[153], Several filmmakers and actors have claimed to be influenced by Peter Cushing, including actor Doug Bradley, who played Pinhead in the Hellraiser horror films,[154] and John Carpenter, who directed such films as Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982). [41] Despite this continued success in live television, Cushing found the medium too stressful and wished to return to film. [144] His co-stars and colleagues often spoke of his politeness, charm, old-fashioned manners and sense of humour. Peter Cushing FameChain Links. [38], In the two years following Nineteen Eighty-Four, Cushing appeared in thirty-one television plays and two serials, and won Best Television Actor of the Year from the Evening Chronicle. It is also difficult to visualise Cushing - at least for me - without also visualising Christopher Lee. He has adorned our screens as Dr. . Cushing appeared only briefly in A Chump at Oxford (1940) and his scenes took just one week to film, but he was proud to work with whom he called "two of the greatest comedians the cinema has ever produced. He appeared in several horror films and was in Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. That person is so close to you that you are able to share so. Known for a number of iconic roles, Peter Cushing's career stretched across multiple genres. He repeated the role of the man who lost family in other horror films, including Asylum (1972), The Creeping Flesh (1973), and The Ghoul (1975). [92] Although the series proved popular, Cushing felt he could not give his best performance under the hectic schedule, and he was not pleased with the final result. 1959 - 1984. [10] The scene in which Tarkin and Organa appear together on the Death Star, just before the destruction of the planet Alderaan, was the first scene with major dialogue that Fisher filmed for Star Wars. [20] Cushing was hired as a stand-in for scenes that featured both characters played by Louis Hayward, who had the dual lead roles of King Louis XIV and Philippe of Gascony. The Peter Cushing Companion David Miller 2002 Page 45 "Cushing's fee for The Face of Love was 74 guineas. To their surprise, however, Cushing recovered well enough to be released from the hospital,[149] and although his health continued to gradually decline, Cushing lived another twelve years without any operative treatment or chemotherapy. His old friend and co-star John Mills encouraged him to publish his memoirs as a way of overcoming the reclusive state Cushing had placed himself into following her death. Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. [87][102] Cushing wrote the forewords to two books about the detective: Peter Haining's Sherlock Holmes Scrapbook (1974) and Holmes of the Movies: The Screen Career of Sherlock Holmes (1976), by David Stuart Davies. Although the idea was ultimately abandoned before filming began, Cushing and Prowse rehearsed those scenes in a set built by computer animation artist Larry Cuba. At birth, Peter disappointed his mother, who, already having a sonPeter's older brother Davidreally wanted a daughter. List of the best Peter Cushing movies, ranked best to worst with movie trailers when available. There were several stage actors in Cushing's family, including his paternal grandfather Henry William Cushing, his paternal aunt Maude Ashton, and his step-uncle Wilton Herriot. [10] Director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp both said the portrayal of Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow was intended to resemble that of Cushing's old horror film performances. [10] Far from being deterred by Cushing's unsuccessful audition the year before, Olivier remembered the actor well and was happy to cast him,[10][18] but the only character left unfilled was the relatively small part of the foppish courtier Osric. Cushing played the lead role twice more in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974). The horror films were produced by Hammer Films in Britain. [123] In 1989 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to the British film industry. However, when producer Anthony Hinds proposed removing the character's deerstalker, Cushing insisted they remain because audiences associated Holmes with his headgear and pipes. [143], Cushing was known among his colleagues for his gentle and gentlemanly demeanour, as well as his professionalism and rigorous preparation as an actor. [10] Cushing felt his first performance was much stronger than the second, but the second production is the only known surviving version. [102] He appeared alongside Vincent Price in Dr. Phibes Rises Again! Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE (26 May 1913 - 11 August 1994) was an English actor best known for his roles in the Hammer Productions horror films of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and as Grand Moff Tarkin in the 1977 film Star Wars. Cushing read Thorndike to prepare for the role, and made suggestions to make-up artist Roy Ashton about Blyss' costume and hairstyle. The film failed to make a mark in critical terms as its source material (the classic novel Seven Keys to Baldpate) had already been adapted several times before. [65], Although most well known for his roles in the Frankenstein and Dracula films, Cushing appeared in a wide variety of other Hammer productions during this time. "Talking toPeter Cushing". He portrayed an English botanist searching the Himalayas for the legendary Yeti. Paul Cushing Child (January 15, 1902 - May 12, 1994) was an American civil servant, diplomat, and artist known for being the husband of celebrity chef and author Julia Child. [5] During one Christmas in his youth, Cushing saw a stage production of Peter Pan, which served as an early source of inspiration and interest in acting. [10] Cushing met a Columbia Pictures employee named Larry Goodkind, who wrote him a letter of recommendation and directed him to acquaintances Goodkind knew at the company Edward Small Productions. The Vampire Lovers. His written candor was nearly too painful to read. I love animals, and when I'm in the country I'm a keen bird-watcher." A cinema idol for multiple generations of people, her inherent French mystique brought her from Paris and cast her into stardom at a young age. Grant, Devin (19 May 2005). Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were two of the most prolific actors in horror cinema. [51] Many felt Cushing's performance helped create the archetypal mad scientist character. Cushing was just a fabulous actor. He also staged An Evening with Peter Cushing at St. Edmund's Public School in Canterbury to raise money for the local Cancer Care Unit. He said his only regret about working on it was that he wasn't able to be in ESB or RotJ. Ryan and Slater agreed, and Cushing later said performing the part was his most pleasant experience since his wife had died four years earlier. [34] Nevertheless, he continued to appear in several small roles in radio, theatre and film. Presumably living in a famous actor's former house is a mixed blessing for its current occupants. Instead, Cushing asked to play Arthur Grymsdyke,[105] a kind, working-class widower who gets along well with the local children, but falls subject to a smear campaign by his snobbish neighbours. [96] Cushing also appeared in non-Amicus horror films like Island of Terror (1966) and The Blood Beast Terror (1968), in both of which he investigates a series of mysterious deaths. [10] In 1986, he appeared on the British television show Jim'll Fix It, hosted by Jimmy Savile, in which it was arranged for the wishes of guests to be granted. [63] Cushing appeared in Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), a Hammer modernisation of the Dracula story set in the then-present day. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. [136], Cushing wrote two autobiographies, Peter Cushing: An Autobiography (1986) and Past Forgetting: Memoirs of the Hammer Years (1988). Peter Cushing reached the impressive age of 81 years. [10] As with the Frankenstein film, critics largely disliked Dracula because of its violence and sexual content, deeming it inferior to the 1931 Universal version. Peter Sellers died young, and in the decades since his passing, debate about his character and behavior has rarely ceased, with a great number of well-researched biographies and a big-budget movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, trying to get a grip on the reverse side of this most gifted creator of characters, to show something of the real Cushing was known for his roles as Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Who, and Grand Moff Tarkin. Peter Cushing - not for first nor the last time this week, we salute you. Find out the cause of death and more exciting information regarding the death of this famous movie actor. He nevertheless maintained a belief in both God and an afterlife. [4] He always took the roles seriously and never portrayed them in a campy or tongue-in-cheek style because he felt it would be insulting to his audience. [67] Cushing and Lee appeared together in the Hammer horror The Mummy (1959), with Cushing as the archaeologist John Banning and Lee as the antagonist Kharis. [155][156], In 2008, fourteen years after his death, Cushing's image was used in a set of stamps issued by the Royal Mail honouring Hammer Studios films on the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Dracula. [105], In 1975, Cushing was anxious to return to the stage, where he had not performed in ten years. [10] Cushing saw a promotional poster for The Mummy that showed Lee's character with a large hole in his chest, allowing a beam of light to pass through his body. The only enjoyment he got out of it was drawing prospectives of proposed buildings, which were almost always rejected because they were too imaginative and expensive and lacked strong foundations, which Cushing disregarded as a "mere detail. The order of these top Peter Cushing movies is decided by how many votes they receive, so only highly rated Peter Cushing movies will be at the top of the list. No, he did not have any children. [83] The film was called Mania in its American release. Majendie, Paul (7 August 1986). The actor has to smoke a pipe, but he did not like it. [21] He once said that he learned his parts "from cover to cover" before filming began. [55] In Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Cushing portrayed Frankenstein as having gone completely mad, in a fitting coda to the earlier films. The hectic schedule became overbearing for Cushing, who had to drop out of the play and resolved to never again attempt a film and play simultaneously. Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death. It'll be a glorious death, so long as I can hear what you're saying. It was also turned down by Christopher Lee, and eventually went to Donald Pleasence, another of Cushing's former co-stars. Peter Cushing's wife died in the early 1970's, they never had children so when he died of cancer in 1994 he left his estate to his secretary Joyce Broughton. Peter Cushing: A Life in Film Hardcover - April 16, 2013 by David Miller (Author) 24 ratings Hardcover $15.79 13 Used from $9.99 Peter Cushing was an unforgettable presence in cult cinema of the fifties, sixties and seventies, and remains one of Britain's best-loved film stars. Fourteen days of rehearsal was originally scheduled for each episode, but they were cut down to ten days for economic reasons. [10] He appeared in the Hammer film Captain Clegg (1962), known in the United States as Night Creatures. [21] In that film, Cushing's Van Helsing travels to the Chinese city Chungking, where Count Dracula is heading a vampire cult. Although I didn't . He was forced to withdraw from the film to care for his wife, and was ultimately replaced by Andrew Keir. [21] He once again co-starred opposite Lee, who portrayed the aristocratic Sir Henry Baskerville. During production, Lucas decided to add those shots, along with second unit footage of the Death Star gunners preparing to fire, to add more suspense to the film's space battle scenes. Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee had agreed to work together one last time. The first was J.B. Priestley's Eden End, which was televised in December 1951. Yes, it was small- but it was a valuable learning experience nonetheless. [21] Around the same time, Cushing played the original nineteenth century Van Helsing in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (also 1974), a co-production between Hammer Studios and the Shaw Brothers Studio, which brought Chinese martial arts into the Dracula story. [14] Cushing continued to appear in several Amicus Productions films during this period, including Tales from the Crypt (1972), From Beyond the Grave (1973),[103] And Now the Screaming Starts! [84] In 1965, Cushing appeared in the Ben Travers farce play Thark at Westminster's Garrick Theatre. [18] The tour, which lasted until February 1949, took them to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart, Tasmania, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and included performances of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal, Shakespeare's Richard III, Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, Jean Anouilh's Antigone and Anton Chekhov's The Proposal. [73], Cushing had a variety of interests outside acting, including collecting and battling model soldiers, of which he owned over five thousand. [12], Cushing eventually applied for a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Both he and his wife feared Cushing would become typecast into horror roles, but he continued to take them because they guaranteed regular work. [28] In 1972, he was quoted in the Radio Times as having said, "Since Helen passed on I can't find anything; the heart, quite simply, has gone out of everything. In 1987, a watercolour painting Cushing painted was accepted by Prince Edward and auctioned at a charity event he organised to raise funds for The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme. They were the best of friends. As a result, he asked Lucas to film more close-up shots of him from the waist up and, after the director agreed, Cushing wore slippers during the scenes where his feet were not visible. [91] He tried to keep his performance identical to his portrayal of Holmes from The Hound of the Baskervilles. Thereafter the action jumps ahead to 1972, and Cushing plays the original character's grandson for the bulk of the movie. [108] Another was The Ghoul, where he played a former priest hiding his cannibalistic son in an attic. [112] When Cushing smoked between shots, he wore a white glove so the make-up artists would not have to deal with nicotine stains on his fingers. Oliver, Myrna (12 August 1994). 2014-12-17 19:28:59. Whether playing Baron Frankenstein witnessing the awful results of his brilliance or Professor Van Helsing in hot . Cushing won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in 1956. Cushing was about twenty years older than Baron Frankenstein as he appeared in the original novel, but that did not deter the filmmakers. Peter Wilton Cushing OBE (26 May 1913 - 11 August 1994) was an English actor. [97] Cushing played a surgeon who attempts to restore the beauty of his wife (played by Sue Lloyd), whose face is horribly scarred in an accident. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (license statement/permission). There was no reference to such an injury in the film script, and when he asked the publicity department why it was on the poster, they said it was simply meant to serve as a shocking image to promote the movie. [99] Cushing and Lee made cameos as their old roles of Frankenstein and Dracula in the comedy One More Time (1970), which starred Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr.[100] The single scene took only one morning of filming, which Cushing agreed to after Davis asked him to do it as a favour. Cushing had recently undergone dental surgery and he was trying not to open his mouth widely for fear of spitting. His daughter Antonia told the Hollywood Reporter that he passed on due to natural causes. Crisp and executive producer Kevin Francis both in turn sought to portray them as two old-fashioned men in a rapidly changing world. [106] Make-up artist Roy Ashton designed the costume and make-up Cushing wore when he rose from the dead,[106] but the actor helped Ashton develop the costume, and donned a pair of false teeth that he previously used in a disguise during the Sherlock Holmes television series. [76] The next year, Cushing starred as an Ebenezer Scrooge-like manager of a bank being robbed in the Hammer thriller film Cash on Demand (1961). Parents who let children . [28][35] Nevertheless, a second televised production was filmed and aired, and Cushing eventually drew both critical praise and acting awards, further cementing his reputation as one of Britain's biggest television stars. [28] Picturegoer writer Margaret Hinxman, who was not complimentary of Lee's performance, praised Cushing and wrote of the film: "Although this shocker may not have created much of a monster, it may well have created something more lasting: a star! Others closed after a few showings, like an ambitious five-hour stage adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace that opened and closed in 1943 in London's Phoenix Theatre. He appeared in the episode The Hidden Master (1940) as a young Clive of India, well before the soldier established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company. [11] Cushing hated the job, where he remained for three years without promotion or advancement due to his lack of ambition in the profession. 