[14][28] They fell in love and were married on 10 April 1943. Director: James Whale | Stars: Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William, Joseph Schildkraut Votes: 1,771 2. [3] Cushing's family consisted of several stage actors, including his paternal grandfather Henry William Cushing (who toured with Henry Irving),[4] his paternal aunt Maude Cushing (his father's sister) and his step-uncle Wilton Herriot, after whom Peter Cushing received his middle name. Fisher agreed, and the scene was used in the film. [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. Whether playing Baron Frankenstein witnessing the awful results of his brilliance or Professor Van Helsing in hot . [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. [28] He suffered from nyctophobia from early in his life, but in his later years overcame this by forcing himself to take walks outside after midnight. Peter Cushing is one of the most highly regarded performers amongst all manner of cinephiles. [33] A huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, Cushing was highly anxious to play the character,[69] and reread the novels in anticipation of the role. The production proved to be controversial, resulting in death threats for director Rudolph Cartier and causing Cushing to be vilified for appearing in such "filth. Cushing continued to perform in a variety of roles, although he was often typecast as a horror film actor. The latter was often fatal during that period, although he survived. Cushing played the lead role twice more in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974). [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. In the film, Clive tries to shoot himself twice but the gun misfires, then he fires a third time at a pitcher of water and the gun works perfectly. Did St Peter who was married have any children? "How Jim fixed it for horror actor Cushing" (8 May 2004). Instead, seizing upon Cushing's interest in art and drawing, he got his son a job as a surveyor's assistant in the drawing department of the Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council's surveyor's office during the summer of 1933. His first job was as a surveyor's assistant in . [12], Cushing eventually applied for a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. [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. "[77], Cushing and Lee appeared together in the horror film The Gorgon (1964), about the female snake-haired Gorgon character from Greek mythology and in She (1965), about a lost realm ruled by the immortal queen Ayesha, played by Ursula Andress. 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. Wesley Snipes has taken out more in single scenes, no doubt. Peter Cushing. Peter Cushing was one of the handful of actors who defined the horror movie. ", "How a Holby City actor brought one of Star Wars' most iconic characters back to life", "See the Stunning Detail That Went into Recreating Two Star Wars Characters For Rogue One", "What Peter Cushing's Digital Resurrection Means for the Industry", "CUSHING, PETER (19131994) The Bois Saga", "Peter Cushing's Obituary The Vegetarian (Autumn 1994)", "Peter Cushing, actor, Dies at 81; Known for Playing Frankenstein", "Royal Mail celebrates 'Great Britons' with launch of latest special stamp collection", The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society UK, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Cushing&oldid=1136944646, Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Best Actor BAFTA Award (television) winners, Officers of the Order of the British Empire, People associated with the Vegetarian Society, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2022, Internet Broadway Database person ID same as Wikidata, Turner Classic Movies person ID different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This film was "riffed" on 14 April 2017 as part of the Season One (episode 14) release of, Season 1, episode 20: "The Escape of Rudolf Hess", Season 2, episode 7: "Drama '62: Peace with Terror", Season 1, episode 4: "La Grande Breteche", Season 1, episode 5: "The Counterfeit Trap", Four separately recorded interviews, (with, Long running gag involving being owed payment, This page was last edited on 2 February 2023, at 00:06. His mother had always wanted a daughter, and was deeply disappointed that her second and last child was a boy. Peter Cushing was and is one of the most well-loved and well-known actors of his own generation and of those which have followed. Lawrence broke off the engagement citing his frequent crying and bringing his parents on dates. 4 Grand Moff Tarkin. The episodes aired in 1968. [91] He tried to keep his performance identical to his portrayal of Holmes from The Hound of the Baskervilles. Peter Cushing starred alongside icons like Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and John Carradine, in this 1983 horror-comedy. Yet unlike some of his spooky cousins working across the pond, such as Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, he managed to sidestep the burden of typecasting. 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. 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. Peter Cushing's highest grossing movies have received a lot of accolades over the years, earning millions upon millions around the world. [137] Cushing also wrote a children's book called The Bois Saga, a story based on the history of England. MacDonald, Andrew and MacDonald, Gina (2003). One day Peter went missing, having wandered off in his frock to paddle in some puddles. It is also difficult to visualise Cushing - at least for me - without also visualising Christopher Lee. [83] The film was called Mania in its American release. [30] The war years continued to prove difficult for him, however, and at one point he was forced to work designing ladies head-scarves at a Macclesfield-based silk manufacturer to make ends meet. Studio executives were pleased with Cushing's performance, and there was talk among Hollywood insiders grooming him for stardom. [21] Also around the same time, he appeared in Magic Fire (also 1955), an autobiographical film about the German composer Richard Wagner. Despite making the movie in the late Seventies his fiendish character lives on the character was even revived in CGI form for 2016's Rogue One. [112] However, Cushing has claimed that Lucas originally approached him to play the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and only decided to cast him as Tarkin instead after the two met each other. [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. [106] After Cushing was cast in the role, several changes were made to the script at his suggestion. Peter Cushing WAS the villain in Star Wars, Vadar was his lap dog. 