Patricia Cutts

Patricia Cutts (20 July 1926 – 6 September 1974) was an English actress whose career spanned film, television, and Broadway across several decades. Born in London, she was the daughter of writer-director Graham Cutts. Her earliest screen work consisted of supporting roles in British films, ranging from minor parts to more substantial ones, including the role of Anne Twigg in Those People Next Door (1953).

Cutts made her Broadway debut in 1955 and went on to appear in three productions through 1964. Her stage credits included the comedy The Matchmaker, Kean, and Any Wednesday. Alongside her theatrical work, she maintained an active screen career on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the 1950s. She relocated to the United States in 1958, the same year she appeared in the Danny Kaye film Merry Andrew, playing Letitia Fairchild, and made her first appearance on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. That year she was also a regular panellist on the DuMont quiz program Down You Go.

Her American film work in 1959 included a starring role opposite Vincent Price in The Tingler, a small uncredited appearance as a hospital patient in North by Northwest, and the part of Lieutenant Peg Whitcomb in the war film Battle of the Coral Sea. On television, she played defendant Sylvia Oxman in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Dangerous Dowager" in 1959, and appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life alongside football coach Jack Curtice. During the 1960s, she made guest appearances on The Lucy Show, Car 54 Where Are You?, Adventures in Paradise, and Playhouse 90, and returned to Perry Mason in 1966 as Ann Eldridge in "The Case of the Bogus Buccaneers."

After a quieter period, Cutts returned to the United Kingdom and appeared in the 1972 British television series Spyder's Web. In 1974 she was cast as Blanche Hunt in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, becoming the first actor to portray the character, though she appeared in only two episodes. Cutts was found dead at her flat in Chelsea, London, on 6 September 1974, at the age of 48. An inquest returned a verdict of suicide by barbiturate poisoning.