Television Fame
In 1974, Gareth Hunt appeared in the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "Missing Believed Killed" as Trooper Norton, batman to James Bellamy. The character was a minor one; however, his performance led producers John Hawkesworth and Alfred Shaughnessy to ask him to come back as a regular for the fifth series in 1975.
Hunt continued playing Frederick Norton, who had by now become the footman, until the eleventh episode of the fifth series, "Alberto". In 1975, Hunt made appearances in The Hanged Man, Softly, Softly and Space: 1999.
In 1976, the year after leaving Upstairs Downstairs, Hunt starred alongside Joanna Lumley and Patrick Macnee in The New Avengers. The show's producers said he was cast because of his part in Upstairs, Downstairs. Hunt played secret agent Mike Gambit and starred in the show until its end after two series in 1977. He portrayed secret agent Charles Bind in Licensed to Love and Kill. After that in the late 1970s and 1980s, Hunt made appearances in Sunday Night Thriller, Minder and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense. Hunt appeared alongside Julia McKenzie in That Beryl Marston...! in 1981. In 1984 he appeared in the film Bloodbath at the House of Death and in 1988 he played many parts in the Pet Shop Boys' film It Couldn't Happen Here.
Hunt starred in a series of television adverts for the coffee brand Nescafé in the 1980s, with a trademark move: to shake his closed hand then open it, to reveal coffee beans, and smell the aroma.
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Famous quotes containing the words television and/or fame:
“We cannot spare our children the influence of harmful values by turning off the television any more than we can keep them home forever or revamp the world before they get there. Merely keeping them in the dark is no protection and, in fact, can make them vulnerable and immature.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“Alas, we are the victims of advertisement. Those who taste the joys and sorrows of fame when they have passed forty, know how to look after themselves. They know what is concealed beneath the flowers, and what the gossip, the calumnies, and the praise are worth. But as for those who win fame when they are twenty, they know nothing, and are caught up in the whirlpool.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)