4 Grand Moff Tarkin. [21] Cushing and Lee became extremely close friends, and remained so for the rest of Cushing's life. His next role was in Vigil in the Night (1940), which was a much larger part and played opposite Carole Lombard. Torture Garden. [21] Cushing became very ill with dysentery during filming and lost a considerable amount of weight as a result. [107] His performance in Tales from the Crypt won him the Best Male Actor award at the 1971 French Convention of Fantasy Cinema in France. [13] Cushing often learned and practised his lines in an attic at work, under the guise that he was putting ordnance survey maps into order. "Peter Cushing, 81; Starred in Classic Horror Movies". Biography - A Short Wiki. [111], Film director George Lucas approached Cushing with the hopes of casting the actor in his upcoming space fantasy film, Star Wars. The move proved to be a wise one, as Cushing was hired to complement the cast of a string of major theatre successes that were being adapted to live television. Cushing's biographer Tony Earnshaw said Cushing's performance in The Masks of Death was arguably the actor's best interpretation of the role, calling it "the culmination of a life-time as a Holmes fan, and more than a quarter of a century of preparation to play the most complex of characters". His childhood inspiration was Tom Mix, an American film actor and star of many Western films. Answer (1 of 2): His former secretary and the executor/manager of his estate was apparently pleased with the result. However, they did share a mutual respect for one another's work. [150] In August 1994, Cushing entered himself into Pilgrims Hospice in Canterbury, where he died on 11 August at 81 years old. Perhaps the friendship between these two men - and its loss - speaks to us so keenly because it speaks . Peter Cushing was not a handsome man. [21] Also around the same time, he appeared in Magic Fire (also 1955), an autobiographical film about the German composer Richard Wagner. He earned particular acclaim for his lead performance as Winston Smith in a BBC adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954). "The star who never grew up". "[22] Around this time actor Robert Coote, who met Cushing during a cricket game, recommended to director George Stevens that Cushing might be good for a part in Stevens' upcoming film Vigil in the Night (1940). The make-up on Peter Cushing's face is patently obvious in close-ups. [14] His first audition was before the actor Allan Aynesworth, who was so unimpressed with Cushing's manner of speech that he rejected him outright and insisted he not return until he improved his diction. [34], Cushing struggled greatly to find work over the next few years, and became so stressed that he felt he was suffering from an extended nervous breakdown. Christopher Neame, who also starred in the film, said he was particularly impressed with Cushing's agility and fitness, considering his age. "Peter Cushing: The First Gentleman of Horror". [39] Cushing, who enjoyed the tale as a child,[10] had his agent John Redway inform the company of Cushing's interest in playing the protagonist, Baron Victor Frankenstein. [75] The Hound of the Baskervilles was originally conceived as the first in a series of Sherlock Holmes films, but eventually no sequels were made. Cushing played one part against Hayward in one scene, then the opposite part in another, and ultimately the scenes were spliced together in a split screen process that featured Hayward in both parts and left Cushing's work cut from the film altogether. [21] In the first, The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), his protagonist is sentenced to death by guillotine, but he flees and hides under the alias Doctor Victor Stein. [10] As a result, while the film did well at the box-office with its target audience, it drew mixed to negative reviews from the critics. [82] Cushing played Robert Knox in The Flesh and the Fiends (1960), based on the true story of the doctor who purchased human corpses for research from the serial killer duo Burke and Hare. He later stated that this had simply been a hysterical response borne out of grief, and that he had not purposely attempted to end his life; a poem left by Helen had implored him not to die until he had lived his life to the full.