Gabrielle Beaumont

Gabrielle Beaumont is best-known for directing series television and made-for-TV movies, and has been nominated for awards for her work on two Stephen Bochco series, the seminal cop ensemble drama "Hill Street Blues" and the glitzier "L.A. Law." Born in London in 1942, Beaumont was a child stage actress, touring the world in a production of "Peter Pan," as well as playing a number of juvenile leads for the Foldstone Repertory Theatre in London. Entering directing in 1973, Beaumont has been a success story in a profession still dominated by men decades after Ida Lupino broke gender barriers behind the cameras. She has directed fare as varied as bumpkin comedy-drama "The Dukes of Hazzard," the fine TV movie "Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story" (which told the same story in the same year as acclaimed film "Star 80" and starred Jamie Lee Curtis and "Hill Street"'s Bruce Weitz), prime-time soaps "Dynasty" and "Knots Landing," and syndicated seaside romp "Baywatch." In 1989, she helmed an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and became the first female director of the "Star Trek" franchise; she would go on to direct seven ST:TNG episodes, as well as episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek: Voyager." Gabrielle Beaumont died on October 8, 2022 in Fornalutx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain at the age of 80.