Gerard Menuhin was born in July 1948 in Scotland, United Kingdom, he is the son of Jewish parents, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and dancer Diana Rosamund Gould. He attended Eton College, completing his studies at Stanford University in California. The brother of the pianist Jeremy Menuhin, Gerard decided that he didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of his father or brother and decided to enter into acting. In London’s Mermaid Theatre, he landed a role in the Erich Kästner-piece Emil and the Detectives.
In December 1970, when Menuhin was 22, he and his father temporarily lost their American citizenship after they were granted Swiss citizenship, as American law at the time did not permit dual citizenship.
In 1985, he published his first book, a novel, Elmer, which was panned by critics.
Menuhin was, until November 2005, the CEO of the German chapter of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. He was representative of the Menuhin family on the Board of the Menuhin Festival Gstaad in Gstaad, Switzerland. In June 2007, he took up the post as president of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Grenchen, Switzerland.