Patricia Cutts

She was the first person to portray the character of Blanche Hunt in ITV soap opera Coronation Street, appearing in two episodes.

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.

In 1959 she appeared on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life with football coach Jack Curtice as her co-contestant.

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.

[7] 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.

Cutts as Milady de Winter and Maximilian Schell as D'Artagnan in a 1960 television production of The Three Musketeers
Cutts (at left) with Ann Todd and Angela Lansbury from a 1959 Playhouse 90 production.