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Alan Cumming
Cumming promoting Neverwas at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival
Born	27 January 1965 (1965-01-27) (age 45) Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland
Spouse(s)	Hilary Lyon (1985-1993) Grant Shaffer (2007-present)
Official website

Alan Cumming, OBE (born 27 January 1965) is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy. He has also appeared in independent films like The Anniversary Party, which he co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in; and Ali Selim's Sweet Land, for which he won an Independent Spirit award as producer. His London stage appearances include Hamlet, Madman in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, for which he received an Olivier award, the lead in Martin Sherman's Bent, and as Dionysus in The National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae. On Broadway he has appeared as Mac the Knife in The Threepenny Opera, the Emcee in Cabaret, for which he won the Tony in 1998, and "Design for Living". He has also written a novel, Tommy's Tale, had a cable talk show ("Eavesdropping with Alan Cumming") and produced a line of perfumed products labeled "Cumming". He has contributed opinion pieces to many publications and performed a cabaret show I Bought A Blue Car Today. Retaining his British citizenship, Cumming also became a U.S. citizen in November 2008.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Film 3 Television 4 Theatre 5 Other work 6 Personal life 7 Filmography 8 Bibliography 9 References 10 External links

Early life

Cumming was born in Aberfeldy, in Perthshire, Scotland, the son of Mary, an insurance company secretary, and Alex Cumming, a forester.¹² He has one older brother, Tom. Brought up in Angus, Cumming attended Monikie Primary School and Carnoustie High School and originally aspired to a career in veterinary medicine; but a personality clash with his biology teacher prevented him from taking a related elective and he subsequently set his sights on becoming an actor.³ Following graduation, he spent a year and a half employed as an editor and columnist for the Scottish pop magazine TOPS before entering the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

Film

Cumming played Sean Walsh, an unwanted suitor of Minnie Driver's character, in "Circle of Friends", an Irish film released in 1995.

In 1995 he played Boris Ivanovich Grishenko in the James Bond film GoldenEye.

Cumming co-wrote, co-directed, co-produced, and co-starred in the ensemble film The Anniversary Party with friend and former Cabaret co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh, in 2001.⁴ The two starred in the movie as a Hollywood couple.

Cumming starred in and directed "Suffering Man's Charity," later released as "Ghost Writer." He had prominent roles in the Spy Kids trilogy, X-Men2 (as "Nightcrawler"), and was in Spice World, as well as Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," "Josie and the Pussycats" and "Son of the Mask," along with acting in the Flinstone's movie "Viva Rock Vegas".

Cumming played a psychotic ex-amusement park employee in David Munro's Full Grown Men, which was shown in theaters throughout the U.S. in summer 2008.

In Gray Matters, a 2007 romantic comedy film directed by Sue Kramer, Cumming plays cab driver Gordy who had a crush on Gray (Heather Graham). It premiered on October 21, 2006 at the Hamptons International Film Festival and had a U.S. theatrical release on February 23, 2007.

In 2010, Cumming will provide the voice of Adolf Hitler in the film Jackboots on Whitehall as well as co-star in "Boogie Woogie".

During his career, Cumming has also directed two short films, Butter and Burn Your Phone - the latter began its life as a one-off drama on BBC Radio 4.

Television

In the mid-1980s Cumming made brief appearances in Scottish television shows including Take The High Road and Taggart. His first major television role was in the Christmas 1991 comedy Bernard and the Genie, a Richard Curtis-scripted one-off show where he starred alongside Lenny Henry and Rowan Atkinson.

Cumming starred as Sebastian Flight in the Scottish sitcom The High Life in 1994-5. The series was written by Cumming and co-star Forbes Masson, continuing an acting-writing partnership the two had developed since their drama school days. Masson and Cumming also formed a cult Kelvinside musical double act "Victor and Barry", which was filmed for an stv show and were nominated for a Perrier Award in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1988, toured Australia in 1989, playing the Sydney Opera House, released a record ("See Victor and Barry and Faint") but were killed off onstage at the London Palladium in the early 1990s.

In 2001, he guest starred in the HBO comedy Sex and the City as O the designer in the episode, 'The Real Me'. 2003 saw him playing a cameo role in the American sitcom Frasier, playing Niles's yoga instructor. He also guest starred on "3rd Rock from the Sun."

