Robert Cummings ✝

Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990) was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and Princess O'Rourke (1943), and in dramatic films, especially two of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, Saboteur (1942) and Dial M for Murder (1954). He received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. On February 8, 1960, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion picture and television industries, at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard and 1718 Vine Street. He used the stage name Robert Cummings from mid-1935 until the end of 1954 and was credited as Bob Cummings from 1955 until his death. Cummings was born in Joplin, Missouri, a son of Dr. Charles Clarence Cummings and the former Ruth Annabelle Kraft. His father was a surgeon, part of the original medical staff of St. John's Hospital in Joplin, and the founder of the Jasper County Tuberculosis Hospital in Webb City, Missouri. Cummings's mother was an ordained minister of the Science of Mind. While attending Joplin High School, Cummings learned to fly. His first solo flight was on March 3, 1927. Some reports of his learning to fly refer to Orville Wright, the aviation pioneer, as being his godfather and flight instructor. However, these reports appear to be based on either media interviews of Cummings or other anecdotal references.There is no historical record of Orville Wright having traveled to Joplin, Missouri either around the time of the gestation or the birth of Cummings, or during 1927, the year Cummings learned to fly. Cummings, born in 1910, would have only been 8 years old when Orville Wright had essentially stopped flying as a result of injuries he sustained in an accident at Fort Myer, Virginia, on September 17, 1908. The report that Orville Wright taught Cummings to fly is also contradicted by Cummings' interview reported in the March 1960 Flying magazine. In the interview, Cummings described how he learned to fly "by trial and error, mostly error" during 3 hours of instruction from a Joplin, Missouri plumber named Cooper before he soloed on March 3, 1927. During high school, Cummings gave Joplin residents rides in his aircraft for $5 per person.