Constance Cummings

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. 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.