She also appeared in another Marlowe mystery in an episode of HBO's Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983), this time starring Powers Boothe. She had a supporting role in the thriller Target (1985), co-starring Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon. Hunnicutt returned to the United States in 1989 to play the role of Vanessa Beaumont in Dallas, making semi-regular appearances until 1991.

In 2012, Hunnicutt was featured in an episode of the HGTV reality show Selling London, in which she presented the Primrose Hill property where she and her second husband, journalist and editor Simon Jenkins, lived for three decades.^[4]

Writing

Hunnicutt wrote 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.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life and death

On November 16, 1968, Hunnicutt married British actor David Hemmings, with whom she had a son, actor Nolan Hemmings. 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. They divorced in 2009. In 2010 she started dating Richard Evans, tennis correspondent of The Daily Telegraph.^[5]

Hunnicutt died on August 31, 2023, at the age of 80 in London.^[6][7]

Filmography

• The Wild Angels (1966) as Suzie
• P.J. (1968) as Maureen Preble
• The Smugglers (1968 TV film) as Adrianna
• Eye of the Cat (1969) as Kassia Lancaster
• Marlowe (1969) as Mavis 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

• The Beverly Hillbillies (TV series, 1966) as Emaline Fetty (2 episodes)
• Get Smart: It Takes One to Know One (1966–67) as Octavia, a KAOS agent
• The Golden Bowl (TV miniseries, 1972) as Charlotte Slant
• The Ripening Seed (1973) as Madame Dalleray
• Fall of Eagles (TV miniseries, 1974) as Tsarina Alexandra
• Thriller ("K Is for Killing", 1974) as Suzy Buckley
• Dylan (1978) as Liz Reitel
• Return of the Saint (1979) as Annabelle West
• A Man Called Intrepid (TV miniseries, 1979) as Cynthia
• Fantômas [fr] (French TV miniseries, 1980's) as Lady Beltham
• The Martian Chronicles (TV miniseries, 1980) as Ruth Wilder
• The Love Boat (“The Mallory Quest/Julie, the Vamp/The Offer”, 1980) as Janet Mallory
• Taxi (1983) as Mrs. Bascome^[8]
• Tales of the Unexpected ("The Luncheon", 1983) as Susan Mandeville
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ("A Scandal In Bohemia", 1984) as Irene Adler
• The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (TV miniseries, 1984) as Mary Sloane
• A Woman of Substance (TV miniseries, 1985) as Olivia Wainright
• Strong Medicine (1986) as Lillian Hawthorne
• Dream West (TV miniseries, 1986) as Maria Crittenden
• Dallas (1989–1991) as Vanessa Beaumont
• The Saint: The Brazilian Connection (1989) as Mrs. Cunningham