Cushing was cast (again uncredited) in one of a series of short films in an entry in the MGM series The Passing Parade, which focused on strange-but-true historical events. He portrayed heroes and villains with equal skill. 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. Born in Kenley, Surrey, England, the son of a quantity surveyor, he did not thrive well at his studies in school, however in extra curriculum such as sports and drama club he excelled. [114], During the filming of Star Wars, Cushing was provided with a pair of boots far too small to accommodate the actor's size twelve feet. He was and is an icon of genre film. [41], Cushing appeared in the television film The Masks of Death (1984), marking both the last time he played detective Sherlock Holmes and the final performance for which he received top billing. Among them were Land of the Minotaur, where he played Baron Corofax, the evil leader of a Satanic cult opposed by a priest played by Donald Pleasence. Cushing appeared in several other Hammer films, including The Abominable Snowman (1957), The Mummy and The Hound of the Baskervilles (both 1959), the last of which marked the first of the several occasions he portrayed the detective Sherlock Holmes. It received poor reviews, however, and ran for only eleven days. Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. [113] As a result, Cushing was paid a larger daily salary than most of his fellow cast, earning 2,000 per day compared to weekly salaries of $1,000 for Mark Hamill, $850 for Carrie Fisher and $750 for Harrison Ford, who played protagonists Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo, respectively. [64] Cushing and Lee both reprised their respective roles in the sequel The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974), which was known in the United States as Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride. It was his final stage performance for a decade, but he continued to stay active in film and television during this period. The studio executives were anxious to have Cushing; in fact, Hammer co-founder James Carreras had been unsuccessfully courting Cushing for film roles in other projects even before his major success with Nineteen Eighty-Four. [105] Cushing used the emotions from the recent loss of his wife to add authenticity to the widower character's grieving. He said his only regret about working on it was that he wasn't able to be in ESB or RotJ. It is also difficult to visualise Cushing - at least for me - without also visualising Christopher Lee. [101], In 1971, Cushing contacted the Royal National Institute for the Blind and offered to provide voice acting for some of their audiobooks. [16][17] By the end of the summer of 1936, Cushing accepted a job with the repertory theatre company Southampton Rep, working as assistant stage manager and performing in bit roles at the Grand Theatre in the Hampshire city. [21] The film was roughly based on the Doctor Syn novels by Russell Thorndike. [10] However, Cushing was very proud of his experiences with the Hammer films, and never resented becoming known as a horror actor. The make-up on Peter Cushing's face is patently obvious in close-ups. [73], Cushing had a variety of interests outside acting, including collecting and battling model soldiers, of which he owned over five thousand. Although some childhood injuries prevented him from serving on active duty,[10] a friend suggested he entertain the troops by performing as part of the Entertainments National Service Association. "Peter Cushing, 81; Starred in Classic Horror Movies". 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. His mother had always wanted a daughter, and was deeply disappointed that her second and last child was a boy. The latter film starred Deborah Kerr, Cushing's co-star from The End of the Affair, and Gary Cooper, one of Cushing's favourite actors. And his face was memorable. The set provided technical difficulties, and all of Cushing's lines had to be post-synched. Crisp and executive producer Kevin Francis both in turn sought to portray them as two old-fashioned men in a rapidly changing world. [118], During this period, Cushing was honoured by the British Film Institute, which invited him in 1986 to give a lecture at the National Film Theatre. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (license statement/permission). In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter was living with his mother-in-law in Capharnaum, and thus was married with a wife. Doctors determined he had twelve to eighteen months to live, and that his left eye might be lost. [21] He returned for The Evil of Frankenstein (1963), where the Baron has a carnival hypnotist resurrect his monster's inactive brain,[54] and Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), in which the Frankenstein's monster is a woman played by Playboy magazine centrefold model Susan Denberg. [59] Dracula was released in 1958, with Cushing once again starring opposite Lee, who played the title character, although Cushing was given top billing. During filming he asked director Terence Fisher for permission to drive a harpoon through the mummy's body during a fight scene, to explain the poster image. 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. Hammer Studios' publicity department put out a story that when Cushing first encountered Lee without the make-up on, he screamed in terror. [21] During this discouraging period for Cushing, his wife encouraged him to seek roles in television, which was beginning to develop in England. [78] Among his final Hammer roles was Fear in the Night (1972), where he played a one-armed school headmaster apparently terrorising the protagonist, played by Judy Geeson. He appeared in several horror films and was in Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. [3] In his infancy, Cushing twice developed pneumonia and once what was then known as "double pneumonia". Other people in this association: David Tennant 2005 - 2010. [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. [114], Cushing got along well with the entire cast, especially his old co-star David Prowse who played Darth Vader and Carrie Fisher, who was appearing in her first major role as Princess Leia Organa. Torture Garden. [3], The Cushing family lived in Dulwich during the First World War, but moved to Purley after the war ended in 1918. [109] Cushing appeared in the television film The Great Houdini (1976) as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Dr Who . Whether playing Baron Frankenstein witnessing the awful results of his brilliance or Professor Van Helsing in hot . Peter Cushing reached the impressive age of 81 years. