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John R. Cumpson
The Motion Picture Story Magazine, 1911
Born	John Raymond Cumpson August 30, 1866 Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Died	March 15, 1913 (aged 46) New York City, New York, U.S.
Other names	John Compson John R. Cumpson Mr. Cumpson
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian
Years active	1901–1913
Spouses	Carrie Craft (m.1898–1900, her death)

John R. Cumpson (August 30, 1866 – March 15, 1913) was an American stage and film actor. On Broadway, he appeared in Up York State in 1901. With regard to his screen career, Cumpson appeared in at least 124 films between 1905 and 1912. A 1910 newspaper item described him as "the famous Swedish dialect comedian."

Silent film star Florence Lawrence enjoyed working often with Cumpson at the Biograph Company in 1908 and 1909, although later, in an interview with Photoplay, she described him as essentially a humorless comedian:

"Mr. Cumpson was the most serious comedian I have ever known. Nothing was ever funny to him, and he never tried to be funny....When all the rest of the company would laugh at something he had said or did, he would become indignant, thinking we were making fun of him."

Cumpson died of pneumonia and diabetes at Washington Heights Hospital in New York City. He was survived by a brother and two sisters.

Selected filmography

References

1. "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940", John Cumpson to Carrie Craft, 12 July 1898, database, New York Municipal Archives, New York. FamilySearch.
2. "John R. Cumpson". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on 14 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
3. "Ole Olson". The Springfield News-Leader. Missouri, Springfield. March 2, 1910. p. 4. Retrieved April 14, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
4. Lawrence, Florence (in collaboration with Monte K. Katterjohn). "Growing Up with the Movies", part three of four, Photoplay (Chicago), January 1915, p. 105. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
5. "Sudden Death of J.R. Cumpson". The Buffalo Enquirer. New York, Buffalo. March 17, 1913. p. 10. Retrieved April 14, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "The Sound Sleeper (1909)", catalog, American Film Institute (AFI), Los Angeles, California. Retrieved March 2, 2021.

External links

• John R. Cumpson at IMDb
• John R. Cumpson at the Internet Broadway Database

This article about a United States film actor born in the 1860s is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

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• Male actors from New York (state)
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• American male silent film actors
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• Deaths from diabetes in New York (state)
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• 1866 births
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• 20th-century American male actors
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