Cumming, Alan 1965-

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CUMMING, Alan 1965-

PERSONAL: Born January 27, 1965, in Perthshire, Scotland; son of Alex Cumming (a forester); mother, an insurance company secretary; married Hilary Lyon (an actress), c. 1983 (divorced, 1993).

ADDRESSES: Agent—International Creative Management, 8942 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211.

CAREER: Actor, singer, writer, and director. Actor in films, including Passing Glory, 1986; Prague, 1992; Airzone Solution, 1993; Second Best, 1994; Black Beauty, 1994; Have I Got News for You, 1995; Circle of Friends, 1995; Goldeneye, 1995; Burn Your Phone, 1996; Emma, 1996; Spice World, 1997; Bathtime, 1997; Buddy, 1997; For My Baby, 1997; Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, 1997; Dangerous Beauty; 1998; Plunkett & Macleane, 1999; Eyes Wide Shut, 1999; Titus, 1999; Loser, 2000; Get Carter, 2000; Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, 2000; Company Man, 2000; Cup, 2000; Younger than Springtime, 2000; Urbania, 2000; Crimes of Fashion, 2001; Investigating Sex, 2001; Josie and the Pussycats, 2001; Spy Kids, 2001; Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There, 2002; Cinemagique, 2002; Nicholas Nickleby, 2002; Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, 2002; and X-Men 2, 2003. Television films include Take the High Road, 1987; Bernard and the Genie, 1991; The Last Romantics, 1991; Mickey Love, 1993; That Sunday, 1994; High Life (series), 1994; Butter, 1994; Ghosts: The Chemistry Lesson, 1995; Annie, 1999; God, the Devil, and Bob, 2000; Zero Effect (pilot), 2002; and Mr. and Mr. Nash (series), 2003. Actor in plays, including Cabaret (England, beginning 1993, Broadway, beginning 1997), Elle, and Design for Living, 2001; actor in Hamlet, and productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre; voice on sound recordings, including Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats; reader of audio version of Anil's Ghost, by Michael Ondaatje.

AWARDS, HONORS: Olivier Award for comedy performance of the year, 1990, for Accidental Death of an Anarchist; Atlantic Film Festival Award for best actor, 1992, for Prague; British Comedy Award for top television newcomer, 1992, for Bernard and the Genie; shared MTV Movie Award nomination for best dance sequence, 1997, for Romy and Michele's High School Reunion; Antoinette Perry Award, for best actor in a musical, Drama Desk Award, Theatre World Award, FANY Award, New York Public Advocates Award, and Olivier Award nomination for best actor in a musical, all 1998, all for Cabaret; Shakespeare Globe Award nomination, for Hamlet; three additional Olivier Award nominations.

WRITINGS:

Tommy's Tale (novel), Regan Books (New York, NY), 2002.

(Adaptor) Elle (play), produced in New York, NY, 2002.

Cowriter, coproducer, codirector, and costar, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, of The Anniversary Party, 2001; contributor to periodicals, including Harper's Bazaar.

SIDELIGHTS: Alan Cumming has appeared in dozens of films, television movies, and on stage as a classical Shakespearean actor. His performance as the emcee in the Broadway revival of Cabaret was rewarded with a Tony. In his film work, Cumming has played parts as diverse as Boris, the Russian villain in the James Bond film Goldeneye, and the voice of the four-footed star in Black Beauty. In Titus, he was Emperor Saturninus to Anthony Hopkins's Titus Andronicus, and in the family movie Spy Kids he played the villain Fegan Floop. Commenting on Cumming's Tony-winning performance in the Cabaret role first made famous by actor Joel Grey, Simi Horwitz wrote in Back Stage West that in this version of the musical "the emcee's importance as a character is increased . . . and the production is more politically and sexually challenging to the audience than earlier versions." Horwitz said that Cumming's interpretation of the role "is chilling: an eye-rolling, hip-swiveling sleaze who is at once the soul of decadence and a seductive charmer."