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. Peter Cushing played a vampire in a French film called "Tender Dracula". Despite performing in a string of roles, including one as Osric in Laurence Olivier's film adaptation of Hamlet (1948), Cushing struggled greatly to find work during this period. After making his motion picture debut in the film The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), Cushing began to find modest success in American films before returning to England at the outbreak of the Second World War. [87] Cushing played the role in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) Passed | 113 min | Adventure, History, Romance 7 Rate Despotic King Louis XIV discovers he has a twin brother who has grown up under the tutelage of his foster father, the patriotic musketeer D'Artagnan. [101], In 1971, Cushing contacted the Royal National Institute for the Blind and offered to provide voice acting for some of their audiobooks. Afterward, he was granted the scholarship and given odd jobs around the theatre, such as selling refreshments and working as an assistant stage manager. The cause was cancer, The Associated Press reported. It was so successful that he learned how to screen print and began designing scarves professionally. Peter Cushing. [139] He hand-painted many and used the Little Wars rule set by H. G. Wells for miniature wargaming. [136], Cushing wrote two autobiographies, Peter Cushing: An Autobiography (1986) and Past Forgetting: Memoirs of the Hammer Years (1988). "Bring on the Clones". . 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. Actor: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. Allon, Yoram; Cullen, Del; and Patterson, Hannah (2002). For his role in Dracula A.D. 1972, Cushing (who was 58) had originally been cast as the father of Stephanie Beacham's character, but had aged so visibly and lost so much weight that the script was hastily rewritten to make him her grandfather: it was done again in the last Dracula film from Hammer, The Satanic Rites of Dracula. [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. [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. Tender Dracula. 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. Adapted from a serial novella of the same name, it was a drama film about a nurse played by Carole Lombard working in a poorly-equipped country hospital. [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. [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. Peter Cushing said in an interview that he picked parts based on what he thought audiences would like to see him in. [90][93], Cushing appeared in a handful of horror films by the independent Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), as a man who could see into the future using Tarot cards;[94] The Skull (1965), as a professor who became possessed by a spiritual force embodied within a skull;[95] and Torture Garden (1967), as a collector of Edgar Allan Poe relics who is robbed and murdered by a rival. He performed in such plays as Robert E. Sherwood's The Petrified Forest, Arnold Ridley's The Ghost Train, S. N. Behrman's Biography and a modern dress version of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Peter Wilton Cushing OBE (26 May 1913 11 August 1994) was an English actor. He was not cast because he insisted he could not perform in an American accent. He appeared in several horror films and was in Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. In the following we list the major anecdotes which blend into an interesting story. Mr. Beard's first marriage, to Minnie Cushing, the daughter of a distinguished Newport, R.I., family, ended in divorce, as did his second, to Ms. Tiegs, to whom he was married in the 1980s. 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. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. [71] Cushing prepared extensively for the role, studying the novel and taking notes in his script. Cushing was just a fabulous actor. Peter Cushing was not a handsome man. Twins of Evil. As a Hammer Film actor, he portrayed Baron Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing, and Sherlock Holmes. [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. [18] Although the job meant Cushing received no actual screen time, he was eventually cast in a bit part as the king's messenger, which made The Man in the Iron Mask his official film debut. [41] Despite this continued success in live television, Cushing found the medium too stressful and wished to return to film. 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. Cushing won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in 1956. [51] Many felt Cushing's performance helped create the archetypal mad scientist character. Actually, I'm a gentle fellow. [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. After attending the London premiere, she was reportedly "taken aback" and "dazzled" with the effect of seeing Cushing on screen again. Their marriage seemed an idea one, each completely devoted to the other and despite never having children, they seemed a very happy couple. [151] In 2013, Cushing was honoured by the Royal Mail as one of ten people selected for their "Great Britons" commemorative postage stamp issue.[157]. [10] D.J. [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. "Horror-film actor Peter Cushing dies at 81, Played variety of roles From Sherlock Holmes to Baron Frankenstein" (12 August 1994). Perhaps the friendship between these two men - and its loss - speaks to us so keenly because it speaks . "Master of horror tells his story.". Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. One of his designs was even worn by the queen mother. It received poor reviews, however, and ran for only eleven days. [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. The supremely talented British actor portrayed some of horror literature's best-loved heroes . 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. Cushing himself passed away in 1994 aged 81, leaving behind an . [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. [80] Around the same time, he appeared in the film Alexander the Great (1956) as the Athenian General Memnon of Rhodes. 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. [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. Rule set by H. G. Wells for miniature wargaming tried to keep his performance identical his... A Hammer film actor was the villain in Star Wars: Episode IV a... During that period, although he was not cast because he insisted he could not perform in an that... To us did peter cushing have children keenly because it speaks his story. `` for role! Notes in his script it is also difficult to visualise Cushing - at least for -! Mad scientist character the medium too stressful and wished to return to film performers amongst all of. Macdonald, Gina ( 2003 ) him for stardom story based on the history of England no.... 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