Patricia Cutts

{{Short description|English actress (1926–1974)}}

{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Patricia Cutts

| image = Patricia Cutts 1958.JPG

| caption = Cutts in 1958

| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|7|20|df=y}}

| birth_place = London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1974|9|6|1926|7|20|df=y}}

| death_place = Chelsea, London, England

| death_cause = Suicide

| othername = Pat Cutts
Patricia Wayne

| yearsactive = 1946–1974

| spouse = William Nichols (1962–1963) (divorced){{Cite web | url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/491/Patricia+Cutts/index.html |title = Patricia Cutts - the Private Life and Times of Patricia Cutts. Patricia Cutts Pictures}}
John Findlay{{Cite web | url=https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Patricia_Cutts |title = Patricia Cutts - the Alfred Hitchcock Wiki}}

| children = 1

}}

Patricia Cutts (20 July 1926 – 6 September 1974)[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116030700/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/21881 Patricia Cutts' profile], ftvdb.bfi.org.uk; accessed 25 January 2016. 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.

Biography

Cutts was born in London, the daughter of the writer-director Graham Cutts.{{cite web|author=Black, Anita|date=23 April 1965|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7oZQAAAAIBAJ&dq=graham%20cutts%20patricia&pg=7225%2C4499965|title=If the Shoe Fits...|work=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|accessdate=6 December 2012}} Her first roles were supporting parts in British films. These ranged from small roles to more substantial ones (such as playing the love interest in Those People Next Door in 1953). She moved to the US in 1958, where she appeared in American movies and television shows. From 1958, she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Perry Mason, where she played defendant Sylvia Oxman in the 1959 episode, "The Case of the Dangerous Dowager" and 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.

File:Maximilian Schell Patricia Cutts Three Musketeers 1960.JPG as D'Artagnan in a 1960 television production of The Three Musketeers]]

In 1959 she appeared on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life with football coach Jack Curtice as her co-contestant.{{cite web|last=AllegroMediaMovies|title=Episode #28, 15 April 1951|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gylm56h1Bxc|location=13:34|work=You Bet Your Life|publisher=NBC-TV|accessdate=30 December 2013}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead YouTube link|date=February 2022}} She was a regular panellist on the DuMont quiz Down You Go and starred alongside Vincent Price in The Tingler.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,908765,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222070616/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,908765,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 December 2008|title=Milestones|date=23 September 1974|magazine=Time|accessdate=2 July 2010}} In 1958, she appeared in the film Merry Andrew, starring Danny Kaye. The following year, she had a good role as the second female lead in the war movie Battle of the Coral Sea (1959). 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.

File:Patricia Cutts Ann Todd Angela Lansbury Playhouse 90 1959.JPG and Angela Lansbury from a 1959 Playhouse 90 production]]

After several quiet years she returned to the UK and was in the 1972 British television series Spyder's Web before accepting the role of Blanche Hunt in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street in 1974.{{cite web|author=Foster, Paul|date=1972-01-28|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=calBAAAAIBAJ&dq=patricia-cutts&pg=6455%2C3445880|title=Busy time for George (80)|work= Evening Times|accessdate=6 December 2012}} It would have been her most high-profile regular role to date but after appearing in only two episodes, Cutts was found dead at her flat in Chelsea, London, aged 48. An inquest into her death produced a verdict of suicide by barbiturate poisoning.Frasier, David K. (March 2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=3rmJCgAAQBAJ&q=PatriciaCutts%2Csuicide&pg=PA73 Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases]. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 73. Archived at Google Books.

Selected filmography

References

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