In 2004, he starred in Showtime's Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical in which he played the role of The Lecturer - a versatile character who narrates the story and transforms himself into several other minor characters. Shortly afterwards, he had a short role in Richard Bell's feature film Eighteen. He appered in BBC show, Shoebox Zoo as the humble, kind-hearted Bruno.

Cumming played the role of Bill Blaikie, a party promoter hired by Kit Porter to manage her café cum nightclub, in season 3 of The L Word, having an affair with Moira/Max, a transgendered character. He appeared in episodes 2 to 7, which originally aired on Showtime in 2006.

In 2007, Cumming played Glitch/Ambrose, an inventor whose brain had been partially removed, in the TV miniseries, Tin Man. He also provided the voice of Chuck Masters, a 50 year-old, paralyzed, HIV-positive gay man in Logo's Rick and Steve, a stop animation sitcom created by Q. Allan Brocka.

He is also the host of the 2008 season of the PBS 'Mystery' series.

Cumming also appeared as the third celebrity hijacker in Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, giving the housemates a method acting task in which they had to stay in character all day and then produce an improvised play.

In 2010 he plays Eli Gold on the CBS television show The Good Wife.

Theatre

Cumming played the Emcee in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret, for which he won a Tony, as well as numerous other awards.⁵ He had previously played the role in a production at London's Donmar Warehouse theatre, for which he had been nominated for an Olivier Award.⁵ Both productions were directed by Sam Mendes. He also recorded the song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Liza Minnelli for the Broadway Cares: Home for the Holidays album in 2001.

Other stage roles have included Otto in the 2001 Broadway production of Design for Living by Noel Coward, Valere in David Hirson's La Bete, the title role in the 1993 English Touring Theatre's Hamlet (playing opposite his then-wife, Hilary Lyon, in the role of Ophelia), and The Madman in the 1990 Royal National Theatre production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo, for which he won an Olivier Award.⁶

In 2002, Cumming and then-boyfriend British director Nick Philippou formed the production company The Art Party. The company's first play was the first English production of Jean Genet's play Elle, which Cumming had adapted from a literal translation by Terri Gordon. The company folded in 2003.

In 2006, Cumming returned to the stage, firstly performing in a revival of the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical The Threepenny Opera opposite Cyndi Lauper. They later performed at the Tony Awards. In late 2006, he appeared in the West End playing the lead role in Bent, a play about homosexuals in Germany under the Nazis. In 2007 he took the lead role in the National Theatre of Scotland's production of The Bacchae, which premiéred at the Edinburgh Festival in August, transferring to the Lyric Theatre in London during September.

Cumming performed alongside Dianne Wiest in Classic Stage Company's production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Viacheslav Dolgachev.

He has been confirmed to play the Green Goblin in the new musical Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark which has an uncertain start date at the Hilton Theatre on Broadway. ⁷

Other work

Cumming has also worked in other media. His first novel, Tommy's Tale, was published in 2002.⁸ He has also written many articles for magazines, notably as a contributing editor for Marie Claire magazine, writing articles about the haute couture shows in Paris. In addition to various film and musical soundtracks on which he has appeared, in 2001, he recorded a duet of "Baby, It’s Cold Outside" with Liza Minnelli to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the September 11 Fund.

He also has his own range of beauty products, the initial product being a cologne called "Cumming: the Fragrance", as well as a series of other bath/body products.⁹

Cumming served as a delegate for the Creative Coalition during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.¹⁰ In this same vein, he contributed to If You Had Five Minutes with the President, an original non-partisan collection of 55+ essays by members or supporters of The Creative Coalition.¹¹

In 2009, he played eccentric billionaire Austen Clarke alongside Lisa Kudrow on the internet sitcom Web Therapy.

On 1 September 2009, Cumming released his first solo album based around his one man show, I Bought a Blue Car Today.¹²

Personal life

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (March 2010)

Cumming lives in New York City with his husband Grant Shaffer (with whom he entered into a civil union in the UK) and his dog, Honey.¹³ He has dated both men and women, including an eight year marriage to actress Hilary Lyon, a two year relationship with actress Saffron Burrows, a six year relationship with theater director Nick Philippou and his present civil union with illustrator Grant Shaffer; he was once described as "a frolicky pansexual sex symbol for the new millennium". He has stated that he thinks of himself as bisexual, "although the pendulum has obviously swung".¹⁴

In 1985, he married actress Hilary Lyon. They divorced in 1993.^{citation needed}

He entered into a civil union with graphic artist Grant Shaffer at the Old Royal Naval College Greenwich on January 7, 2007.¹⁵ The couple met in 2004 and dated for two years before the union. In a profile for The Times, he stated that he "would dearly like to adopt a child" but subsequently stated his life was "too hectic" for children. ¹⁶ In March 2005, he was honoured with the Vito Russo Award at the 16th Annual GLAAD Media Awards for outstanding contributions toward eliminating homophobia.¹⁷

In November 2006, he was made a Doctor of Arts when given an honorary degree from the University of Abertay Dundee.

