Stevens cast Cushing in the second male lead role of Joe Shand, the husband of the Lombard character's sister. [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. 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. [18] In the autumn of 1946, after the war ended, Cushing unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Paul Verrall in a stage production of the play Born Yesterday that was being staged by famed actor and director Laurence Olivier. [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. His wife passed away in the 1970s, he never remarried (there's a very sad interview with Christopher Lee about Peter Cushing where he mentions how after her death Cushing signed th. [138] His final acting job was narrating, along with Christopher Lee, the Hammer Films documentary Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror (1994), which was recorded only a few weeks before his death. [21] Also around the same time, he appeared in Magic Fire (also 1955), an autobiographical film about the German composer Richard Wagner. 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. Peter Cushing - not for first nor the last time this week, we salute you. Please say that. Peter Cushing played a vampire in a French film called "Tender Dracula". Thus a grey pallor is added to his . 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. Although not a particular fan of science fiction, Cushing accepted the part because he believed his audience would love Star Wars and enjoy seeing him in the film. A Tale of Two Cities. [132], Toward the end of his career, Cushing performed in films and roles critics widely considered below his talent. [5] With the exception of art, Cushing was a self-proclaimed poor student in most subjects and had little attention span for that which did not interest him. Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. Peter Sellers CBE (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 - 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian.He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, featured on a number of hit comic songs and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film roles, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series. [129][130][131] Joyce Broughton, Cushing's former secretary, had approved recreating Cushing in the film. [56][57], When Hammer sought to adapt Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel Dracula, they cast Cushing to play the vampire's adversary Doctor Van Helsing. In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter was living with his mother-in-law in Capharnaum, and thus was married with a wife. [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. Cushing himself passed away in 1994 aged 81, leaving behind an . [133] Cushing appeared alongside his old co-stars Christopher Lee and Vincent Price in House of the Long Shadows (1983), a horror-parody film featuring Desi Arnaz, Jr. as an author trying to write a gothic novel in a deserted Welsh mansion. We used to do that with him so often. [111], Film director George Lucas approached Cushing with the hopes of casting the actor in his upcoming space fantasy film, Star Wars. Like Guinness, Cushing had difficulty with some of the technical jargon in his dialogue, and claimed he did not understand all of the words he was speaking. [10] However, Cushing was very proud of his experiences with the Hammer films, and never resented becoming known as a horror actor. Douglas Wilmer had previously played Holmes for the BBC,[88] but he turned down the part in this series due to the extremely demanding filming schedule. Cushing starred as Parson Blyss, the local reverend of an 18th-century English coastal town believed to be hiding his smuggling activities with reports of ghosts. [148] He was rushed to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital when his left eye had swollen to nearly three times its normal size, a side effect of the cancer. The first was J.B. Priestley's Eden End, which was televised in December 1951. "The star who never grew up". Peter Bogdanovich's passing was announced by one of his daughters, Antonia, on Thursday, January 6. [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. Peter Cushing was born in Surrey, England on May 26, 1913, to George Edward and Nellie Marie Cushing, and was younger of the two brothers. [9] He attended the Purley County Grammar School, where he swam and played cricket and rugby. Cushing turned it down, in part because he did not like the script by Jimmy Sangster, and the lead role was taken instead by Anton Diffring. However, when producer Anthony Hinds proposed removing the character's deerstalker, Cushing insisted they remain because audiences associated Holmes with his headgear and pipes. Matt Smith 2010 - 2013. The person you saw has been dead for more than two centuries! 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. At an early age, Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his . 4 Grand Moff Tarkin. But he never did it with that same natural panache. [7] Cushing harboured aspirations for the arts all throughout his youth, especially acting. Oliver, Myrna (12 August 1994). His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. [123] In 1989 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to the British film industry. [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. [11] Cushing hated the job, where he remained for three years without promotion or advancement due to his lack of ambition in the profession. [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. [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. [45] He later said that his career decisions entailed selecting roles where he knew that he would be accepted by the audience. [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. Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein is a movie full of cinematic firsts: Hammer's first color horror film, Peter Cushing's first leading role in a movie, and his first time acting in the same scenes as Christopher Lee.Loosely based on Mary Shelley's novel, the film tells the story of Victor Frankenstein - an unorthodox scientist who brings a creature to life, only to have it . What movie did Peter Cushing play a vampire or has he ever played a vampire? After attending the London premiere, she was reportedly "taken aback" and "dazzled" with the effect of seeing Cushing on screen again. Afterward, he was granted the scholarship and given odd jobs around the theatre, such as selling refreshments and working as an assistant stage manager. Did peter cushing have any children? [29], Cushing recorded occasional radio spots and appeared in week-long stints as a featured player in London's Q Theatre, but otherwise work was difficult to come by. Although one of her lines referred to Tarkin's "foul stench," she said the actual actor smelled like "linen and lavender," something Cushing attributed to his tendency to wash and brush his teeth thoroughly before filming because of his self-consciousness about bad breath. He appeared in several horror films and was in Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. Cushing was about twenty years older than Baron Frankenstein as he appeared in the original novel, but that did not deter the filmmakers. Cushing was known for his roles as Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Who, and Grand Moff Tarkin. His is most identified with the horror films of Hammer Pictures, often sharing the screen with Christopher Lee. In the opening scene, Cushing portrays the nineteenth century Van Helsing as he did in the previous films, and the character is killed after battling Dracula. The movie actor Peter Cushing died at the age of 81. 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). [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. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle invited cameras into their family home with children Archie and Lilibet for their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, and during the series, fans caught a glimpse. [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. [10] Along with Alec Guinness, who was ultimately cast as Kenobi, Cushing was among the best known actors at the time to appear in Star Wars, as the rest of the cast were then relatively unknown. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. ", 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? 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. 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