Bob Cummings

Reading a book of Reginald Rose’s TV plays I was surprised to see that Bob Cummings originally played the role of Juror 8 on television in Twelve Angry Men – the do-gooder juror. This role was so perfectly played by a perfectly cast Henry Fonda in the film that he always leaps to my mind when I read the play. I wonder what Cummings was like – apparently he won an Emmy for the part, so good on him.

It was odd to see him pop up in Twelve Angry Men – but then Cummings tended to pop up oddly in a lot of things throughout his career. He popped up Abbott and Costello’s first film, Ronald Reagan’s best movie, two Hitchcocks, the first Beach Party movie, George Peppard’s biggest hit, Frank Tashlin’s first film as director. His credits include a Betty Grable musical, a really good pro-union rom com (The Devil and Miss Jones), a drama co-written by Ayn Rand (!), a Douglas Sirk thriller – it’s quite an odds and sods collection of credits for someone who had a reputation for only excelling in one genre, i.e. light comedy.

A quick peruse of the net reveals Cummings had something of an interesting start to his career – he pretending to be British to get a break in Hollywood, then pretending to be a Texan in Hollywood. Dwayne Hickman’s memoirs paint a picture of an eccentric Cummings when they both appeared in the sitcom The Bob Cummings Show (apparently very well regarded); I remember reading things in Variety where he would talk about vitamins, pitch a movie project about himself, and get involved in a financial scandal. Clearly, an actor to whom there was more than meets the eye.