Gabrielle Beaumont, the British director who broke ground for women in Hollywood by helming episodes of series including M*A*S*H, The Waltons, Hill Street Blues and Dynasty during her five-decade career, has died. She was 80.
Beaumont died peacefully Oct. 8 at her home in Fornalutx, Mallorca, Spain, her brother, actor-producer Christopher Toyne, announced Wednesday.
As one of the most prolific female directors in the history of primetime television, the Emmy-nominated Beaumont also handled installments of Knots Landing, The Dukes of Hazzard, Miami Vice, Cagney & Lacey, Doogie Howser, M.D., L.A. Law, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Law & Order and three Star Trek series, among many other shows.
After her British horror film The Godsend (1980) opened in the U.S., Beaumont came to Hollywood seeking work and got a meeting with Aaron Spelling, bringing with her two cans of films that she had worked on. (At that time, women were designated a “minority” in California law, and the famed TV producer was under pressure to hire women behind the camera.)
Spelling didn’t bother to look at her films, asking her, “Can you goddamn direct?” She replied, “Goddamn, yes!” and was on a plane that night to take on a 1980 episode of ABC’s Vega$.
Spelling hired her many more times, including on Dynasty — she lobbied to cast her friend, Joan Collins, as Alexis — Hart to Hart, Hotel, The Colbys, Beverly Hills, 90210, 7th Heaven and Melrose Place.
Beaumont was born in London on April 7, 1942. Her mother, Diana Beaumont, was a leading lady in British films and plays; her father, Gabriel Toyne, was a stuntman and actor who taught the likes of Laurence Olivier and Alec Guinness in the art of sword fighting.
Beaumont trained at the BBC, entered the film industry as an editor and then worked as a first assistant director and production manager before producing such horror films as The Johnstown Monster and The Corpse, both released in 1971. She also directed and produced documentaries and dramas for the BBC.
Later, Beaumont would direct telefilms including 1981’s Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story, 1993’s Riders, 1995’s The Other Woman — she won a Humanitas Prize for that — and 1998’s Diana: A Tribute to the People’s Princess.
She became the first woman to direct an episode of Star Trek in 1989 with the Next Generation episode “Booby Trap.” She called the shots for seven episodes of that show and also worked on Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Beaumont spent the last decade of her life in Spain, where she shot commercials and wrote. She recently adapted The King’s General, a 1946 book written by her cousin Daphne du Maurier, as a miniseries, her brother said.
She was married to British actor, screenwriter and artist Olaf Pooley and to cinematographer Michael J. Davis. In addition to her brother, survivors include her sister-in-law, former Disney executive Esther Ewert.
