Gareth Hunt | |
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Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit
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Born |
Alan Leonard Hunt 7 February 1943 Battersea, London, England, United Kingdom |
Died | 14 March 2007 Redhill, Surrey, England, United Kingdom |
(aged 64)
Occupation | Actor and Presenter |
Alan Leonard Hunt (7 February 1943 – 14 March 2007) was a British actor, known as Gareth Hunt, best remembered for playing the footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs and Mike Gambit in The New Avengers.
Alan Leonard Hunt was born in Battersea, London in 1943; he was the nephew of actress Martita Hunt. His father was killed in the Second World War when Hunt was two years old, and he was brought up by his mother Doris and stepfather. At the age of 15, he joined the Merchant Navy. After six years, he jumped ship in New Zealand and worked in a car plant for a year before he was caught and served three months in a military prison. Hunt was then deported back to Britain and while taking a BBC design course he held a variety of jobs, including stagehand, road digger, butcher's assistant and door-to-door salesman. Having had an interest in acting since his early years, he subsequently trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Following that, Hunt did rep across the United Kingdom and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre in the early 1970s. Among the many stage productions he appeared in were Twelfth Night, Oh! What a Lovely War and West Side Story.