Irving Cummings (October 9 1888 - April 18 1959), born Irving Camisky in New York City, New York was an American movie actor, director, producer and writer. Cummings started his acting career in his late teens on Broadway with the legendary Lillian Russell. He entered into movies in 1909 and quickly became a popular leading man. Few of the films he made as an actor are easily available, except for Buster Keaton's first feature film, The Saphead (1920), in which Cummings plays a crooked stockbroker. Around that time, he started to direct action movies and occasional comedies. In 1934, Cummings directed Grand Canary, and in 1939, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his direction of In Old Arizona. Cummings was known for the big splashy 1930s Technicolor musicals with popular leading ladies such as Betty Grable, Alice Faye, and Shirley Temple (Little Miss Broadway, 1938) he directed at 20th Century Fox. Cummings died in Los Angeles, California in 1959 of a heart ailment.
