# Susan Cummings (actress)

Susan Cummings (née Gerda Susanne Tafel; July 10, 1930 – December 3, 2016) was a German-American actress active from the 1940s to 1960s who started as a teenager in the earliest days of commercial television and appeared in television shows, feature films and on Broadway. Her birth surname of Tafel was sometimes printed as Ta Fel.

## Early years

Born Gerda Susanne Tafel in Bavaria, Germany, she immigrated to the United States at age 7 on March 12, 1938, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Tafel, she was raised in Newark, New Jersey, where her father ran a bakery.

## Career

Cummings (billed as Suzanne Tafel) was a teenager when she became a regular on the American television variety series At Home, which aired on New York City station WCBW (now WCBS-TV) from 1944 to 1945 in the earliest years of commercial television. She first appeared in Broadway theatre in 1945, portraying Susan Peters in Carousel.
During the 1958–59 season, Cummings portrayed Georgia, proprietress of the Golden Nugget Saloon, in the syndicated Western television series Union Pacific.
She made two guest appearances on Perry Mason: one as Lois Fenton in the title role in the 1957 episode "The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse" and as Margaret Swaine in the 1959 episode "The Case of the Lame Canary".
In 1960, she appeared as Stella Carney, a love interest of Marshal Dillon, in an episode of the television Western series Gunsmoke. She appeared as Patty in a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone titled "To Serve Man". In February 1964, she appeared in an episode of the TV series McHale's Navy.

## Personal life

In the late 1940s, Cummings was married to rodeo performer Wayne Dunafon. She married actor Keith Larsen on December 28, 1953, in Ensenada, Mexico. She was also married to actor Charles T. Pawley and accountant Robert E. Strasser.
According to Cummings, she was a registered Republican and was raised Lutheran but converted to Mormonism upon her marriage to Larsen.
Cummings died on December 3, 2016.

## Filmography

Film :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1946 | Merrily We Sing | Suzanne | Short |
| 1951 | An American in Paris | Patron at Flodair Café | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Security Risk | Joan Cochran | |
| 1955 | Headline Hunters | Elsa - Receptionist | Uncredited |
| 1956 | Swamp Women | Marie | |
| 1956 | Secret of Treasure Mountain | Tawana | |
| 1957 | Utah Blaine | Angie Kinyon | |
| 1957 | Tomahawk Trail | Ellen Carter | |
| 1958 | Man from God's Country | Mary Jo Ellis | |
| 1959 | Verboten! | Helga Schiller / Brent | |
| 1966 | The Street Is My Beat | Cora | |
| 1974 | A Time For Love | Woman | (final film role) |
| 2003 | Images of Indians: How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native American | Herself / Ellen Carter (archival footage) | TV movie documentary |
| 2019 | The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration | Herself / Patty (archival footage) | TV movie documentary | (released posthumously) |
| Television ||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1944–45 | At Home | herself | early variety show |
| 1955–57 | Soldiers of Fortune | Simone LeBeau / Pilar | 2 episodes |
| 1955–60 | The Millionaire | Virginia 'Ginny' Hendricks / Claire | 2 episodes |
| 1956 | Science Fiction Theater | Ellen Barton / Peggy Kendler | 2 episodes |
| 1957 | The Frank Sinatra Show | Miss Douglas | 1 episode |
| 1957–59 | Perry Mason | Margaret Swaine / Lois Fenton | 2 episodes |
| 1958–59 | Union Pacific | Georgia | 33 episodes |
| 1958–60 | Bat Masterson | Rona Glyn / Lili Napoleon / Valorie Mitchell | 3 episodes |
| 1959 | Man with a Camera | Monique Thaxter | Episode: "The Positive Negative" |
| 1959 | The Dennis O'Keefe Show | Babette Benoit | Episode: "The Marriage of Babette Benoit" |
| 1960 | The Untouchables | Hazel Stanley | Episode: "Little Egypt" |
| 1960 | Gunsmoke | Stella Carney | Episode: "The Peace Offer" |
| 1960 | Peter Gunn | Paula Garrett | Episode: "The Long Green Kill" |
| 1960 | Lock-Up | Janet Collins Baron | Episode: "The Frame Up" |
| 1961 | Checkmate | Countess Johanna | Episode: "A Slight Touch of Venom" |
| 1961 | Cheyenne | Helen Ransom | Episode: "Winchester Quarantine" |
| 1961 | Riverboat | Tekla Kronen | Episode: "End of a Dream" |
| 1962 | The Twilight Zone | Patty | Episode: "To Serve Man" |
| 1964 | McHale's Navy | Renee | Episode: "The Big Impersonation" |