Peggy Cummins, star of the 1950 film noir classic ‘Gun Crazy,’ died in London on Friday. She was 92.
Peggy Cummins, star of the 1950 film noir classic “ Gun Crazy,” died in London on Friday. She was 92.
The actress died of a stroke, her friend, Dee Kirkwood told the Associated Press .
Cummins started her career in theater when she was 13 years old, taking the stage in London and quickly landing roles in British films, including “Old Mother Riley Detective” and “English Without Tears.” Darryl F. Zanuck, who was then-head of 20th Century Fox, brought her to the U. S. in 1945, where she starred in “Moss Rose” and “Escape.”
Her big break came with the thriller “Gun Crazy,” where she played Annie Laurie Starr, a sharpshooter in a traveling carnival who seduces Barton Tare (played by John Dall) to marry her and join her in a life of crime. The film was selected for preservation in the U. S. National Film Registry in 1998 because of its significance. “Gun Crazy” went on to inspire “Bonnie and Clyde” and the French new wave.
See photos of Peggy Cummins:
Cummins returned to England in 1950. Her last film role was in 1962 with “In the Doghouse,” though she made occasional TV appearances in the following years.
Born Augusta Margaret Diane Fuller in Wales and raised in Dublin, Cummins was the daughter of actress Margaret Cummins. She married William Herbert Derek Dunnett in 1950. He died in 2000.
She is survived by two children.
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