Gabriella Licudi (born Gabrielle Carmen Stuttard, 14 September 1941 – 18 September 2022) was a British actress.

Biography

Born in

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, Licudi was the daughter of Northern Ireland-born naval engineer Wilfred James Stuttard and Olga Maria Licudi of Gibraltar. She was educated in England, France and Spain before settling permanently in England at the age of fifteen. Initially planning to teach elocution, she studied at the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

, where she was spotted by an agent while performing in a class production in 1961. Her first major role on stage was John Mortimer's ''Two Stars for Comfort'', starring

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...

which ran for nine months in London's West End. Film producer Samuel Bronston attended a performance and offered her a small role in '' The Fall of the Roman Empire'' (1964). Other roles included the part of a widowed expatriate opposite

Patrick McGoohan Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor of film, television, and theatre. Born in New York City to Irish parents, he was raised in Ireland and England. He began his career in England during t ...

in the 1965 episode of

Danger Man ''Danger Man'' (retitled ''Secret Agent'' in the United States for the revived series, and ''Destination Danger'' and ''John Drake'' in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again ...

titled "English Lady Takes Lodgers". Licudi also appeared in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

spoof '' Casino Royale'' (1967) opposite

Deborah Kerr Deborah Jane Trimmer CBE (30 September 192116 October 2007), known professionally as Deborah Kerr (), was a Scottish actress. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first person from Scotland to be no ...

, the

Henry Hathaway Henry Hathaway (March 13, 1898 – February 11, 1985) was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Western (genre), Westerns, especially starring Randolph Scott and John Wayne. He directed Gary Cooper in seven f ...

film '' The Last Safari'' (1967), and a lead role in Don Levy's experimental feature '' Herostratus'' (1967). She also starred in the 1968 BBC production of the Conan-Doyle classic 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' alongside

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage and radio roles. He achieved recognition f ...

as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Watson. Licudi made her last film appearances in the early 1970s. She and her South African husband ran a safari lodge for several years before she eventually returned to London to run her own production company. Licudi died on 18 September 2022, four days after her 81st birthday.

Selected filmography

* '' All Night Long'' (1962) - Girl (uncredited) * ''

Edgar Wallace Mysteries The ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' is a British second-feature film series mainly produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated. There were 48 films in the series, which were released between 1960 and 1965. The series was screened as ''Th ...

'' (''Candidate for Murder)'' (1962) - Party Guest * ''

The_Scales_of_Justice ''The Scales of Justice'' was a series of 13 British cinema featurettes produced from 1962 to 1967 for Anglo-Amalgamated at Merton Park Studios in London. The first nine episodes were made in black and white, and the last four in colour. The ...

'' (''The Invisible Asset)'' (1963) - Beryl * '' Unearthly Stranger'' (1964) - Julie Davidson * '' The Fall of the Roman Empire'' (1964) - Tauna (uncredited) * '' You Must Be Joking!'' (1965) - Annabelle Nash * '' The Liquidator'' (1965) - Corale * '' Casino Royale'' (1967) - Eliza * '' The Jokers'' (1967) - Eve * '' Herostratus'' (1967) - Clio * '' The Last Safari'' (1967) - Grant * '' The Hound of the Baskervilles'' (1968) TV serial - Beryl Stapleton * '' Madame Sin'' (1972) - Nun * '' Soft Beds, Hard Battles'' (1974) - Simone

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Licudi, Gabriella 1941 births 2022 deaths Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama British film actresses English people of Gibraltarian descent English people of Northern Ireland descent Actors from Aylesbury Actresses from Buckinghamshire