Robert Cummings Biography

Fast Facts

• Hoping to parlay his love of flying into a career, he once studied aeronautical engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
• His father, a surgeon, was one of the founding members of St․ John's Hospital in Joplin, Missouri, his childhood hometown
• Quote: "You can accomplish anything you want, if you act as if it were already accomplished․ Know what you want, where you are going․ But don't tell anyone what you're constructing․"
• After making his Broadway debut in 1931, he would eventually move to Hollywood in 1934, as only British actors were finding stage work in New York at the time
• When the government began requiring pilots to be licensed, he was issued instructor certificate No․ 1, making him America's first official flight instructor
• Once an established character actor, he would later team with filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock for multiple films before transitioning to television, eventually landing his own adventure series, "The Bob Cummings Show"
• Admitted to obtaining roles on Broadway using a phony British accent as well as a Southern drawl for films in Hollywood
• Godson of Orville Wright, who would teach him to fly in his youth