Alan Cumming biography

Synopsis

Early Life and Career

Alan Cumming was born in Perthshire, Scotland, on January 27, 1965. He grew up in a house on a large estate property, where his father worked as a forester. He left high school when he was 16 and took a staff job at a magazine, and at the age of 20, he entered the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in Glasgow. He began acting professionally while still a student, and when he graduated, he found regular work on stage and on television, including on a popular soap opera.

Theater and Film Breakthroughs

Cumming acted in several Scottish repertory theaters in the early 1990s, mastering roles such as Hamlet (in 1993), and was featured on the television sitcom The High Life. He made a successful transition to Hollywood in the mid-'90s, receiving small but memorable roles in the James Bond film GoldenEye and the drama Circle of Friends (both released in 1995); the 1996 Jane Austen adaptation Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow; and several late-'90s comedies, including Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and Spice World (1998).

In 1998, Cumming arrived on Broadway, reprising a role he had played in London five years earlier: the decadent, androgynous "M.C." in Cabaret, who serves as the Master of Ceremonies at the seedy Kit Kat Klub. Cumming's performance in this revival brought him several honors, including a Tony Award, as well as a much greater level of fame.

Career Highlights

Cumming's continuing career as a character actor included supporting parts in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Julie Taymor's Shakespearean adaptation Titus in 1999 (they would work together again in The Tempest in 2010) and a 2002 film version of Nicholas Nickleby. He also took roles in more popular entertainment, playing the blue-colored mutant Nightcrawler in the second X-Men film, X2 (2003), and appearing in the Spy Kids and Smurfs films and their sequels.

In 2005, Cumming was featured in the made-for-television film Reefer Madness, based on an Off-Broadway musical inspired by the original anti-drug film of 1936. He played three parts in Reefer Madness, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Cumming made his directorial debut in 2001 with the marital comedy-drama The Anniversary Party, which he co-directed with friend Jennifer Jason Leigh. Cumming and Leigh also co-starred in the film with an ensemble cast of other actor-friends.

Cumming began hosting Mystery! on PBS in 2008, bringing his sly delivery to the introduction of each series and episode. Since 2009, he has been a regular cast member of The Good Wife, a CBS legal drama set in Chicago.