{{Short description|English actress}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Fiona Gaunt | image = | caption = Moonbase 3 cast picture, Gaunt is the only woman | birth_name = Fiona Elizabeth Keet-Gaunt | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1947|5|25}} | birth_place = Beirut, Lebanon | death_date = | death_place = }}
'''Fiona Elizabeth Keet-Gaunt''' (born 25 May 1947) is an English actress and the mother of actress Genevieve Gaunt.
==Personal life== According to a 1972 newspaper profile, Gaunt was born in Beirut to Scottish Presbyterian parents and lived in Uganda until she was 16.<ref>Gavin Weightman, 'TV star who wins their hearts', ''Nottingham Evening Post'', 1 December 1972, p. 11.</ref> In 1985 she met the Dutch actor Frederik de Groot. Their daughter, Genevieve, was born in January 1991.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.standard.co.uk/news/celebritynews/genevieve-gaunt-on-her-amanda-knox-role-and-how-cambridge-acting-helped-her-get-a-double-first-9698757.html|title=Genevieve Gaunt on her 'Amanda Knox' role... and how Cambridge acting helped her get a double first|date=29 August 2014|website=Evening Standard}}</ref>
==Career== Fiona Gaunt trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1969.<ref>'The Ortolan', ''The Stage'', 27 March 1969, p. 15.</ref> She subsequently played opposite Anthony Hopkins - as Hélène Kuragina, wife of Pierre Bezukhov - in the BBC's 1972 production of ''War and Peace''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5381266//|title=Saturday Television|date=15 October 1977|work=The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)|access-date=25 May 2016|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She then starred as psychiatrist Helen Smith in the 1973 science fiction series ''Moonbase 3''.<ref name=":2" />{{Sfn|Rolinson|2010|p=79}} To prepare for her role, Gaunt studied tapes of the Apollo missions.{{Sfn|Rolinson|2010|p=88}}
Gaunt appeared in a 1973 episode of the comedy series ''Sykes'', playing an upper-class girl who tricks Eric Sykes' character into getting engaged. She had a handful of roles in ''The Two Ronnies'', including as a stowaway in their spoof of ''The Onedin Line'', and starred as Grace Lovell in the 1978 TV adaptation of ''A Horseman Riding By''.<ref name=":1" /> She was also in the first production of Tom Stoppard's 1979 play, ''Undiscovered Country''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kXlq8lzszYC&q=%22fiona+gaunt%22&pg=PA77|title=Plays 4: Dalliance, Undiscovered Country, Rough Crossing, The Seagull|last=Stoppard|first=Tom|publisher=Faber Contemporary Classics|year=2000|isbn=9780571197507}}</ref>
==Filmography== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year !! Format !! Title !! Role |- |1978 |TV series |''A Horseman Riding By'' |Grace Lovell.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKlgjBCPPnsC&q=%22fiona+gaunt%22&pg=PA197|title=Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials|last=Terrace|first=Vincent|publisher=New York Zoetrope|year=1985|isbn=0918432618|volume=2|pages=197}}</ref> |- |1973 |TV series |''Moonbase 3'' |Dr. Helen Smith''.''<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hrEgCwAAQBAJ&q=%22fiona+gaunt%22&pg=PA42|title=Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s|last=Butler|first=Andrew M.|publisher=Liverpool University Press|year=2012|isbn=9781781387986|pages=41}}</ref> |- |1973 |TV series |''The Two Ronnies.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gfll3|title=The Two Ronnies|website=BBC|access-date=25 May 2016}}</ref> |Various roles. |- |1973 |TV series |''Sykes: An Engagement.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1973-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018021527/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1973-09-10|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 October 2014|title=Listings|website=Genome|access-date=25 May 2016}}</ref> | |- |1973 |TV series |''Justice: Malicious Damage'' |Diana Blumenthal |- |1972 |TV series |''War and Peace.''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5381048//|title=TV Movie Tips|date=25 November 1973|work=Independent Press-Telegram|access-date=25 May 2016|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> |Hélène Kuragina.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/profile/susan-barnum/clipnumber/45794/|title=Educational TV|date=5 January 1974|work=Kingsport News|access-date=25 May 2016|via=Newspaper Archive}}</ref> |- |1971 |Miniseries |''Cousin Bette'' |Leonie.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/38f6c4fbf2644301a0704842780779c8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250913045716/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/38f6c4fbf2644301a0704842780779c8|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 September 2025|title=Cousin Bette|website=Genome|access-date=25 May 2016}}</ref> |- |1970 |Anthology Series |Tales of Unease |''Girl'' |}
==Selected stage credits== * ''The Wizard of Oz'' - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford: 1969-70<ref>'Chit Chat', ''The Stage'', 18 December 1969, p. 8.</ref> * ''Murder in the Cathedral'' - Canterbury Cathedral: 1970<ref>'Chit Chat', ''The Stage'', 3 September 1970, p. 10.</ref> * ''Undiscovered Country'' - Oliver Theatre, London: 1979<ref name=":0" /> * ''The Bedbug'' - Gate Theatre, London: 1980<ref>'Gate: The Bedbug', ''The Stage'', 14 February 1980, p. 24.</ref>
==References==
===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
===Sources=== *{{Cite journal|last=Rolinson|first=Dave|date=2010|title=Moonbase 3 and the Limitations of Reality in Apollo-era Television SF|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/381068|journal=Science Fiction Film and Television|volume=3|issue=1|pages=79–92|doi=10.3828/sfftv.2010.5|s2cid=192083667|access-date=25 May 2016|url-access=subscription |via=Project MUSE}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0310142|name=Fiona Gaunt}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaunt, Fiona}} Category:1947 births Category:English television actresses Category:Living people Category:Actresses from London Category:British emigrants to the Netherlands Category:Lebanese people of British descent