Cumming is a bisexual-identified LGBT rights campaigner, and has promoted LGBT rights on both sides of the Atlantic with organizations such as GLAAD and the HRC, as well as working for several AIDS charities, including AMFAR and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. He is also a member of the Creative Coalition, an organisation to bring public awareness of social issues. He was presented with the San Francisco Human Rights Campaign's Humanitarian Award in 2005 and the OBE in 2009.

Cumming is one of the patrons of Scottish Youth Theatre, Scotland's National Theatre 'for and by' young people. He became a patron of NORM-UK, an English registered charity against circumcision of the foreskin.¹⁸¹⁹

On November 7, 2008, he became a dual-national and was sworn in as a citizen of the United States of America at a ceremony in New York City.²⁰²¹

Cumming was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours for services to film, theatre and the arts and to activism for equal rights for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.²²²³²⁴

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1987	Shadow of the Stone	Tom Henderson	TV Series
1991	Bernard and the Genie	Bernard Bottle	TV Movie British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Newcomer
1992	Prague	Alexander Novak
1993	Micky Love	Greg Deane	TV Movie
	Mr. Bean	Bachelor #2	Uncredited TV Series
1994	Second Best	Bernard
	Black Beauty	Black Beauty	Voice
1995	Circle of Friends	Sean Walsh
	GoldenEye	Boris Ivanovich Grishenko
	The High Life	Sebastian Flight	TV Series
1996	Emma	Mr. Elton
1997	Romy and Michele's High School Reunion	Sandy Frink
	Spice World	Piers Cuthbertson-Smyth
	Buddy	Dick Croner, Trudy's Assistant
1999	Titus	Saturninus
	Plunkett & Macleane	Lord Rochester
	Eyes Wide Shut	Hotel Desk Clerk
	Annie	Rooster
2000	Urbania	Brett
	God, the Devil and Bob	The Devil	TV Series
	The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas	Mick Jagged/Gazoo
	Get Carter	Jeremy Kinnear
2001	The Anniversary Party	Joe Therrian	Writer/Producer/Director Nominated — Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature shared with Jennifer Jason Leigh Nominated — Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay shared with Jennifer Jason Leigh
	Sex and the City	O	TV Series
	Investigating Sex	Sevy
	Josie and the Pussycats	Wyatt Frame
	Spy Kids	Fegan Floop
	Company Man	General Batista
2002	Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams	Fegan Floop
	Nicholas Nickleby	Mr. Folair	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
	Foyle's War	host (himself)	TV series
2003	X2	Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler
	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over	Fegan Floop
2004	Shoebox Zoo	Bruno the Bear	TV Series
	Garfield: The Movie	Persnikitty	Voice
	Eighteen	Father Chris
2005	Son of the Mask	Loki	Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
	Reefer Madness	Lecturer/Goat-Man/FDR
	Ripley Under Ground	Jeff Constant
	Neverwas	Jake
	Sweet Land	Frandsen	Producer Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
2006	The L Word	Billie Blaikie	TV Series
	Full Grown Men	The Hitchhiker	Co-Producer
2007	Gray Matters	Gordy
	Ghost Writer - Suffering Man's Charity	John Vandermark	Executive Producer
	Tin Man	Glitch	TV miniseries
2009	Boogie Woogie	Dewey
	Dare	Grant Matson
	PoliWood	Himself	Documentary
2010	The Tempest	Sebastian
	Jackboots on Whitehall	Adolf Hitler	Voice
	The Good Wife	Eli Gold	TV Series

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Bibliography

• Cumming, Alan (2002). Tommy's Tale. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 0718144899. 

References

External links

• Alan Cumming at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alan Cumming at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Alan Cumming at the Internet Movie Database
• 2006 Article on Alan Cumming on Theatre.com
• Alan Cumming - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
• TonyAwards.com Interview with Alan Cumming
• Knightatthemovies.com 2007 interview with Alan Cumming
• Out of bounds, interview by Bryce Hallett in The Sydney Morning Herald, February 7, 2009.

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