Gareth Hunt

Infobox actor
name = Gareth Hunt
bgcolour = silver


imagesize = 190px
caption = Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit
birthname = Alan Leonard Hunt
birthdate = birth date|1942|2|7|df=yes
location = Battersea, London, England
deathdate = death date|2007|3|14|df=yes (aged 65)
deathplace = Redhill, Surrey, England
othername =
homepage =

Alan Leonard Hunt (7 February 1942 – 14 March 2007) was an English actor, known as Gareth Hunt, best remembered for playing the footman Frederick Norton in "Upstairs, Downstairs" and Mike Gambit in "The New Avengers".

Early life

Alan Leonard Hunt was born in Battersea, London in 1942; he was the nephew of actress Martita Hunt.cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1517304.ece|title=Gareth Hunt - Obituary|first=|last=|publisher=The Times|date=15 March 2007] His father was killed in the Second World War when Hunt was two years old, and he was brought up by his mother Doris and stepfather.cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/03/15/db1501.xml|title=Gareth Hunt - Obituary|first=|last=|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=15 March 2007] At the age of 15, he joined the Merchant Navy. After six years, he jumped ship in New Zealand and worked in a car plant for a year before he was caught and served three months in a military prison.cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article1515376.ece|title=New Avengers star Gareth Hunt dies|first=|last=|publisher=The Times|date=14 March 2007] Hunt was then deported back to Britain and while taking a BBC design course he held a variety of jobs, including stagehand, road digger, butcher's assistant and door-to-door salesman. Having had an interest in acting since his early years, he subsequently trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Following that, Hunt did rep across the United Kingdom and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre in the early 1970s. Among the many stage productions he appeared in were "Twelfth Night", "Oh! What a Lovely War" and "West Side Story".

Hunt started his television career in 1972, playing a policeman in "For the Love of Ada". The same year Hunt appeared in "A Family at War" and "The Organisation". In 1974, he had a role in the "Doctor Who" story "Planet of the Spiders" and "Bless This House".

Television fame

In 1974, Gareth Hunt appeared in the "Upstairs, Downstairs" episode "Missing Believed Killed" as Trooper Norton, batman to James Bellamy.cite news|url=|title=Inside UpDown - The Story of Upstairs, Downstairs|first=|last=|publisher=Kaleidoscope Publishing|date=2005] The character was a minor one; however, his performance led producers John Hawkesworth and Alfred Shaughnessy to ask him to come back as a regular for the fifth series in 1975.

Hunt continued playing Frederick Norton, who had by now become the footman, until the eleventh episode of the fifth series, "Alberto". In 1975, Hunt made appearances in "The Hanged Man", "Softly, Softly" and "".

In 1976, the year after leaving "Upstairs Downstairs", Hunt starred alongside Joanna Lumley and Patrick Macnee in "The New Avengers". The show's producers said he was cast because of his part in "Upstairs, Downstairs". Hunt played secret agent Mike Gambit and starred in the show until its end after two series in 1977. After that in the late 1970s and 1980s, Hunt made appearances in "Sunday Night Thriller","Minder" and "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense". In 1984 he appeared in the film "Bloodbath at the House of Death" and in 1988 he played many parts in the Pet Shop Boys' film "It Couldn't Happen Here".

Hunt starred in a series of television adverts for the coffee brand Nescafé in the 1980s, with a trademark move: to shake his closed hand then open it, to reveal coffee beans, and smell the aroma.cite news|url=http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1255822,00.html|title=New Avengers Actor Dies|first=|last=|publisher=Sky News|date=14 March 2007]

At the height of his fame, his name was used as an expression in Cockney rhyming s _rh. Absolute Power" (as himself), "New Tricks" and "Doctors". From 1992 to 1993 Hunt had a leading role in the sitcom "Side by Side", and had a main role in the short-lived soap opera "Night and Day" in 2001. In 1997, he appeared in the film "Fierce Creatures" and in 2001 played Ritchie Stringer, a crime boss who was an unlikely suspect in the shooting of Phil Mitchell, in "EastEnders".cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6449881.stm|title=Avengers actor Gareth Hunt dies|first=|last=|publisher=BBC|date=14 March 2007] For a brief time he abandoned acting and started a project called Interactive Casting Universal, a computer system that presented actors' details and showreels.

Hunt suffered a heart attack in December 1999 and withdrew from a pantomime in Malvern. In July 2002 he collapsed while performing on stage in Bournemouth. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2149750.stm|title=Hunt 'comfortable' after stage collapse|first=|last=|publisher=BBC|date=24 July 2002] Gareth Hunt died of pancreatic cancer, from which he had suffered for two years, on 14 March 2007, at the age of 65, at his home in Redhill, Surrey. He had married three times and had a son by each marriage.

References

External links

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