Irving Cummings

Irving Caminsky[1] (October 9, 1888 – April 18, 1959) was an American movie actor and director.

Irving Cummings
Cummings in 1914
Born
Irving Caminsky

(1888-10-09)October 9, 1888
New York City, U.S.
DiedApril 18, 1959(1959-04-18) (aged 70)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeHollywood Forever Cemetery
NationalityUnited States
OccupationFilm director, actor
Years active1903–1959
Spouse(s)Ruth Sinclair (m.1917)

Life and career

Cummings was born in New York City.[1] He was the father of the screenwriter and producer Irving Cummings Jr.

Cummings started his acting career in his late teens on Broadway stage, performing in In the Long Run (1909) and Object -- Matrimony (1916).[2] He appeared with Lillian Russell.

He entered into movies in 1909, acting with the P. A. Powers company in Mount Vernon, New York,[3] and quickly became a popular leading man. Few of the films he made as an actor are easily available, except for Buster Keaton's first feature film, The Saphead (1920), in which Cummings plays a crooked stockbroker and Fred Niblo's film Sex (1920), one of the first films to depict a new phenomenon in 1920s America, the Flapper. Both films are readily available on home video, as well as The Round-Up (1920), a Western drama starring Roscoe Arbuckle (with the famous tagline "Nobody loves a fat man") and featuring Wallace Beery. Around that time, he started to direct action movies and occasional comedies.

In 1934, Cummings directed Grand Canary, and in 1929, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his direction of In Old Arizona.

Cummings was known for the big splashy 1930s Technicolor musicals with popular leading ladies such as Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, and Shirley Temple (Little Miss Broadway, 1938) he directed at 20th Century Fox.

Death

On April 18, 1959, Cummings died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California, at age 70.[1]

Recognition

Cummings has a star at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated on February 8, 1960.[4] In 1943, as part of the 50th anniversary of the birth of the motion picture industry, Cummings was awarded the Thomas A. Edison Foundation Gold Medal for outstanding achievement in the arts and sciences.

Select filmography
Don Ameche, Alice Faye, and Carmen Miranda in That Night in Rio, 1941.

Actor

Director

References
  1. Ellenberger, Allan R. (May 2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-7864-0983-9. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  2. "Irving Cummings". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  3. Hopper, Hedda (April 23, 1944). "It Takes an Actor to Direct an Actor". Chicago Tribune. p. 78. Retrieved August 14, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Irving Cummings". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
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