[141]. Cushing envisioned the character as an idealist warrior for the greater good, and studied the original book carefully and adapted several of Van Helsing's characteristics from the books into his performance, including the repeated gesture of raising his index finger to emphasise an important point. .mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}To learn how to add open license text to Wikipedia articles, please see this how-to page. The horror films were produced by Hammer Films in Britain.Peter Cushing, a British actor who chilled a generation of filmgoers as the evil Baron Frankenstein, died yesterday in a hospice in Canterbury, England. Actually, I'm a gentle fellow. [citation needed] Lee recognised Cushing's health was fading and did his best to keep his friend's spirits up, but Lee later claimed he had a premonition that it would be the last time he saw Cushing alive, which proved to be true. [15][26] In 1942, the Nol Coward play Private Lives was touring the military stations and hospitals in the British Isles, and the actor playing the lead role of Elyot Chase was called to service. Fisher said she liked Cushing so much that it was difficult to act as though she hated Tarkin,[10] and she had to substitute somebody else in her mind to muster the feelings. [21] Cushing performed many of his own stunts in Dracula A.D. 1972, which included tumbling off a haywagon during a fight with Dracula. The person you saw has been dead for more than two centuries! In exchange, Hammer's James Carreras thanked Cushing by paying for extensive roofing repair work that had recently been done on Cushing's recently purchased Whitstable home. Later that year he was set to appear in Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971), an adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel The Jewel of Seven Stars. (1966). When this hindered the post-synching process, Olivier leaned in close to Cushing's face and said, "Now drown me. [21][53] The two men continued to work together in many films for Hammer, and their names became synonymous with the company. Cushing sought and was cast in the role. Cushing continued to make occasional cameos in the series over the next decade, portraying himself desperately attempting to collect a payment for his previous acting appearance on the show. Peter Cushing. You have my permission to publish that really, you know, dear boy, it's all just killing time. [27] During this tour he met Violet Hlne "Helen" Beck, a former dancer who was starring in the lead female role of Amanda Prynne. [13][18] While he was in Southampton he met an 18 year old fellow actor Doreen Lawrence and they were engaged to be married. Peter Bogdanovich's passing was announced by one of his daughters, Antonia, on Thursday, January 6. Cushing considered this among the favourites of his films,[21] and some critics believed it to be among his best performances, although it was one of the least seen films from his career. As a Hammer Film actor, he portrayed Baron Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing, and . Many actors turned down the role as a result, but Cushing accepted,[89] and the BBC believed his Hammer Studios persona would bring what they called a sense of "lurking horror and callous savagery" to the series. [39] For that film, he travelled to Spain and filmed scenes on location in the castles of Manzanares el Real and El Escorial. O'Brien, John (20 April 2002). [33] Cushing designed custom hand-scarves in honour of the Hamlet film, and as it was being exhibited across England, the scarves were eventually accepted as gifts by the Queen and her daughter Princess Elizabeth. When Peter Cushing was a child, his mother dressed him as a girl. A great fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Cushing played Holmes in several productions, including a British TV series of the 1960s.Peter Wilton Cushing was born in Kenley, Surrey, England, on May 26, 1913, the younger of two sons of a surveyor and a carpet merchant's daughter. [140] He also loved games and practical jokes,[15] and enjoyed drawing and painting watercolours, the latter of which he did especially often in his later years. In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter was living with his mother-in-law in Capharnaum, and thus was married with a wife. [10] The next year he was set to star in a sequel, Lust for a Vampire (1971), but had to drop out because his wife was ill and Ralph Bates substituted. [44], During a brief quiet period following Cushing's television work, he read in trade publications about Hammer, a low-budget production company seeking to adapt Mary Shelley's horror novel Frankenstein into a new film. Cushing wrote to the couple and suggested they stage The Heiress, a play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, with Cushing himself in the lead role. What happened to Peter Cushing's wife? The supremely talented British actor portrayed some of horror literature's best-loved heroes . [39] Cushing was cast in the lead role of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), marking the first of twenty-two films he made for Hammer. "[35] Parliament even considered a motion immediately after the first screening to ban the play's live repeat. Peter Cushing played a vampire in a French film called "Tender Dracula". [115][116][117][118][119] During rehearsals, Lucas originally planned for Tarkin and Vader to use a giant screen filled with computerised architectural representations of hallways to monitor the whereabouts of Skywalker, Solo and Organa. [41] Director Val Guest said he was particularly impressed with Cushing's preparation and ability to plan which props to best use to enhance his performance, so much so that Cushing started to become known as "Props Peter". Doctors determined he had twelve to eighteen months to live, and that his left eye might be lost. As both actors were in their seventies, screenwriter N.J. [10][123][124], For the film Rogue One (2016), CGI and digitally-repurposed-archive footage[125][126] were used to insert Cushing's likeness from the original movie over the face of actor Guy Henry. He was eventually noticed by a Broadway theatre talent scout,[25] and in 1941 he made his Broadway debut in the religious wartime drama The Seventh Trumpet. He played the lead in nearly every school production during his teenage years, including the role of Sir Anthony Absolute in a 1929 staging of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy of manners play, The Rivals. 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