Alan Cumming is celebrating his 57th birthday this week, so we're taking the opportunity to make him our British Icon of the Week. (Cumming actually holds both U.K. and U.S. citizenship, but he's still very much eligible!). Here are 10 things we enjoy and admire about this talented actor and ever-busy multi-hyphenate. 
1. He's a Tony Award winner.
Cumming won his Tony for putting his stamp on a properly iconic role: that of the Emcee in a 1998 revival of Cabaret.2. He knows his own worth.
Cumming revealed last year that he turned down an offer to play Hogwarts professor Gilderoy Lockhart in the second Harry Potter movie. "They wanted me and Rupert Everett to do a screen test, and they said they couldn't pay me more than a certain sum – they just didn't have any more money in the budget," he told the Daily Telegraph. "And I had the same agent as Rupert, who of course, they were going to pay more. Blatantly lying, stupidly lying, as well. Like, if you’re going to lie, be clever about it. I said, tell them to f*** right off. And thought, well Rupert's going to get the part.
"They made him screen test, and I remember he brought his own wig," Cumming continued. "And then they f***ing gave it to Kenneth Branagh, who came out of the shadows."
What a story! And on that note...
3. He's a terrific raconteur.
During this clip from The Graham Norton Show, Cumming manages to share a very funny story about his first – and only – Comic-Con event, while deftly handling an interruption from Miriam Margolyes. Impressive stuff.4. He's helped to move the dial forward when it comes to LGBTQ representation on screen.
Cumming made TV history with his CBS police procedural Instinct – which ran for two seasons in 2018-2019 – by playing the openly gay psychologist and NYPD consultant Dr. Dylan Reinhart. When the show was canceled, he wrote on Instagram:  "I'm proud to have played the first-ever leading character in a US network drama who is gay. Yes, really. Because of Instinct, millions of people will have seen a same-sex marriage portrayed for the first time and I hope we changed and opened some minds in the process."
5. He made a memorable guest appearance in Doctor Who.
Cumming portrayed King James I of England (who was also King James VI of Scotland) in the 2018 episode "The Witchfinders." It's a campy, characterful part that he's clearly having a lot of fun with.6. He was a real highlight on The Good Wife.
Cumming played the wily political strategist Eli Gold in all seven seasons, earning Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his multi-layered performance. Eli always had more of a conscience than he let on... well, kind of.7. He has his own cabaret bar.
This is absolutely true. You can find Club Cumming in New York City's East Village. It's a spot where Adele and Jennifer Lawrence enjoyed a night out together a few years ago.

8. He also has his own, self-titled fragrance.
"The whole idea behind Cumming was about having fun and being provocative," Cumming writes on his website, explaining that the very tongue-in-cheek commercial he made for it is "lampooning itself whilst at the same time saying things that I really believe in."
"And finally there’s the matter of my name!" he adds. "After forty years of bad jokes about it, it feels great to have been able to turn the tables and make it work for me!"
9. He wrote incredibly bravely about his painful relationship with his father in the 2014 memoir Not My Father's Son.
Cumming's father, who died of cancer in 2010, abused him emotionally and physically while he was growing up. He also claimed, falsely, that he wasn't Cumming's biological father – something the actor disproved with DNA tests. "I thought that maybe I would put him to rest [by writing the book], but actually that hasn’t happened," Cumming told The Guardian in 2020. "He's much more in my life than he ever was. And so he should be; he's my father. Any parent is a huge part of your life and pretending otherwise is not healthy. I feel in a much healthier place with him."
10. And finally, his '90s sitcom The High Life remains a cult classic.
Cumming created and starred in the show with Forbes Masson, his best mate from drama school. They played a couple of rather unreliable air stewards working for the fictional Scottish airline Air Scotia – and though it only ran for one season, it's definitely a fondly remembered artifact from the time.Do you have a favorite Alan Cumming performance?