Regular Cast Biography
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Regular Cast Biography |
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by David K. Smith and Alan Hayes Born 7 February 1942 (some sources say 1943) in Battersea, London, England, Gareth Hunt served in the Merchant Navy for six years from age fifteen, before jumping ship in New Zealand and ending up in military prison for three months. Returning to Britain, Gareth took the first steps that would eventually lead to his acting career: getting a job in an ITV studio, and later taking a BBC design course. During this time he held a variety of jobs to make ends meet, ranging from stagehand to road digger to door-to-door salesman. Coincidentally following in Patrick Macnee's footsteps, he attended Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. After a series of stints with a variety of troupes, he then followed Diana Rigg's lead and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. After appearing in Upstairs, Downstairs and Doctor Who, he arrived at The New Avengers. Playing Mike Gambit was very likely the high point of his career, as decent film or television roles eluded him thereafter. At one point abandoning acting, he pursued a business venture: developing a CD-ROM of British actors, which acquired no interest. He has also made noises about writing a book on The New Avengers, although this has yet to happen. Returning to acting, he achieved some degree of (perhaps dubious) notoriety for appearing, together with Liza Goddard and Una Stubbs, in a number of Nescafé coffee commercials directed by Carlos Pasini Hansen. 2001 saw him in a regular role in the ITV soap opera, Night and Day, and most recently he appeared in a cameo role in Eastenders—one story has it that he had earlier tried out for a regular role in that series, but was turned down because of his rhyming slang name. Married thrice, he had three sons, was an avid golfer, and lived in Epsom, Surrey with his wife Mandy until he died of pancreatic cancer 14 March 2007. |
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