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Actress Hunnicutt (circa 1980)

Photo: Terry Fincher / Popperfoto / Getty Images

It may seem obvious that Texan-born Gayle Hunnicutt had her biggest role in the TV series »Dallas«. But her character, Vanessa Beaumont, was a childhood sweetheart of serial villain J.R. Ewing – an English aristocrat. And the actress Hunnicutt also spent important years of her life in Great Britain.

Born in Fort Worth in 1943, Gayle Hunnicutt was discovered by a talent scout while studying theatre at the University of California, Los Angeles. Hunnicutt made her debut on the television screen in 1966 in the US series »Mister Roberts«, and a short time later she starred alongside Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra in the rocker film »The Wild Angels«.

At the end of the sixties, the press mentioned her in the same breath as Sharon Tate or Faye Dunaway. But soon Hunnicutt appeared mainly in the gossip columns: she had met and fallen in love with the British actor David Hemmings. Hemmings became a star with »Blow Up«, Hunnicutt moved to Great Britain as part of their wedding. She starred alongside Hemmings in the 1970 thriller »Shadows of Fear«, and in 1972 he cast her as director in »Running Scared«.

Hemmings described the couple's tumultuous relationship as "Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton for the poor." In 1974 came the divorce from Hemmings. In 1978, Gayle Hunnicutt married journalist Sir Simon Jenkins, with whom she remained married until 2009. She had a son with both husbands.

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Gayle Hunnicutt 1974

Photo: Jeremy Grayson / Radio Times / Getty Images

In Great Britain she played theater. Especially in the eighties, she had frequent guest appearances in popular television series – including »Taxi« or »Love Boat«. She played her role as Vanessa Beaumont in the last three seasons of »Dallas«, which aired in the USA from 1989 to 1991.

In addition to her roles as Alix von Hessen-Darmstadt in the miniseries »Sturz der Adler« and as Irene Adler in the production of »Sherlock Holmes« from 1984, Hunnicutt also appeared in the TV version of the horror thriller »Fantômas« (1980).

Gayle Hunnicutt died on Thursday at the age of 80, the Guardian reported. Details about the circumstances and place of her death were not initially known.

feb/dpa