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Cynthia Chenault
Cynthia Chenault
	Robbins with Bette Davis in Wagon Train, 1959
Born	Cynthia Robinaux; Hammond, Louisiana, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, television producer & writer
Years active	1955–present
Spouses	; Tommy Leonetti (m. 1964⁠–⁠1979) (his death) ; Robert Chenault (m. 1983⁠–⁠2009) (his death)
Children	Kimberly Beck

Cynthia Chenault is an American television actress and producer/writer active from the mid-1950s to the present. She used the screen name Cindy Robbins in her acting credits.

Early years

Robbins was born in Hammond, Louisiana.^[1] Her mother operated a dancing school in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Robbins began dancing at age five.^[2] When she was eight years old, her family moved to California. When she was a student at Glendale High School, her career plans changed from dancing to acting. In 1952, she was the school's representative at an annual drama festival.^[1] She has four sisters.^[2]

Career

Stage

Robbins's entertainment debut came in Ken Murray's Blackouts^[1] when she was 11 years old.^[2] On Broadway, she portrayed Molly Belmont in By the Beautiful Sea (1954), and Janice Dawson in Happy Town (1959).^[3] She also had a lead role in The Vacant Lot at the La Jolla Playhouse.^[1]

Television

Her first acting role on television was in 1955, in the episode Moonfire of the television western series Brave Eagle. In 1960, Robbins appeared as a ballerina in the "Bullets and Ballet" episode of Tightrope!.^[4]

Her last acting role in television was on the television comedy series McHale's Navy in 1964.

Her best-known role was that of Carol Porter, one of the daughters in the one-season situation comedy The Tom Ewell Show (1960–61).^[5] She also made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Teddi Hart in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Treacherous Toupee" and the role of Mabel Richmond in the 1962 episode "The Case of Melancholy Marksman".

Her other television work consisted of appearances in comedy shows (Ensign O'Toole, Father Knows Best, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver), McHale's Navy and military/action shows (Steve Canyon, Whirlybirds, Harbor Command), westerns (Wagon Train, The Tall Man), and dramas (Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Tightrope!, Dragnet).

Film

She appeared in several films from 1957 to 1959:

I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) playing Pearl, Vic's Girl
Dino (1957), a Sal Mineo drama, playing Sylvia
Rockabilly Baby (1957), a film about family secrets and small-town life (featuring Les Brown and His Band of Renown), playing Vougette #1
Gunsight Ridge (1957), a Joel McCrea Western, playing the Bride
This Earth Is Mine (1959), a Rock Hudson drama about California wine country, playing Buz Dietrick

Producing/writing

In the mid-1980s, she produced/wrote several ABC Weekend Specials (notably, Pippi Longstocking) and a CBS Schoolbreak Special. She was also a writer in 1984 for the TV cartoon series Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats.

Personal life

She had one child, actress Kimberly Beck,^[6] born in Glendale, California, in January 1956.

Cynthia, then still known as Cindy Robbins, married New Jersey singer-songwriter Tommy Leonetti on November 27, 1965, in Beverly Hills, California.^[7] The two of them, plus her young daughter, moved to Sydney, Australia, and lived there for the remainder of the 1960s and for most of the 1970s, before returning to America in the late 70's. Her husband Tommy died in 1979. She then married writer Robert Parks Chenault in 1983, and began around that time using her married name for her writing credits, rather than her screen name.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Caldwell, Lily May (July 5, 1959). "Cindy Robbins comes to town in first movie". The Birmingham News. p. E 1. Retrieved February 4, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gray, Dick (June 29, 1959). "Bubbling Cindy". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 30. Retrieved February 4, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Cindy Robbins". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ "(photo caption)". Daily Independent Journal. California, San Rafael. Daily Independent Journal. May 28, 1960. p. 33. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Tucker, David C. (2014). Lost Laughs of '50s and '60s Television: Thirty Sitcoms That Faded Off Screen. McFarland. p. 205. ISBN 9780786455829. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
^ Kleiner, Dick (February 16, 1977). "'Roots II' may be in making". Abilene Reporter-News. Texas, Abilene. Newspaper Enterprise Association. p. 12. Retrieved November 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Singer & Actress Honeymooning". Standard-Speaker. Pennsylvania, Hazleton. Associated Press. November 29, 1965. p. 15. Retrieved November 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.