Cushing as Victor Frankenstein in The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Born
Peter Wilton Cushing
(1913-05-26)26 May 1913
Kenley, Surrey, England
Died
11 August 1994(1994-08-11) (aged 81)
Canterbury, Kent, England
Resting place
Seasalter Old Church, Seasalter, Kent[1]
Education
Shoreham College
Alma mater
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Occupation
Actor
Years active
1935–1994
Spouse
Violet Hélène Beck (Helen)
(m. 1943; died 1971)
Awards
British Academy Television Award for Best Actor (1956)
Peter Wilton CushingOBE (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage and radio roles. He achieved recognition for his leading performances in the Hammer Productions horror films from the 1950s to 1970s, and as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977).
Born in Kenley, Surrey, Cushing made his stage debut in 1935 and spent three years at a repertory theatre before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career. 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. Despite performing in a string of roles, including one as Osric in Laurence Olivier's film adaptation of Hamlet (1948), Cushing struggled to find work during this period. His career was revitalised once he started to work in live television plays and he soon became one of the most recognisable faces in British television. He earned particular acclaim for his lead performance as Winston Smith in a BBC adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954).
Cushing gained worldwide fame for his appearances in twenty-two horror films from the Hammer studio, particularly for his role as Baron Frankenstein in six of their seven Frankenstein films and Doctor Van Helsing in five Dracula films. Cushing often appeared alongside actor Christopher Lee, who became one of his closest friends, and occasionally with the American horror star Vincent Price. 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. Cushing continued to perform in a variety of roles, although he was often typecast as a horror film actor. He played Dr. Who in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) and became even better known through his part in the original Star Wars film. Cushing continued acting into the early to mid-1990s and wrote two autobiographies.
^Bahn, Paul (2014). The Archaeology of Hollywood: Traces of the Golden Age. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780759123793.
aunt Maude Cushing (his father's sister) and his step-uncle Wilton Herriot, after whom PeterCushing received his middle name. The Cushing family lived...
he sounded more "Peter O'Toole than PeterCushing". The ILM team searched through hours of footage to find suitable material of Cushing to build from. The...
Frankenstein's monster, with PeterCushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein. It was the first film to co-star Lee and Cushing, who ultimately appeared together...
of Cushing footage in order to find suitable reference material, and Henry provided the motion capture and voice work. A digital model of Cushing was...
when the company considered him as a possible replacement both for PeterCushing in the role of Frankenstein and for Christopher Lee in the role of Dracula...
Gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ingrid Pitt, PeterCushing, George Cole, Kate O'Mara, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams, Douglas Wilmer...
Campbell's 1938 novella Who Goes There?, and stars Christopher Lee and PeterCushing, with Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Julio Peña, George Rigaud...
different roles in each one. PeterCushing also played one of the leads in the first, The Vampire Lovers (a part was written for Cushing in the second film, but...
founded by his great-grandfather Dr. David Cushing (1768-1814), was the youngest of ten children. As a child, Cushing attended the Cleveland Manual Training...
1957 when PeterCushing first essayed the role in Hammer Films' The Curse of Frankenstein, opposite Christopher Lee as the Creature. Cushing went on to...
feature Christopher Lee as Dracula. The film was also the third to unite PeterCushing as Van Helsing with Lee, following Dracula (1958) and Dracula A.D. 1972...
film The Wicker Man (1973). He frequently appeared opposite his friend PeterCushing in numerous horror films, and late in his career had roles in five Tim...
Alfred Marks, Michael Gothard, and PeterCushing. It is based on the novel The Disorientated Man (1967) attributed to 'Peter Saxon', a house pseudonym used...
Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film stars PeterCushing, David Peel, Freda Jackson, Yvonne Monlaur, Andrée Melly, and Martita...
time that PeterCushing portrayed the role of Baron Victor Frankenstein, a part he originated in 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein. Cushing had long been...
of Gothic cinema. The film was directed by Terence Fisher and stars PeterCushing as Victor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as the Creature, with Hazel...
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