Gabrielle Beaumont

Buckinghamshire-born Gabrielle Amanda Beaumont was the first woman to make a groundbreaking impact in Hollywood as a prolific director of episodic prime-time television. She worked on some of the most popular TV shows of the 80s and 90s, including M*A*S*H (1972), Dynasty (1981), Lacey & Cagney (1981), Hill Street Blues (1981), Miami Vice (1984), L.A. Law (1986) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993). She also became the first female director in charge of Star Trek episodes, working on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (including Booby Trap and Face of the Enemy, both ranking among the best of the series), as well as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995). Beaumont's family was steeped in the arts and entertainment. Her father, Gabriel Toyne, was a master swordsman, an actor, poet and stunt man. Her mother, Diana Beaumont, was a leading lady in British films and an accomplished comedienne on the West End stage. A great-uncle was the noted thespian Sir Gerald du Maurier, more famous today as the author of the novel Svengali. Gabrielle started out as a juvenile stage actress, debuting in a 1948 touring production of Peter Pan. She then spent five years with the ensemble of a repertory theatre company in London, appearing in classic plays like Billy Liar, Saint Joan and Five Finger Exercise. She had graduated to stage direction before joining the BBC as an editor, quickly working her way up the ladder to assistant director, production manager and producer. Having produced/directed and worked as occasional writer on several BBC documentaries and a couple of horror films, Beaumont travelled to Los Angeles in 1980 in search of new challenges. Hired by producer Aaron Spelling, she began her American sojourn by directing an episode of Vega$ (1978). She remained gainfully employed in Hollywood for the next two decades. Beaumont was a member of the Directors Guild of America, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Beaumont retired to Fornalutx, a municipality on the Spanish island of Mallorca where she spent the last two decades of her life. She was formerly married to the actor and writer Olaf Pooley and to the cinematographer Michael J. Davis, both of whom predeceased her.