Fiona Gaunt

According to a 1972 newspaper profile, Gaunt was born in Beirut to Scottish Presbyterian parents and lived in Uganda until she was 16.^[1] In 1985 she met the Dutch actor Frederik de Groot. Their daughter, Genevieve, was born in January 1991.^[2]

Fiona Gaunt trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1969.^[3] She subsequently played opposite Anthony Hopkins - as Hélène Kuragina, wife of Pierre Bezukhov - in the BBC's 1972 production of War and Peace.^[4] She then starred as psychiatrist Helen Smith in the 1973 science fiction series Moonbase 3.^[5][6] To prepare for her role, Gaunt studied tapes of the Apollo missions.^[7]

Gaunt appeared in a 1973 episode of the comedy series Sykes, playing an upper-class girl who tricks Eric Sykes' character into getting engaged. She had a handful of roles in The Two Ronnies, including as a stowaway in their spoof of The Onedin Line, and starred as Grace Lovell in the 1978 TV adaptation of A Horseman Riding By.^[8] She was also in the first production of Tom Stoppard's 1979 play, Undiscovered Country.^[9]

• The Wizard of Oz - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford: 1969-70^[15]
• Murder in the Cathedral - Canterbury Cathedral: 1970^[16]
• Undiscovered Country - Oliver Theatre, London: 1979^[9]
• The Bedbug - Gate Theatre, London: 1980^[17]