Alan Cumming

From Philosopedia

Alan Cumming (27 January 1965 - )

In Celebrities in Hell (2000) by Warren Allen Smith, Cumming is described as follows:

Cumming was born in Perthshire, Scotland, to Mary, a secretary, and Alexander, a forester. He spent his childhood on their country estate, graduated from school a year early, and began working for an entertainment magazine, Tops. When he was accepted to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, he met his future professional partner (Forbes Masson) and his future wife (Hilary Lyons—they were divorcedin 1993 after eight years of marriage). His feature film debut was in Passing Glory, made when he was in his final year at the Academy. With Masson he formed the comedy duo of Victor Barry and later wrote and starred in a BBC sitcom, The High Life.

Cumming’s West End debut at the Royal Court was in The Conquest of the South Pole (1989), for which he was nominated Most Promising Newcomer in that year’s Olivier Awards. He went on to win an Olivier Award for Accidental Death of an Anarchist and was awarded another nomination for his his work in the London production of Cabaret. In 1998 he moved with Cabaret to Broadway, winning a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance as the Emcee.

He has been in such films as Golden Eye, Emma, Circle of Friends, and Eyes Wide Shut (in which he played the flirtatious hotel desk clerk opposite Tom Cruise).

Interviewed by fellow actor Jennifer Jason Leigh for Interview (October 1998), he was asked about his religious outlook:

Leigh: Did you grow up religious?

Cumming: I was made to go to church, but no, it wasn't a very religious thing. And I'm completely atheist. I don't hold any beliefs about God and stuff. And I can't do the church thing. Last year, I was here in New York, at a Christmas party, and everyone went to midnight Mass except me. I just listened to music while they were all out, supposedly communing with God, but they were just doing it because it's habit.

Leigh: Maybe they like it, though.

Cumming: They don't like it. And I do like it. But I have the sort of conscience that says if you go you are supporting the myth. And it makes me angry, all that.

In November 2006, the University of Aberetay Dundee made Cumming a Doctor of Arts by giving him an honorary degree.

Grant Shaffer, an artist with whom he cohabited from 2004-2007, married Cumming on 6 January 2007.

In 2007, Cumming became a patron of NORM-UK, a registered charity concerned with education about the male foreskin and circumcision, telling the media in a press release:

• "Our foreskins aren't a mistake" said the star of X-Men 2, Spy Kids and Goldeneye, a humanitarian and activist who wants the world to understand the importance of this most under-appreciated body part, "Circumcision is genital mutilation, so why is it condoned and encouraged? I support NORM-UK's efforts to educate and illuminate. May the foreskin be with us and remain with us all!"

(See Cumming's website, one that includes him in the nude, in drag, and in scenes from various times in his life.)