[21] He once again co-starred opposite Lee, who portrayed the aristocratic Sir Henry Baskerville. It was Broughton who encouraged Cushing to have the book published. [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. 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. [52], The Curse of Frankenstein was an overnight success, bringing both Cushing and Lee worldwide fame. With the aid of advanced CGI, a walking, talking Cushing once again reprises his role as the sneering Imperial Officer Grand Moff Tarkin from the 1977 original Star Wars: A New Hope, even though. Neither Carlson nor Cushing wanted to do the scene, filmed despite director Terence Fisher's objections, and the controversial sequence was edited out of the film for its American release. 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. 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". [11], Cushing wanted to enter the acting profession after school, but his father opposed the idea, despite the theatrical background of several of his family members. List of the best Peter Cushing movies, ranked best to worst with movie trailers when available. 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. Cushing sought and was cast in the role. Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death. [98], In July 1969, Cushing appeared as the straight man in The Morecambe & Wise Show, the British comedy series. 1. 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. [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. ", British Academy Television Award for Best Actor, Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council, Entertainments National Service Association, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, "Great Britons" commemorative postage stamp, Lawrence Van Helsing and Lorrimer Van Helsing, Medalla Sitges en Plata de Ley Award for Best Actor, "Horror actor Peter Cushing dead at age 81", Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Haeritage of Horror, Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror, "The effect was achieved by drawing on preexisting footage of the actor, particularly his work in A New Hope", "the CGI used to repurpose the footage may not age well", "Rogue One VFX head: 'We didn't do anything Peter Cushing would've objected to', "CGI resurrection of Peter Cushing is thrilling but is it right? [42], Nevertheless, he continued to work in some film roles during this period, including the adventure film The Black Knight (1954) opposite Alan Ladd. In the following we list the major anecdotes which blend into an interesting story. Cushing continued acting into the early 1990s and wrote two autobiographies. 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. [4][42], In an interview included on the DVD release of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Lee said of his friend's death: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, 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. [36] Other successful television ventures during this time included Epitaph for a Spy, The Noble Spaniard, Beau Brummell,[35] Portrait by Peko,[37] and Anastasia, the latter of which won Cushing the Daily Mail National Television Award for Best Actor of 195354. He nevertheless maintained a belief in both God and an afterlife. [44] In 1959, Cushing originally planned to appear in the lead role of William Fairchild's play The Sound of Murder, while shooting a film at the same time. 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. Moorehead claimed she got the illness from a feature film she starred in, and she was not the only one. Cushing was known for his roles as Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Who, and Grand Moff Tarkin. "Peter Cushing: The First Gentleman of Horror". [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 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. 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). The Peter Cushing Companion David Miller 2002 Page 45 "Cushing's fee for The Face of Love was 74 guineas. To join Helen is my only ambition. [106] After Cushing was cast in the role, several changes were made to the script at his suggestion. Doctors determined he had twelve to eighteen months to live, and that his left eye might be lost. 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. [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. Their marriage seemed an idea one, each completely devoted to the other and despite never having children, they seemed a very happy couple. 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. O'Flinn, Paul (1983). [13][18] While he was in Southampton he met an 18 year old fellow actor Doreen Lawrence and they were engaged to be married. Please say that. Biography - A Short Wiki. 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. [21] Cushing became very ill with dysentery during filming and lost a considerable amount of weight as a result. [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. Biography - A Short Wiki. [150] In August 1994, Cushing entered himself into Pilgrims Hospice in Canterbury, where he died on 11 August at 81 years old. [14][151] In accordance with his wishes, Cushing had a low-profile funeral with family and friends, although hundreds of fans and well-wishers came to Canterbury to pay their respects. [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. He got fair grades only through the help of his brother, a strong student who did his homework for him. [147] In a silent tribute to Helen, a shot of Van Helsing's desk includes a photograph of her. [10], Cushing continued to work in a few Hollywood engagements, including an uncredited role in the war film They Dare Not Love (1941), which reunited him with director James Whale. 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. John Mills had worked with Peter Cushing years earlier in 1954's THE END OF THE AFFAIR, and was the one who convinced Peter to finish composing his memoirs about his devotion to his wife Helen, published in 1986. 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. This marked his professional stage debut, although he had no lines and did little more than stand on stage behind other actors. He continued to perform in occasional stage productions, such as Robert E. MacEnroe's The Silver Whistle at Westminster's Duchess Theatre in 1956. Matt Smith 2010 - 2013. [21] In that film, Cushing's Van Helsing travels to the Chinese city Chungking, where Count Dracula is heading a vampire cult. The first was J.B. Priestley's Eden End, which was televised in December 1951. "Peter Cushing, 81; Starred in Classic Horror Movies". [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. Twins of Evil. 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. This led Lucas to write the character of Grand Moff Tarkin: a high-ranking Imperial governor and commander of the planet-destroying battlestation, the Death Star. [68], Around the same time, he portrayed the detective Sherlock Holmes in the Hammer production of The Hound of the Baskervilles (also 1959), an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel of the same name. As a Hammer Film actor, he portrayed Baron Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing, and Sherlock Holmes. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. As a Hammer Film actor, he portrayed Baron Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing, and Sherlock Holmes. [121], When Star Wars was first released in 1977, most preliminary advertisements touted Cushing's Tarkin as the primary antagonist of the film, not Vader;[122] Cushing was extremely pleased with the final film, and he claimed his only disappointment was that Tarkin was killed and could not appear in the subsequent sequels. [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. 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