Susan Cummings Passes On

Susan Cummings, a German actress who made frequent guest appearances on American television in the Fifties and Sixties, died on December 3 2016 at the age of 87.

Susan Cummings was born Susanne Gerda Tafel in Bavaria on July 10 1930. She was still a teenager when she worked both as a singer and as a model. She made her film debut as a singer in Merrily We Sing (1946), billed as Suzanne Tafel. She later appeared in an uncredited, bit part in An American in Paris (1951). In 1953 she appeared on stage in New York using the stage name Suzanne Ta Fel.  She made her television debut in episodes of Mr. District Attorney using the same name. After 1954 she would be billed as Susan Cummings.

In the Fifties Susan Cummings played Georgia in the single season TV show Union Pacific. She guest starred on such shows as Waterfront, The Lone Wolf, Adventures of the Falcon, Studio 57, The Adventures of Kit Carson, Science Fiction Theatre, The Ford Television Theatre, The Third Man, Perry Mason, The Man From Blackhawk, The Untouchables, The Millionaire, Gunsmoke, Peter Gunn, Bat Masterson, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. She appeared in the films Security Risk (1954), Headline Hunters (1955), Swamp Women (1956), Secret of Treasure Mountain (1956), Utah Blaine (1957), Tomahawk Trail (1957), Man from God's Country (1958), and Verboten! (1959).

In the Sixties she guest starred on such shows as Laramie, Checkmate, Cheyenne, The Twilight Zone, and McHale's Navy. She appeared in the film The Street Is My Beat (1966). She appeared one last time on screen in the movie A Time for Love (1974).

Susan Cummings was certainly lovely. She was also fairly talented. During her career she played everything from secretaries to femmes fatales a cryptographer in the famous Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man". It was little wonder that she was so much in demand as an actress in the Fifties and Sixties.