Cindy Robbins
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 Cynthia Robichaux in Hammond, Louisiana. Her mother operated a dancing school in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Robbins began dancing at age five. 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. She has four sisters. She is of French descent.Career
Stage
Robbins's entertainment debut came in Ken Murray's Blackouts when she was 11 years old. On Broadway, she portrayed Molly Belmont in By the Beautiful Sea, and Janice Dawson in Happy Town. She also had a lead role in The Vacant Lot at the La Jolla Playhouse.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!.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. 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, McHale's Navy and military/action shows, westerns, and dramas.
Film
She appeared in several films from 1957 to 1959:I Was a Teenage Werewolf playing Pearl, Vic's GirlDino, a Sal Mineo drama, playing SylviaRockabilly Baby, a film about family secrets and small-town life, playing Vougette #1Gunsight Ridge, a Joel McCrea Western, playing the BrideThis Earth Is Mine, a Rock Hudson drama about California wine country, playing Buz DietrickProducing/writing
In the mid-1980s, she produced/wrote several ABC Weekend Specials 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, 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.