Profile Text
Birth Name: James Cummings
Place of Birth: New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Date of Birth: October 31, 1986
Ethnicity: Irish (about 43%), one quarter Italian, some English and German, 1/16th Belgian Flemish, smaller amounts of Scottish and Dutch, remote Cornish
Jim Cummings is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. He has directed the films No Floodwall Here , Thunder Road , The Wolf of Snow Hollow , all of which he wrote; and The Beta Test , which he co-wrote. He also starred in his last three films, as well as in the films 13 Cameras , The Block Island Sound , Greener Grass , Halloween Kills , The Last Stop in Yuma County , Redux Redux , and The Yeti (2026). He composed the score for Thunder Road .
Jim’s paternal grandfather was John Joseph Cummings, Jr. (the son of John Joseph Cummings and Loretta C. Murphy). Jim’s grandfather John was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jim’s great-grandfather John was the son of Daniel T. Cummings, whose parents were Irish; and of Mary Elizabeth Aitkens, whose mother was German, from Landstuhl, Bavaria. Jim’s great-grandmother Loretta was the daughter of Lawrence Murphy, an Irish immigrant; and of Anna Louise Geraghty, who was also of Irish descent.
Jim’s paternal grandmother was Frances Veronica Abel (the daughter of James Grant Abel and Catherine Lawler). Frances was born in St. Tammany, Louisiana. James was the son of Seymour Robert Abel, who had deep roots in the U.S.; and of Jeanette/Joanna DeMeyer, who was a Belgian Flemish immigrant. Jim’s great-grandmother Catherine was the daughter of Irish emigrants, Laurence John Lawler, from County Meath; and Margaret Leavy, from Drogheda, County Louth.
Jim’s maternal grandfather was Etter Frank Sgarella (the son of Domenico Aldo Sgarella and Annetta Maria Gigliotti). Etter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Italian emigrants, from Catanzaro, Calabria. Domenico was born in Sambiase, the son of Domenico Sgarella and Rosa Maria Montillo. Annetta was born in Falerna, the daughter of Napoleone Luigi Maria Gigliotti and Gelsomina Pasqualina Silvagni.
Jim’s maternal grandmother was Ruth Anne McCue (the daughter of Edward Joseph McCue and Edna Amanda Jester). Ruth was born in Pennsylvania. Edward was the son of Patrick McCue, an Irish immigrant; and of Sarah Jane Henderson, whose parents were also Irish. Jim’s great-grandmother Edna was the daughter of Charles Jester, an English immigrant; and of Mary Agnes Schmitt, whose father, and maternal grandparents, were German emigrants, from Bietigheim, Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg.