Constance Cummings

Constance Cummings CBE (May 15, 1910 – November 23, 2005) was an American-British actress with a career spanning over 50 years.

Early life
Cummings was born in Seattle, Washington, the only daughter and younger child of Kate Logan (née Cummings), a concert soprano, and Dallas Vernon Halverstadt, a lawyer.

Cummings' parents separated when she was 10 years old, and she never saw her father again. She attended St. Nicholas Girls' School in Seattle.

Career
The San Diego Stock Company gave Cummings her initial acting opportunity in a "walk-on part" playing a prostitute in a 1926 production of Seventh Heaven. She debuted on Broadway as a chorus girl, a member of the ensemble in Treasure Girl (1928) by the age of 18. While appearing on Broadway, she was discovered by Samuel Goldwyn, who brought her to Hollywood in 1931. Between 1931 and 1934, Cummings appeared in more than 20 films, including Movie Crazy opposite Harold Lloyd, and American Madness, directed by Frank Capra.

Cummings was married to the playwright and screenwriter Benn Levy from July 3, 1933 until his death in 1973. As Levy was from the UK, Cummings moved there and continued acting in films and on the stage. Few of her films were hits in the U.S., but Blithe Spirit, adapted from the Noël Coward play, was popular. Levy wrote and directed films for Cummings, such as The Jealous God (1939); he also served in the UK Parliament from 1945 to 1950 as the Labour MP for Eton and Slough. They had a son and a daughter. She played Mary Tyrone in the Royal National Theatre's production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night opposite Laurence Olivier and later recreated the role for television. She took over the role of Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in its first London run.

Recognition
In 1979, Cummings won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Emily Stilson in the drama Wings (1978–1979) (written by Arthur Kopit), a play about a former aviator (Stilson) who has suffered a stroke, from which she struggles to recover. This role also brought her Obie and Drama Desk awards and an Olivier nomination. In 1982, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for her work in The Chalk Garden.

She received an Evening Standard Best Actress Award for her performance in Long Day's Journey into Night.

On January 1, 1974, Cummings, who resided in Britain for many decades until her death, was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her contributions to the British entertainment industry.

She was a committee member of the Royal Court Theatre and the Arts Council. She has a star in the Motion Pictures section on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard. It was dedicated on February 8, 1960.

Death
Constance Cummings Levy died in Wardington, Oxfordshire, England on November 23, 2005, aged 95, from natural causes.

Filmography

 * The Criminal Code (1931) as Mary Brady
 * The Last Parade (1931) as Molly Pearson
 * Lover Come Back (1931) as Connie Lee
 * Traveling Husbands (1931) as Ellen Wilson
 * The Guilty Generation (1931) as Maria Palmero
 * Behind the Mask (1932) as Julie Arnold
 * The Big Timer (1932) as Honey Baldwin
 * Attorney for the Defense (1932) as Ruth Barry
 * American Madness (1932) as Helen
 * Movie Crazy (1932) as Mary Sears
 * The Last Man (1932) as Marian
 * Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932) as Alice
 * Night After Night (1932) as Miss Jerry Healy
 * The Billion Dollar Scandal (1933) as Doris Masterson
 * The Mind Reader (1933) as Sylvia
 * Heads We Go (1933) as Betty Smith / Dorothy Kay
 * Channel Crossing (1933) as Marion Slade
 * Broadway Through a Keyhole (1933) as Joan Whelan
 * Looking for Trouble (1934) as Ethel Greenwood
 * Glamour (1934) as Linda Fayne
 * This Man Is Mine (1934) as Francesca Harper
 * Remember Last Night? (1935) as Carlotta Milburn
 * Seven Sinners (1936) as Caryl Fenton
 * Strangers on Honeymoon (1936) as October
 * Cyrano de Bergerac (1938, TV movie) as Roxane
 * Busman's Honeymoon (1940) as Harriet Vane
 * This England (1941) as Ann
 * The Foreman Went to France (1942) as Anne Stafford, the American girl
 * Blithe Spirit (1945) as Ruth Condomine
 * Into the Blue (1950) as Mrs. Kate Fergusson
 * Trial and Error (1953, TV movie) as Andrea
 * John and Julie (1955) as Mrs. Davidson
 * The Intimate Stranger (1956) as Kay Wallace
 * The Trial of Mary Dugan (1957, TV movie) as Mary Dugan, known as Mona Tree
 * Craig's Wife (1957, TV movie) as Harriet Craig
 * The Battle of the Sexes (1960) as Angela Barrows
 * Sammy Going South (1963) as Gloria van Imhoff
 * In the Cool of the Day (1963) as Mrs. Nina Gellert
 * Love Song (1985, TV movie) as Dame Philippa Hatchard
 * Dead Man's Folly (1986, TV movie) as Amy Folliat
 * The Understanding (1986, TV movie) as Acton (final film role)