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have a crush on Brigitte Bardot. link]: PETER CUSHING, the prolific and . His mother was the daughter of a carpet merchant and considered of a lower class than her husband. [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. Chibnall, Steve and Petley, Julian (2001). He achieved recognition in his home country for his leading performances in the Hammer Productions horror films from the 1950s to 1970s, while earning international prominence as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977). "[35] Parliament even considered a motion immediately after the first screening to ban the play's live repeat. What movie did Peter Cushing play a vampire or has he ever played a vampire? One of his designs was even worn by the queen mother. [99][141] He was an ardent vegetarian for most of his life who served as a patron with the Vegetarian Society from 1987 until his death. [18] After Cushing attempted the accent and failed, Olivier replied, "Well, I appreciate you not wasting my time. His stoic portrayals in Hammer horror films and Star Wars is legendary, but did you know that he also played Dr Who in two films? Answer (1 of 2): His former secretary and the executor/manager of his estate was apparently pleased with the result. According to Peter Cushing's autobiography, he took a piece of silk that Helen's family had smuggled out of Russia. Please say that. His dialog usually runs along the lines of, 'But good heavens, man! Peter Cushing is best known for the huge number of horror films he made for Hammer Studios between 1957 and 1974. To his many fans, the British star was known as 'The Gentle Man of Horror' and is recognized for his work with Hammer Films which began in the late 1950's, but he had numerous memorable roles outside of Hammer. [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. Here is all you want to know, and more! Shooting ran from September to November 1939,[23] and the film was released in 1940, drawing Cushing's first semblance of attention and critical praise. Nevertheless, he worked hard to master the lines so they sounded natural and that his character appeared intelligent and confident. Cushing was known for his roles as Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Who, and Grand Moff Tarkin. He always had a glass of milk handy to remove the . 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". This caused a great deal of pain for him during shooting, but the costume designers did not have enough time to get him another pair. "How Jim fixed it for horror actor Cushing" (8 May 2004). He was not cast because he insisted he could not perform in an American accent. [55] In Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Cushing portrayed Frankenstein as having gone completely mad, in a fitting coda to the earlier films. [6] Cushing loved dressing up and make believe from an early age, and later claimed he always wanted to be an actor, "perhaps without knowing at first. What happened to Peter Cushing's wife? [92] Cushing himself was not a particular fan of horror or science fiction films, but he tended to choose roles not based on whether he enjoyed them, but whether he felt his audience would enjoy him in them. At times, this put him at odds with writers and producers; Hammer Studios producer Anthony Hinds once declared him a "fusspot [and] terrible fusser about his wardrobe and everything, but never a difficult man. Stevens cast Cushing in the second male lead role of Joe Shand, the husband of the Lombard character's sister. 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. I love animals, and when I'm in the country I'm a keen bird-watcher." [15] The two had little money around this time, and Cushing had to collect from both National Assistance and the Actors' Benevolent Fund. Though they worked together often, they were not necessarily friends. Cushing said he would have preferred to play Kenobi rather than Tarkin, but could not have done so because he was to be filming other movie roles when Star Wars was shooting, and Tarkin's scenes took less time to film than those of the larger Kenobi role. [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. Though only in his early 50s at the time, Cushing regularly played decrepit characters. [10][42][68], On 10 April 1943, Cushing married Violet Hlne Beck, sister of Reginald Beck. [21] He once again co-starred opposite Lee, who portrayed the aristocratic Sir Henry Baskerville. [98], In July 1969, Cushing appeared as the straight man in The Morecambe & Wise Show, the British comedy series. Tarkin, played by the late Peter Cushing, was outwardly polite and aristocratic, but as princess Leia noted, there's no hiding the foul stench of his evil. Peter Cushing (26 may 1913 - 11 august 1994) was a British actor who played Sherlock Holmes 3 times. [ 21 ] the film was roughly based on the Doctor Syn novels by Russell.... Thus was married with a wife character appeared intelligent and confident widower character 's grieving worked hard master! But he continued to stay active in film and television during this period ''. Was married with a wife set provided technical difficulties, and when I 'm in the second male lead of... 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