Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990)[1] was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and Princess O'Rourke (1943), and in dramatic films, especially two of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, Saboteur (1942) and Dial M for Murder (1954).[2] He received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. On February 8, 1960, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture and television industries,[1] at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard and 1718 Vine Street.[3] He used the stage name Robert Cummings from mid-1935 until the end of 1954 and was credited as Bob Cummings from 1955 until his death.[4]
For other people named Robert Cummings, see Robert Cummings (disambiguation).
Robert Cummings
December 2, 1990 (aged 80)
Bob Cummings
Blade Stanhope Conway
Bryce Hutchens
Actor
1931–1990
Career[edit]
Blade Stanhope Conway[edit]
Cummings started looking for work in 1930, but couldn't find any roles, forcing him to get a job at a theatrical agency.[6] Realizing that, at the time, "three quarters of Broadway plays were from England"[29] and that English accents and actors were in demand, Cummings decided to cash in an insurance policy and buy a round-trip ticket there.[30]
He was driving a motorbike through the countryside, picking up the accent and learning about the country, when his bike broke down at Harrogate. While waiting for repairs, he devised a plan. He invented the name "Blade Stanhope Conway" and bribed the janitor of a local theatre to put on the marquee: "Blade Stanhope Conway in Candida". He then had a photo taken of himself in front of the marquee and had 80 prints made. In London, he outfitted himself with a new wardrobe, composed a letter introducing the actor-author-manager-director "Blade" of Harrogate Repertory Theatre, and sent it off to 80 New York theatrical agents and producers.[29]
As a result, when Cummings returned to New York, he was able to obtain several meetings.[27][6]
One of the producers to whom he sent letters, Charles Hopkings, cast him in a production of The Roof by John Galsworthy, playing the role of the Hon. Reggie Fanning. Also in the cast was Henry Hull.[31] The play ran from October to November 1931 and Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times listed "Conway" among the cast who provided "some excellent bits of acting".[32]
In November 1932, "Conway" replaced Edwin Styles in the Broadway revue Earl Carroll's Vanities[33] after studying song and dance by correspondence course.[34]
Cummings later encouraged an old drama school classmate, Margaret Kies, to use a similar deception – she became the "British" Margaret Lindsay.[26] He later said pretending to be Conway broke up his first marriage, to a girl from Joplin. "She couldn't stand me."[35]
He was an extra in the Laurel and Hardy comedy film Sons of the Desert (1933)[36] and in the musical short Seasoned Greetings (1933).
Bryce Hutchens[edit]
Cummings decided to change his approach, when in the words of one report, "suddenly the bottom dropped out of the John Bull market; almost overnight, demand switched from Londoners to lassoers."[29]
In 1934, Cummings changed his name to "Bryce Hutchens".[27][6][37] He appeared under this name in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, which ran from January to June in 1934.[38][39] He had a duet with Vivi Janiss, a native of Nebraska, with whom he sang "I Like the Likes of You".[40] Cummings and Janiss went with the show when it went on tour after the Broadway run, and they married towards the end of the tour.[25]
Paramount[edit]
The tour of Ziegfeld ended in Los Angeles in January 1935. Cummings enjoyed the city and wanted to move there.[41][25] He returned to New York, then heard King Vidor was looking for Texan actors for So Red the Rose (1935). Cummings auditioned, pretending to be a Texan, having acquired his own version of a Texan accent by listening to cowboy bands on the radio.[29] His ruse was exposed, but Vidor nevertheless cast Cummings under his actual name.[34][42][30] In their review, The New York Times said that Cummings "does a fine bit" and "has the only convincing accent in the whole film."[43]
He followed this with a part in Paramount's The Virginia Judge (1935).[44] In July, the studio signed Cummings to a long-term contract.[45] Before his first two Paramount films were released, he was also cast in a supporting role in Millions in the Air (1935).[6][46]
Cummings appeared as one of the leads in the Western Desert Gold (1936), then had a supporting role in Forgotten Faces (1936) and a starring role in Three Cheers for Love (1936).[47] He also appeared in:
Personal life[edit]
Marriages[edit]
Cummings was married five times and fathered seven children. His first marriage was to Emma Myers, a girl from his hometown. His second marriage was to Vivi Janiss, an actress he met while performing in Ziegfeld Follies. His third wife, Mary Elliott, was a former actress and she ran Cummings's business affairs. They separated in 1968 and had a bitter divorce, during the course of which she accused him of cheating on her with his former secretary Regina Fong and using methamphetamines which she said caused wild mood swings. She also claimed he relied on astrologers and numerologists to make financial decisions with "disastrous" consequences.[127]
In 1970, when the divorce was finalized, their communal property was estimated as being worth from $700,000 to $800,000 (equivalent to between $5.5 million and $6.3 million in 2023).[128]
He was married to Regina Fong from 1971 to 1987 and married Martha Burzynski two years later. He died the following year.
Death[edit]
On December 2, 1990, Cummings died of kidney failure and complications from pneumonia at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.[130]
He is interred in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.[141]