{{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 | other_names = Pat Cutts<br />Patricia Wayne | years_active = 1946–1974 | spouse = William Nichols (1962–1963) (divorced)<ref>{{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}}</ref><br>John Findlay<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Patricia_Cutts |title = Patricia Cutts - the Alfred Hitchcock Wiki}}</ref> | children = 1 }}
'''Patricia Cutts''' (20 July 1926 – 6 September 1974)<ref name=BFI>[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.</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}{{Dead link|date=January 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> 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|thumb|left|Cutts as Milady de Winter and Maximilian Schell 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 American football coach Jack Curtice as her co-contestant.<ref>{{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}}</ref> She was a regular panellist on the DuMont quiz ''Down You Go'' and starred alongside Vincent Price in ''The Tingler''.<ref>{{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}}</ref><!--Need a source that does not require a subscription!--> 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|thumb|Cutts (left) with Ann Todd 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>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.</ref>
==Selected filmography== * ''Flying with Prudence'' (1946) – Prudence * ''Just William's Luck'' (1948) – Gloria's Secretary * ''I Was a Male War Bride'' (1949) – Girl in Doorway (uncredited) * ''Madness of the Heart'' (1949) – Girl at bookstall * ''The Adventures of PC 49'' "Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel" (1949) – Joan Carr * ''Your Witness'' (1950) – Alex Summerfield, Roger's Sister in Law * ''The Long Dark Hall'' (1951) – Rose Mallory * ''Those People Next Door'' (1953) – Anne Twigg * ''The Happiness of Three Women'' (1954) – Irene Jennings * ''The Man Who Loved Redheads'' (1955) – Bubbles * ''1957 TV series'' (1957) – Perry Mason * ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' (1958) (Season 3 Episode 25: "Flight to the East") – Barbara Denim * ''Merry Andrew'' (1958) – Letitia Fairchild * ''North by Northwest'' (1959) – Hospital Patient (uncredited) * ''The Tingler'' (1959) – Isabel Stevens Chapin * ''Battle of the Coral Sea'' (1959) – Lieutenant Peg Whitcomb * ''The Case of the Dangerous Dowager'' (1959) – Sylvia Oxman * ''Yancy Derringer'' (1959) – Lady Charity, Ep. 20, "Hell and High Water" * ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' (1964) (Season 2 Episode 32: "Body in the Barn") - Samantha Wilkins * ''The Case of the Bogus Buccaneer'' (1966) – Ann Eldridge * ''Private Road'' (1971) – Erica Talbot
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|0194036}} * {{IBDB name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cutts, Patricia}} Category:1926 births Category:1974 deaths Category:1974 suicides Category:English film actresses Category:English television actresses Category:Suicides in Chelsea Category:Drug-related deaths in England Category:Barbiturates-related deaths Category:20th-century English actresses Category:Suicides by poison Category:Actors and actresses who died by suicide Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:Female suicides Category:Actresses from London Category:Actors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Category:People from Chelsea, London