Having met during the production of Cabaret, Cumming and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh collaborated as writers and codirectors on The Anniversary Party, a film about a Hollywood family. Cumming plays British writer Joe Therrian, who is about to direct his first film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, making his wife Sally (Leigh) jealous. The film's title refers to a party celebrating the couple's sixth anniversary to which they invite their neurotic show-biz friends, and which results in some nasty goings-on, including infidelities, fights, and a near death. "They take Ecstasy, and that's when the fur, blood, and undermotivated navel-gazing really start to fly," wrote Jessica Winter in Film Comment. Other roles are played by Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Beales, John C. Reilly, Jane Adams, and Parker Posey. Richard Schickel reviewed the film in Time, saying that it works because "there is something realer than real in everyone's playing. You feel that their edgy suburban twaddling may be the way Hollywood heavies really behave in private."

Jamie Painter Young interviewed Cumming for Back Stage West, and wrote that "The Anniversary Party was a labor of love, born from a casual conversation in Leigh's kitchen, and was developed into a full-blown feature film in which they decided to share directing duties. Though not necessarily as commercial a venture as some of his other acting gigs, The Anniversary Party has been a deeply fulfilling experience for Cumming—one that he hopes to repeat." Young said that "as for his acting, what makes Cumming so exciting to watch is that you can never predict what he's going to do next, or how he's going to play a part. It's more than his ability to be a chameleon. Cumming finds an offbeat way to connect his characters, so that his acting is intense, alive, and a little bit dangerous."

Cumming wrote his debut novel, Tommy's Tale, about a thirty-year-old British bisexual with serious drug addictions who wants to settle down and have a child. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "at the core of this book is a charming personality—intelligent, frolicking, sensitive, and sexual—but only rarely does it emerge from amid the extremes of story and style." Tommy's closest friends include his lover Charlie, Charlie's eight-year-old son, and his roommates—the maternal figure Sadie and Bobby the lampshade designer—all of whom are trying to help Tommy grapple with his indecision. The reader follows Tommy through a succession of encounters, which become frantically orgiastic during a trip to New York with his photographer employer and his reunion with India, a former girlfriend.

Cumming also appeared as Pope in Elle, the Jean Genet play he adapted and staged, and in the role of Nightcrawler, a blue superhero with a tail, in the film blockbuster X-Men 2. In late 2002 he was cast in the television series Mr. and Mr. Nash, which is produced by Steve Martin and Joan Stein and centers on a San Francisco couple who are amateur detectives.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 47, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2003.

periodicals

Advocate, September 28, 1999, Peter McQuaid, "The Artful Swinger," p. 59; May 8, 2001, Don Shewey, review of Design for Living, p. 73.

Back Stage West, June 5, 1998, Simi Horwitz, "Cumming to the Cabaret" (interview), p. 19; June 14, 2001, Jamie Painter Young, interview with Cumming, p. 5.

Entertainment Weekly, March 17, 2000, Tricia Johnson, review of God, the Devil, and Bob, p. 55.

Film Comment, May, 2001, Jessica Winter, review of The Anniversary Party, p. 74.

Hollywood Reporter, November 12, 2002, Nellie Andreeva, "Cumming Set as Martin-ized Sleuth for ABC," p. 5.

Interview, October, 1998, Jennifer Jason Leigh, "Cumming Attraction" (interview), p. 110.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002, review of Tommy'sTale, p. 822.

National Review, July 23, 2001, John Simon, review of The Anniversary Party.

Publishers Weekly, July 1, 2002, review of Tommy'sTale, p. 46.

Time, December 27, 1999, Richard Corliss, review of Titus, p. 166; July 23, 2001, Richard Schickel, review of The Anniversary Party, p. 70.

Times Educational Supplement, November 9, 1990, Mick Martin, review of Accidental Death of an Anarchist, p. R13.

Times Literary Supplement, September 27, 1996, Lindsay Duguid, review of Emma, p. 19.