Peggy Cummins (born Augusta Margaret Diane Fuller; 18 December 1925 – 29 December 2017) was an Irish actress, born in Wales, who is best known for her performance in Joseph H. Lewis's Gun Crazy (1950), playing a trigger-happy femme fatale, who robs banks with her lover. In 2020, she was listed at number 16 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Biography
Early life
Cummins was born Augusta Margaret Diane Fuller in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, Wales. Her Irish parents were visiting there when a storm kept them from returning to their home in Dublin.
She lived most of her early life in Killiney, Dublin, where she was educated, and later in London. Her father was Dublin-born Franklin Bland Fuller, who was a grandson of architect James Franklin Fuller. Her mother was actress Margaret Cummins, who played such film roles as Anna in Smart Woman and Emily in The Sign of the Ram (both 1948).
Early acting career
There is a legend that actor Patrick Brock noticed Cummins at a Dublin tram stop and introduced her to Dublin's Gate Theatre Company, but she told Barbara Roisman Cooper when interviewed aged 88: "That is absolutely nonsense." As a child in Dublin, she attended the Abbey School of Ballet. From there she was spotted and chosen for a non-speaking role in The Duchess of Malfi at the Gate Theatre. "I played one of the children, only seen in silhouette because they had been murdered ... that was my start in the theatre." Cummins’ London stage debut was in the role of Maryann, the juvenile lead in Let’s Pretend, a children's revue that opened at the St James's Theatre on her 13th birthday.
Zanuck then gave her a lead role in a mystery, Moss Rose (1947), directed by Gregory Ratoff, which was a financial disappointment. She went back to the US for Gun Crazy (1950), a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. but it was her last film shot in the United States.
In 1964 Cummins was reunited with Herbert Lom in an episode of the British TV series The Human Jungle.
Gun Crazy
In 1998, Gun Crazy (1950) was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Michael Adams wrote in Movieline in August 2009 that the film was "directed by B-movie specialist Joseph H. Lewis from a script co-written by MacKinlay Kantor and blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, "fronted" by his friend Millard Kaufman. Gun Crazy was made for $400,000 in 30 days in 1949.
Movieline found Cummins in 2009, still healthy. "It was a great part", she said of Annie Laurie Starr. "It was a brilliant story from a brilliant writer. We had a very good director and a great cameraman. I think John Dall and myself were in those days quite well-suited in the parts we had." The film played at the British Film Institute in London in February 2009. At the screening, Cummins viewed the film with an audience for the first time in six decades.
Night of the Demon
On 14 June 2006, she appeared as guest of honour at a special screening of Night of the Demon in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, hosted by the Elstree Film and Television Heritage Group. At the screening, she answered questions from the audience before viewing the film for the first time. She said she had never worked with her co-star Dana Andrews before, though she knew and liked him; they remained friends for the rest of his life.
On 29 September 2010, Cummins introduced the film Street Corner (1953) as part of the Capital Tales Event at BFI Southbank London hosted by Curator Jo Botting. She played Bridget Foster in the film written by Muriel and Sydney Box and directed by Muriel Box.
On 29 August 2013, Cummins introduced the world premiere of a digital remastering of Night of the Demon, screened by the British Film Institute in the courtyard of the British Museum. The screening location features prominently in the film, with shots of the courtyard before a key scene in which the psychologist Holden meets occultist Karswell for the first time in the British Library, which until 1998 was housed within the museum.
Personal life
In 1954, she became the First Honorary Commander of the 582d Air Resupply Group at RAF Molesworth, England, designated special operations by the United States Air Force.
She was married to businessman Derek Dunnett (William Herbert Derek Dunnett) from 1950 until his death in 2000.
Cummins died on 29 December 2017, eleven days after her 92nd birthday, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, England, following a stroke.