Robert Cummings

He was an advocate for healthy diet and authored the 1960 book, Stay Young and Vital. He died of Parkinsons disease in 1990 and is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. Durning received Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1982 and for To Be or Not to Be in 1983. Cummings was married five times, and had seven children. More recently he has played a benevolent father to Holly Hunter in Home for the Holidays (1995), and a savvy southern state governor ("Pappy" O'Daniel) in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. His last significant credit was the 1973 TV movie Partners in Crime, also starring Lee Grant. In Tootsie he played a suitor to a cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman, and worked again with Hoffman in a 1985 TV production of Death of a Salesman. He also spent a season starring in My Living Doll (1964), another sitcom. Since then he has amassed over 100 film and TV credits, including Dog Day Afternoon (with Al Pacino), the sci-fi classic The Final Countdown, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

That was followed by The New Bob Cummings Show, 1961-1962. One of Durning's best-known roles is the crooked bunco cop Lieutennant Snyder who doggedly pursues the young con artist Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) in the 1973 classic The Sting. He was in the first performance of Twelve Angry Men to be televised, a live production that aired in 1955, and received an Emmy award for his role as Juror Number Eight. Beginning in 1955 and continuing through 1959, Cummings starred in his own sitcom, The Bob Cummings Show (shown in reruns as Love That Bob). He has since performed in some 32 plays, including the Tony Award-winning That Championship Season. Cummings began a long career on television in 1952 with the comedy My Hero. While working as a ballroom dance instructor (he had some training in classical dance) he was noticed and cast in the New York Shakespeare Festival. He served duty at a base in Oxnard, California during World War II, and later was a pilot in the United States Air Force Reserve. After the war, Durning worked various jobs.

His many film comedies also include: The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) with Jean Arthur, and The Bride Wore Boots (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Cummings gave memorable performances in three notable dramas: Kings Row (1942), Saboteur (1942), and Dial M for Murder (1954). He has said he still suffers from nightmares about his war experiences. He achieved stardom in 1939 in Three Smart Girls Grow Up opposite Deanna Durbin. Durning is well-known for participating in various functions to honor American veterans. In the 1930s Cummings worked (under his own name) as a contract player and appeared in a number of minor roles. He also participated in the Normandy Invasion. He had a brief career on Broadway under the stage name Blade Stanhope Conway, a supposed Englishman, before moving to Hollywood, California, first acting under the name and persona of Bruce Hutchens, wealthy Texan. One of his injuries took place in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was one of the few to survive an attack on American POWs.

He studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Army Ranger in World War II, during which he was awarded a Silver Star and three Purple Heart medals. While attending high school there he was taught to fly by his godfather, Orville Wright. Durning served as a U.S. Cummings was born in Joplin, Missouri. An eminent character actor, Durning is known for his versatility and for sometimes outperforming the main actors in his films. He chiefly performed in comic roles but was effective in his few dramas, especially two Alfred Hitchcock films, Saboteur and Dial M for Murder. Charles Durning (born February 28, 1923) is an American actor of stage and screen.

Robert Cummings (June 10, 1908 - December 2, 1990), also known as Bob Cummings, was an American motion picture and television actor.