After classical studies, she showed a great passion for dance. She was a pupil of Ruscaja, later she herself taught dance courses.
In 1936 at the home of Raffaello Giolli, his professor of art history, she met the famous poet Salvatore Quasimodo. A meeting that was crucial in her life, in fact she became the muse of the poet, before even being a collaborator. From the great love affair that followed her son Alessandro was born. In 1948 Quasimodo and Cumani married after the death of the poet's first wife.
As well as a dancer, Maria Cumani was a choreographer, prose actress, writer and from the sixties she enjoyed participating in numerous films, usually in character roles.
For her magnetic and hollow face with sunken eyes and sharp features, she was often preferred to interpret nostalgic aristocratic elderly, memories of an Italy of the beginning of the century.
She's gone at the age of 87 on November 22, 1995.
- Giulietta degli spiriti .... Woman at Bhishma's sitting (uncredited)
1966 - Scusi, lei è favorevole o contrario? .... Baroness Cornianu (credited as "Maria Quasimodo")
1967 - I sovversivi .... Mother of Ludovico (credited)
1968 - Galileo .... Old noblewoman at diner table (credited as "Maria Quasimodo")
- Io non perdono... uccido (Fedra West) .... Maria (credited as "Mary C. Cumani")
- La notte è fatta per... rubare .... Olga (credited)
1969 - Atti degli apostoli (TV mini-series) - Ep. 5 .... The Corinthian hotelier (credited)
- Femina ridens .... Sayer's secretary (credited)
- Medea .... Old handmaid of the princess (uncredited)
1971 - Veruschka - poesia di una donna .... Veruschka's mother (credited)
1972 - Pulp .... Office manageress (credited as "Maria Quasimodo")
- Tutti i colori del buio .... Elderly neighbor (credited)
1973 - Cuore - segment 1: "Sangue Romagnolo" as The grandmother (credited)
- Le monache di Sant'Arcangelo .... Mother superior (credited)
1974 - 5 donne per l'assassino .... Marta (credited)
- Il tempo dell'inizio .... The head nurse / Maitresse (credited)
- Porgi l'altra guancia .... Marquise Gonzaga (credited)
- Prigione di donne .... Ursula, the mother superior (credited as "Maria Quasimodo Cumani")
- Tutto a posto e niente in ordine .... Restaurant owner (credited)
1976 - L'eroe (TV movie) .... role? (credited in Radiocorriere TV)
1978 - Interno di un convento .... Nun (credited as "Maria Cumari Quasimodo")
- L'inquilina del piano di sopra .... Wife of Colonel Saverio (credited as "Maria Quasimodo")
1979 - Caligola .... High priestess of Isis (uncredited)
- Con gli occhi dell'occidente (TV mini-series) - ep. 3 .... Madame Denissovic (credited on Radiocorriere TV)
1981 - La felicità (TV miniseries) (episode 3 of 3) .... Fioraia (credited on Radiocorriere TV)
1984 - She .... Moona (credited as "Maria Quasimodo")
1987 - Teresa .... The old baroness (uncredited)
1988 - Nosferatu a Venezia .... The old princess (credited as "Maria Clementina Cumani Quasimodo")
1989 - La casa dei sortilegi (TV Movie) .... The witch (credited as "Maria Clementina Cumani Quasimodo")
- Le prise du pouvoir par Louis XIV (a.k.a. La prese del potere da parte di Luigi XIV, 1966)
- Play Boy (a.k.a. Non ti scordar di me, 1967) .... Mother of Sergio (another source says baroness)
- Con gli occhi dell'occidente (TV mini-series, 1979) .... Madame Denissovic
- Nostalghia (1983)
- Dance music (1984)
- Aquero (1994) .... Isadora
- Frenesia dell'estate as Giulia (1964)
- Le fate - episode: "Fate Marta" (1966)
- Amore e morte nel giardino degli dei (1972)
- Bella ricca lieve difetto fisico cerca anima gemella (1973)
- Babysitter - Un maledetto pasticcio (1975) .... Principessa Ruspini