Peter Cushing

“	I don't want to sound gloomy, but, at some point of your lives, every one of you will notice that you have in your life one person, one friend whom you love and care for very much. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. For example, you can call that friend, and from the very first maniacal laugh or some other joke you will know who is at the other end of that line. We used to do that with him so often. And then when that person is gone, there will be nothing like that in your life ever again.	„
	― Christopher Lee

Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was a British actor born best known roles Hammer Productions horror films of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and was very famous for his role as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars.

Cushing died in 1994 of prostate cancer.

Biography[]

Peter Wilton Cushing was born in Kenley, Surrey, England on May 26th, 1913. Along with friend and fellow thespian Christopher Lee, Cushing was a dominant force in the horror genre, specifically during the British "Hammer Horror" era of the 1950s through the 1970s. His first genre film was the 1957 Terence Fisher film The Curse of Frankenstein. Cushing played the lead role of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, a role he would reprise many times over the span of his career. He is also the first actor to play the character under his original name as first envisioned in 1818 by Frankenstein novelist Mary Shelley. This was also Cushing first pairing with Christopher Lee (in a horror film) who played the role of the monster in that film. In that same year, Cushing would go on to play the role of Doctor Rollason in the black and white Hammer film, The Abominable Snowman.

Cushing and Lee played opposite one another yet again in, this time taking on roles in another adaptation of a horror classic, Dracula. Cushing played the role of Doctor J. Van Helsing, another classic character whom he would return to in future films, even to the point of playing Van Helsing's modern-day descendent Lorrimer Van Helsing in the 1970s.

Following Dracula, Cushing returned to the Frankenstein franchise for its first sequel, The Revenge of Frankenstein, although this time his character's name was condensed to Victor Stein.

In 1959, Cushing and Lee joined forces once again, this time in Hammer's remake of the Universal Pictures classic, The Mummy. Note: This film was actually a remake of The Mummy's Hand with Lon Chaney, Jr., not the first film starring Boris Karloff. Although The Mummy spawned two semi-sequels, the 1959 film was the only one that featured Peter Cushing. He was slated to appear in the 1971 film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, but declined in lieu of the recent death of his wife, Violet Helen Beck.

Throughout the 1960s, Cushing leap-frogged between franchises, playing Van Helsing in one film, then Baron Frankenstein in another and back again. By the 1970s, Hammer Horror was beginning to lose its popularity, but they still managed to produce one last Frankenstein film and three more Dracula films.

Peter Cushing's final genre role was in the horror-comedy film House of the Long Shadows produced in 1983. This was his last role with friend Christopher Lee and the film also included cult luminaries such as Vincent Price and John Carradine.

Outside of the horror genre, Cushing is also known for playing the role of the indefatigable Sherlock Holmes in several films in the 1960s. His most widely recognized role however, was that of the villainous Grand Moff Tarkin from the 1977 sci-fi mega-hit Star Wars. In Star Wars, Cushing's character was the supervisor of the evil Darth Vader, played by British bodybuilder David Prowse. Ironically, Cushing and Prowse played characters of a similar dynamic only three years earlier in the last Frankenstein film for Hammer Film Productions, 1974's Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.

Peter Cushing died of prostate cancer in Canterbury, England on August 11th, 1994 aged 81.

Horror fimography[]

Film	Character	Year
The Curse of Frankenstein	Victor Frankenstein	1957
The Abominable Snowman	Doctor Rollason	1957
Dracula	Professor Van Helsing	1958
Revenge of Frankenstein	Victor Stein	1958
The Mummy	John Banning	1959
Flesh and the Fiends	Doctor Robert Knox	1960
Brides of Dracula	Professor Van Helsing	1960
Evil of Frankenstein	Baron Frankenstein	1964
The Gorgon	Doctor Namaroff	1964
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors	Doctor Sandor Schreck	1965
The Skull	Doctor Christopher Maitland	1965
Island of Terror	Doctor Brian Stanley	1966
Frankenstein Created Woman	Baron Frankenstein	1967
Blood Beast Terror	Inspector Quennell	1968
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed	Baron Frankenstein	1969
The Vampire Lovers	General von Spielsdorf	1970
Incense for the Damned	Doctor Walter Goodrich	1970
The House That Dripped Blood	Philip Grayson	1971
Twins of Dracula	Gustav Weil	1971
I, Monster	Frederick Utterson	1971
Dracula 1972 A.D.	Professor Van Helsing	1972
Dr. Phibes Rises Again	Ship's Captain	1972
Tales From The Crypt	Arthur Edward Grimsdyke	1972
Horror Express	Dr. Wells	1972
From Beyond the Grave	Antique shop proprietor	1973
The Creeping Flesh	Emmanuel Hildern	1973
The Satanic Rites of Dracula	Lorrimer Van Helsing	1973
The Beast Must Die	Doctor Christopher Lundgren	1974
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell	Victor Frankenstein	1974
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires	Professor Van Helsing	1974
Legend of the Werewolf	Professor Paul	1975
The Ghoul	Doctor Lawrence	1975
The Uncanny	Wilbur Gray	1977
House of the Long Shadows	Sebastian Grisbane	1983

Notes[]

Although The Curse of Frankenstein was his first horror film with friend Christopher Lee, their actual first film together was in the 1948 version of Hamlet in which he played the role of Osric. Hamlet also starred veteran actor Sir Alec Guinness. Cushing, Lee and Guinness would all go on to play important characters in the Star Wars mythos (Obi Wan Kenobi, Grand Moff Tarking and Count Dooku respectively).

External Links[]

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