Constance Cummings, the distinguished American stage and screen actress who worked steadily on both sides of the Atlantic actress, died on November 23 of natural causes in London, England. She was 95.

She was born Constance Halverstadt on May 5, 1910, in Seattle, Washington. Her father was a prominent lawyer and her mother an operatic soprano. She initially studied ballet but steered toward drama after she made her stage debut at age 16 in a local production of Seventh Heaven. Ever ambitious, within a few years she made her debut as a lead in This Man's Town in 1930. After earning praise for that performance, Harry Cohn invited her to Hollywood. She made her film debut as Walter Huston's daughter in Howard Hawks' tough crime drama The Criminal Code (1931), and the attractive ingenue was kept busy as she made no less than four other movies her maiden year: The Guilty Generation, Traveling Husbands, Lover Come Back, and The Last Parade (all 1931).

Based on the quantity of films she made so quickly in her early Hollywood career, 21 in just four short years (1931-34), it would be easy to dismiss Cummings' early movie work as just routine filler. But on closer inspection, one can see more than a few bright spots: she showed a great flair for comedy as Harold Lloyd's girlfriend with a split personality in Movie Crazy; displayed her ability as a solid romantic leading lady in Frank Capra's American Madness (both 1932); proved herself a fine musical talent opposite Russ Columbo in Broadway Thru a Keyhole (1933); and played a superb bitch who steals Ralph Bellamy from Irene Dunne in the well-mounted soaper This Man Is Mine (1934).

She married British playwright W. Benn Levy in 1933, whom she met in Hollywood, and immigrated to England in 1935, where she remained for the rest of her career. She dedicated herself to the London's West End (the British equivalent to Broadway), but she found time to star in some wonderful UK films: the delightful caper comedy Busman's Holiday co-starring Robert Montgomery; the stiff upper lip wartime drama This England (1941) with Emelyn Williams; and her best screen part, that of Ruth, the possessive wife of Rex Harrison in David Lean's classic comedy of manners Blithe Spirit (1945).

For the remainder of her career, Cummings evoloved into a character actress of considerable depth and variety on BBC radio dramas and the British stage. When she did make a return to film, she did so with considerable grace and dignity: playing opposite Peter Sellers in the dark comedy The Battle of the Sexes; a wealthy socialite helping an orphaned boy in Sammy Going South (1963); and as Mrs. Reed in Delbert Mann's adaptation of the Bronte classic Jane Eyre (1971).

In 1979, Cummings did return to the Broadway stage as a former daredevil aviatrix who struggles in her recovery from a stroke in Arthur Kopit's Wings. She won a Tony award in the process and in 1983, she had her performance taped for a PBS adaptation of Wings. The production was later broadcast on the network's American Playhouse. For her contribution to the British Arts, Cummings was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1974. She is survived by a son, Jonathan; daughter, Jemina; and two grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole