Coronation Street fan might not know that Maggie Jones didn’t always play matriarch Blanche Hunt from her inception.Known as an iconic comedy character, Blanche was mum to Deidre and always on hand with a witty remark or eye-rolling moment.But she was actually played by another actress entirely for two episodes of the ITV soap, before the star tragically took her own life at the age of just 48.To commemorate what would have been Maggie Jones’ 88th birthday, we take a look into the life of first Blanche actress Patricia Cutts.From her arrest and subsequent jail time to her Hollywood career working with legends like Alfred Hitchcock, she did it all.Patricia Cutts was born in London in 1926 to a very famous father, writer and director Graham Cutts.Her mum was actress Robin Coles, dad Graham’s second wife after he originally married Lizzie Hart, with their first child sadly dying in infancy.She attended boarding school, but ran away aged just 14 to join a theatre company.Graham was known as one of the leading British directors of the 1920s, and directed everything from Sherlock Holmes flicks to Alfred Hitchcock projects like The Prude’s Fall and The Passionate Adventure.He worked with iconic stars including Hitchcock, Noel Coward and Gracie Fields before his death in 1958.It was perhaps her dad’s sway in the world of film which landed Pat her first roles working with Hitchcock.Before finding short-lived fame on the Corrie cobbles, Patricia worked in Hollywood and appeared in numerous American films and TV shows.She had previously studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.Most famously, she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Perry Mason, along with flicks like North By Northwest and TV programmes including The Lucy
