After a brief but memorable career in both the British and American markets, retired actress Peggy Cummins has died at age 92.
TheAssociated Pressreports that the Welsh-born performer, best known for her role in the 1950 noirGun Crazy, perished Friday, Dec. 29 after suffering a stroke.
Though she left acting behind following the release of her last picture, the 1962 U.K. comedyIn the Doghouse, Cummins legacy as the sharp-shooting femme fatale in the Dalton Trumbo-pennedGun Crazyendured over the course of her life, with the film being selected in 1998 for preservation by the Library of Congress andlater appearing as a contenderfor a spot on the American Film Institutes 100 Greatest American Movies list.
Credit: Everett Collection
Widely considered a precursor to Arthur Penns revolutionary 1967 crime dramaBonnie and Clyde, Gun Crazyfollows a bank-robbing pair (Cummins andRopestar John Dall) who embark on a bullet-riddled crime spree.
The film and Cummins performance reportedly won over French New Wave filmmakers Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard in addition toReservoir Dogsdirector Quentin Tarantino.
Cummins began her career as an actress on stage in Dublin, Ireland, transitioning to film with a role in Herbert Masons 1940 filmDr.
ODowd.
She went on to star in several Hollywood productions, namely two Joseph L. Mankiewicz films:EscapeandThe Late George Apley.
One of herearliest films, 1944sWelcome, Mr. Washington,was thought to be lost until a print was found in a locked cupboard inside Londons Cinema Museum.
It was re-screened for Cummins, who played one half of a penniless sisterly pair that falls for American servicemen during World War II, in January 2016.
I loved being in Hollywood and can remember working with Rex Harrison, Victor Mature, Ronald Colman and Edward G Robinson, Cummins toldThe Timesafter the presentation.
Outside of her work in movies, Cummins married in 1950 and later had two children, but when asked byThe Timesabout rumors that shed previously dated Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy, she tactfully responded: Im not sure about that.
