Gunilla Hutton

{{short description|Swedish-born American actress and singer (b. 1944)}} {{BLP sources|date=September 2010}} {{Infobox person | name = Gunilla Hutton | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1944|05|15}} | birth_place = Gothenburg, Sweden | death_date = | death_place = | known_for = {{hlist|''Petticoat Junction''|''Hee Haw''}} | occupation = {{hlist|Actress|singer}} | years_active = 1965–present | spouse = | children = | website = }}

'''Gunilla Hutton''' (born May 15, 1944) is a Swedish-born American former actress and singer,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lassen |first1=Kurt | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=a6QrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uPwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6920,4196702&dq=gunilla-hutton&hl=en| title=Oh-so-dumb Blonde Image Is Strictly For Television| date=December 21, 1974| work=Nashua Telegraph |agency=Columbia Features Inc.| location=New Hampshire, Nashua |accessdate=December 24, 2010 |page=10}}</ref> perhaps best known for her roles as the second Billie Jo Bradley (1965–1966) on ''Petticoat Junction'' and as a regular cast member in the television series ''Hee Haw'' until 1992. She was raised in Fort Worth, Texas.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vFM_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=hFIMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3939,1462901&dq=gunilla-hutton&hl=en| title=Hee Haw's Dumb Blonde is Serious About Her Job| date=August 5, 1978| work=Windsor Star| accessdate=December 24, 2010}}</ref>

==Early years== Born in Gothenburg, Sweden on May 15, 1944,<ref>Finnigan, Joseph (April 16, 1966). [https://archive.org/details/vintage-tv-guides/TV%20Guide%201966-04-16%20Northern%20CA/page/n101/mode/2up?q=%22Gunilla+Hutton%22+%22May+15+1944%22 "IT'S A NICE PLACE TO VISIT... but life in 'Petticoat Junction' doesn't appeal to all the members of the younger generation"]. ''TV Guide''. pp. 17, 19. Retrieved January 7, 2026. "Gunilla Hutton, the new Billie Jo, was born May 15, 1944, in Goteborg, Sweden; came to this country with her parents when she was 7, and moved on to stage shows with the late Nat King Cole and Jack Benny. She also appeared in some dramatic TV programs. Henning saw Gunilla when she worked with Benny in Las Vegas."</ref> Hutton arrived in the United States at age 7, speaking no English.<ref name="ss">{{cite news |last1=Kleiner |first1=Dick |title=Swedish-Born Actress Has Many Accents |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-standard-star-gunilla-hutton/174993016/ |access-date=June 21, 2025 |work=The Standard-Star |date=June 22, 1970 |location=New York, New Rochelle |page=39|via = Newspapers.com }}</ref>

==Career== Hutton started playing Billie Jo on ''Petticoat Junction'' at the beginning of the show's third season and left at the end of that season.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tate |first1=Marsha Ann |last2=Houser |first2=Earl |title=What America Watched: Television Favorites from the Cornfields to the Cosmos, 1960s-1990s |date=January 28, 2022 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-8057-6 |page=57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cD1ZEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Gunilla+Hutton%22&pg=PA57 |access-date=June 21, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

During her lone season on Petticoat Junction (1965–66), Hutton appeared in 23 of its 34 episodes.

She appeared in ''Perry Mason'', ''The Love Boat'', and ''Murder Can Hurt You'' (1980). In 2015, she appeared in a MeTV commercial promoting ''Petticoat Junction'' with cast members Linda Kaye Henning and Lori Saunders.

Hutton sang in personal appearances and recorded two singles for ABC/Dot Records.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Burk |first1=Bill E. |title=Gunilla Hutton Tries Memphis Recording |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-memphis-press-scimitar-gunilla-hutto/174948482/ |access-date=June 21, 2025 |work=The Memphis Press-Scimitar |date=October 10, 1979 |page=8|via = Newspapers.com }}</ref>

==Personal life==

For about a year or so, she was involved in an extramarital relationship with Nat King Cole. Hutton has been said to have telephoned Cole's wife Maria Cole to tell her to divorce him. Maria, in turn, confronted her husband, and Cole ended his relationship with Hutton after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Later, she married former Air Force pilot Allan Freeman. They had 3 children together and remained married for 43 years until his death in 2014.<ref>{{cite book| last=Epstein| first=Daniel Mark| title=Nat King Cole| url=https://archive.org/details/natkingcole00epst/page/350/mode/2up?q=divorce| page=351| date=November 12, 1999| location=New York| publisher=Farrar Straus Giroux| isbn=978-0783890128}}</ref> He was her second husband.<ref name="ss" />

==Discography== ===Singles=== * "You Can Say the Prettiest Things Sometimes" b/w "The Greatest Story Never Told" (1972) * "Chowchilla Dust" b/w "We've Got Old Fashioned Love" (1973) * "You're Gonna Get Loved" b/w "See the Lady Cryin" (1974) * "Cody" b/w "The End of Our Love Song" (1975)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0404624}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutton, Gunilla}} Category:1944 births Category:21st-century American women Category:Actresses from Fort Worth, Texas Category:Actresses from Gothenburg Category:American television actresses Category:American women singers Category:Living people Category:Swedish emigrants to the United States