Princess Anne Honours Alan Cumming with OBE Award, 11/23

Britain's Princess Anne honoured international stage star Alan Cumming with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal at Buckingham Palace in London on Tuesday.

Cumming, was honoured for his services to film, theatre and the arts, as well as his work as a gay rights activist.

Said Cummings on his recognition, "I have a voice because of my work. I'm loud and I speak my mind. I feel it's a lucky position to be in - that people want you to speak out for something you want to say anyway. My work has enabled me to do something with my opinions for good."

Internationally celebrated for his work on stage and screen, Cummings is most notable for his roles of Boris in Goldeneye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy. He has also appeared in independent films like The Anniversary Party, which he wrote, directed and starred in; and Ali Selim's Sweet Land, for which he won an Independent Spirit award as producer. His London stage appearances include Hamlet, Madman in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, for which he received an Olivier award, the lead in Martin Sherman's Bent, and as Dionysus in The National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae. On Broadway he has appeared as Mac the Knife in The Threepenny Opera and the Emcee in Cabaret, for which he won the Tony in 1998. He has also written a novel, Tommy's Tale. He has contributed to many publications and regularly performs with his band I Bought A Blue Car Today.

As an activist, Cumming is an LGBT rights crusader, and has promoted gay rights on both sides of the Atlantic with organisations such as GLAAD and the HRC, as well as working for several AIDS charities, including AMFAR and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. He is also a member of the Creative Coalition, an organisation to bring public awareness of social issues. He was presented with the San Francisco Human Rights Campaign's Humanitarian Award in 2005.