Constance Cummings, 95; Film, Stage and TV Actress Known for Tony-Winning ‘Wings’ Role
LA Times
Constance Cummings, an American actress who dazzled audiences on both sides of the Atlantic on stage and in such motion pictures as “Movie Crazy” and “Blithe Spirit,” has died. She was 95.
Cummings died Wednesday of natural causes in the Chelsea section of London. She had lived there since 1933, when she married British playwright and member of Parliament Benn Wolfe Levy. He died in 1973.
Cummings was a already a seasoned entertainer when, at 22, she appeared as an ingenue with twin personalities opposite Harold Lloyd in his semi-autographical “Movie Crazy” (1932).
The film “was very funny — it still is — and unlike many of the other things I did, stood the test of time,” the actress said in 1999. ” ‘Movie Crazy’ is what I’m best remembered for and what fans refer to the most. I did much better things but get a kick out of talking about the film and working with the genius that was Harold Lloyd.”
Cummings was remembered as Rex Harrison’s second wife, Ruth, in David Lean’s 1945 motion picture version of Noel Coward’s frothy “Blithe Spirit,” one of the films she made in England.
Cummings made most of her films in her youth and, although the beautiful blond ingenue matured into a fine character actress, she concentrated more on live theater as she grew older. She excelled on stage, working on Broadway, in London’s West End and with Laurence Olivier in Britain’s revered National Theatre.
Along with performing Shakespearean plays and other classics, she memorably appeared as Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 1964 and opposite Olivier in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 1971.
For the latter role, as drug addicted Mary Tyrone, she received a London Theatre Critics Award as best actress. One British critic wrote for the Financial Times: “In Constance Cummings, a performance to travel across the country to see, you see the most delicate artistry.”
Cummings reprised her role in the ABC television version of the play in 1973 — 40 years after her Hollywood heyday — demonstrating her deepening acting ability for a new generation of Americans.
The actress soared to her professional zenith in 1979 when she received a Tony Award as best actress for her Broadway portrayal of a former daredevil aviatrix felled by a stroke in Arthur Kopit’s “Wings.” Cummings also won an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award in the role.
She came to Los Angeles in 1983 to tape a Public Broadcasting Service version of “Wings” at the KCET-TV studios. The production was later broadcast on the network’s “American Playhouse.”
