Alan Cumming (born 27 January 1965 in Aberfeldy, Scotland) is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. He's best known for his roles as Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids movie series, and Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye.
His stage appearances include Hamlet, the Broadway revival of Cabaret (for which he won a Tony for his very sexualized portrayal of the Emcee) and The Threepenny Opera. In 2000 he directed The Anniversary Party, in which he starred along with Jennifer Jason Leigh. In 2002 he wrote a novel, Tommy's Tale. He starred as Eli Gold in The Good Wife and is the current host of Masterpiece Mystery on PBS and The Traitors on Peacock.
His Film Roles Include:
- Bernard and the Genie (1991) as Bernard Bottle
- Black Beauty (1994) as Black Beauty (voice)
- GoldenEye (1995) as Boris Grishenko
- Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) as Sandy Frink
- Buddy (1997) as Dick Croner
- Spice World (1997) as Piers Cuthbertson-Smyth
- Titus (1999) as Saturninus
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999) as Hotel Desk Clerk
- Annie (1999) as Daniel Francis "Rooster" Hannigan
- The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) as The Great Gazoo
- Get Carter (2000) as Jeremy Kinnear
- Spy Kids as Fegan Floop
- Spy Kids (2001)
- Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
- Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
- Josie and the Pussycats (2001) as Wyatt Frame
- Nicholas Nickleby (2002) as Mr. Folair
- X2: X-Men United (2003) as Nightcrawler
- Garfield (2004) as Sir Roland/Persnikitty (voice)
- Son of the Mask (2005) as Loki
- Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005) as Lecturer/Goat-Man/Franklin Delano Roosevelt/Various Characters
- Ripley Under Ground (2005) as Jeff Constant
- Neverwas (2005) as Jake
- Gray Matters (2007) as Gordy
- Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (2009) as Ian (voice)
- The Tempest (2010) as Sebastian
- Burlesque (2010) as Alexis
- The Smurfs as Gutsy Smurf (voice)
- The Smurfs (2011)
- The Smurfs 2 (2013)
- Sir Billi (2012) as Gordon the Goat (voice)
- Strange Magic (2015) as the Bog King (voice)
- Hurricane Bianca (2016) as Lawrence Taylor
- Battle of the Sexes (2017) as Ted Tinling
- Show Dogs (2018) as Dante (voice)
- My Father's Dragon (2022) as Cornelius the Crocodile (voice)
- Marlowe (2022) as Lou Hendricks
His TV Roles Include:
- The High Life (1995) as Sebastian Flight (also co-writer)
- 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996) as Angus "The Hole" MacDuff (1 episode)
- God, the Devil and Bob (2000, 2011) as The Devil (voice)
- Sex and the City (2001) as Oscar (1 episode)
- The L Word (2006) as Billie Blakie (6 episodes)
- Tin Man (2007) as Glitch (3 episodes)
- Masterpiece (2008-present) as the host of Masterpiece Mystery (2008-present)
- The Good Wife (2010-16) as Eli Gold
- The Good Fight (2022)
- Arthur (2013) as Sebastian Winkleplotz (voice) (1 episode)
- Instinct (2018) as Dr. Dylan Reinhart
- Doctor Who (2018) as James I (1 episode)
- The Prince (2021) as Owen (voice) (12 episodes)
- Schmigadoon! (2021-present) as Mayor Menlove (season 1), Dooley Blight (season 2)
- The Traitors (US) (2023-present) as The Host
His Audio Roles Include:
- Solar (2022-present) as Commander Alex Tawley
His Theatre Roles Include:
- Hamlet (1993) as Hamlet
- Cabaret (1993, 1998, 2014) as The Emcee
- The Threepenny Opera (2006) as Macheath
- Macbeth (2013) as All Roles
- Endgame (2020) as Hamm
This actor provides examples of:
- Comically Missing the Point: He demanded a retraction re: a Wall Street Journal article that that suggested
that he wore a codpiece as the Emcee. - Dyeing for Your Art: Quite often, the most prominent example in X2. He had his limits, apparently; even in the behind-the-scenes footage, he stated he couldn't go through the makeup process again for the next film. This trope was the main reason he did not reprise the role for The Last Stand.
- Fake Nationality: Constantly. As a Scotsman he's played an American, a Brit (an American pretending to be a Brit), a German and a Russian just to name a few and is renowned for his ability to adopt each accent flawlessly.
- Large Ham: Many times, most notably when playing Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye and King James I in Doctor Who.
- Promoted Fanboy: He's a huge Doctor Who fan and tried to get on the show for several years before it finally happened, which very much shows in the sheer glee of his performance.
- Self-Deprecating Humor: At his own last name, in this cologne commercial. And yes it actually exists.
- Not just that one time. When hosting Saturday Night Live he mentioned in his opening monologue that Barbra Streisand inspired him with her autobiography Streisand on Streisand to write his own memoir. You can guess the title.
