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. He earned particular acclaim for his lead performance as Winston Smith in a BBC adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954). There is a photo in Peter's biography showing a smiling Helen and Actually, I'm a gentle fellow. He appeared in several horror films and was in Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. More information Peter and Helen Cushing with the neighborhood children Comments More like this Old Hollywood Actors Hollywood Stars Classic Hollywood Classic Movie Stars Peter Cushing's former partners: Peter Cushing's former wife was Helen Cushing. Ryan and Slater agreed, and Cushing later said performing the part was his most pleasant experience since his wife had died four years earlier. [140] He also loved games and practical jokes,[15] and enjoyed drawing and painting watercolours, the latter of which he did especially often in his later years. [45], After his wife's death, Cushing visited several churches and spoke to religious ministers, but was dissatisfied by their reluctance to discuss death and the afterlife, and never joined an organized religion. The set provided technical difficulties, and all of Cushing's lines had to be post-synched. "[35] Parliament even considered a motion immediately after the first screening to ban the play's live repeat. What movie did Peter Cushing play a vampire or has he ever played a vampire? Lee once again starred as Dracula. Paul Cushing Child (January 15, 1902 - May 12, 1994) was an American civil servant, diplomat, and artist known for being the husband of celebrity chef and author Julia Child. 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. [13], One of his earliest professional stage performances was in 1935 as Captain Randall in Ian Hay's The Middle Watch at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing. [113] As a result, Cushing was paid a larger daily salary than most of his fellow cast, earning 2,000 per day compared to weekly salaries of $1,000 for Mark Hamill, $850 for Carrie Fisher and $750 for Harrison Ford, who played protagonists Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo, respectively. [38], In the two years following Nineteen Eighty-Four, Cushing appeared in thirty-one television plays and two serials, and won Best Television Actor of the Year from the Evening Chronicle. A Tale of Two Cities. 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. [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. [76] The next year, Cushing starred as an Ebenezer Scrooge-like manager of a bank being robbed in the Hammer thriller film Cash on Demand (1961). He said his only regret about working on it was that he wasn't able to be in ESB or RotJ. [18], Cushing returned to England during the Second World War. In January 1995, a memorial service was held in The Actor's Church in Covent Garden, with addresses given by Christopher Lee, Kevin Francis, Ron Moody and James Bree. Cushing struggled to find work during this period, with some plays he was cast in failing to even make it past rehearsals into theatres. PETER CUSHING was one of the handful of actors. [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. Perhaps better known as Endora, the witch from "Bewitched," Agnes Moorehead sadly passed from cancer in 1974. [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. [84] In 1965, Cushing appeared in the Ben Travers farce play Thark at Westminster's Garrick Theatre. "Who wants to see me as Hamlet? In the Gospel of Matthew, Peter was living with his mother-in-law in Capharnaum, and thus was married with a wife. [35] His largest television success from this period was the leading role of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, (1954) an adaptation by Nigel Kneale of George Orwell's novel of the same name about a totalitarian regime. He has adorned our screens as Dr. . [42], Nevertheless, he continued to work in some film roles during this period, including the adventure film The Black Knight (1954) opposite Alan Ladd. [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. 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. Peter Cushing was born in Surrey. Yes, it was small- but it was a valuable learning experience nonetheless. The make-up on Peter Cushing's face is patently obvious in close-ups. Peter Cushing. Cushing wrote to the couple and suggested they stage The Heiress, a play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, with Cushing himself in the lead role. Cushing later said his unscreened scenes alongside Hayward were terrible performances, but that his experience on the film provided an excellent opportunity to learn and observe how filming on a studio set worked. Lawrence broke off the engagement citing his frequent crying and bringing his parents on dates. After attending the London premiere, she was reportedly "taken aback" and "dazzled" with the effect of seeing Cushing on screen again. Peter Cushing in Dracula (1958) Peter Cushing is well known to modern audiences as Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars. Since the film's primary antagonist Darth Vader wore a mask throughout the entire film and his face was never visible, Lucas felt a strong human villain character was necessary. "[50] Donald F. Glut, a writer and filmmaker who wrote a book about the portrayals of Frankenstein, said the inner warmth of Cushing's off-screen personality was apparent on-screen even despite the horrific elements of Frankenstein, which helped add a layer of likability to the character. [115][116][117][118][119] During rehearsals, Lucas originally planned for Tarkin and Vader to use a giant screen filled with computerised architectural representations of hallways to monitor the whereabouts of Skywalker, Solo and Organa. [21] During this discouraging period for Cushing, his wife encouraged him to seek roles in television, which was beginning to develop in England. "How Jim fixed it for horror actor Cushing" (8 May 2004). In 1987, a watercolour painting Cushing painted was accepted by Prince Edward and auctioned at a charity event he organised to raise funds for The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme. Davies, the Purley County Grammar School physics teacher who produced all the school's plays, recognised some acting potential in him and encouraged him to participate in the theatre, even allowing Cushing to skip class to paint sets. 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. Whether playing Baron Frankenstein witnessing the awful results of his brilliance or Professor Van Helsing in hot . "Horror-film actor Peter Cushing dies at 81, Played variety of roles From Sherlock Holmes to Baron Frankenstein" (12 August 1994). The hectic schedule became overbearing for Cushing, who had to drop out of the play and resolved to never again attempt a film and play simultaneously. 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. ", 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? Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee had agreed to work together one last time. In the skit, Cushing portrayed King Arthur, while the other two gave comedic portrayals of characters like Merlin and the knights of the Round Table. I remember quite vividly the sincere anguish he so openly expressed to me when his beloved wife Helen passed away. Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE (26 May 1913 - 11 August 1994) was an English actor best known for his roles in the Hammer Productions horror films of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and as Grand Moff Tarkin in the 1977 film Star Wars. Peter Cushing was born on the 26th of May, 2013. [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. [75] The Hound of the Baskervilles was originally conceived as the first in a series of Sherlock Holmes films, but eventually no sequels were made. [13][18] While he was in Southampton he met an 18 year old fellow actor Doreen Lawrence and they were engaged to be married. (1966). 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. [129][130][131] Joyce Broughton, Cushing's former secretary, had approved recreating Cushing in the film. [137] Cushing also wrote a children's book called The Bois Saga, a story based on the history of England. He moved to New York City in anticipation of his eventual return home, during which time he voiced a few radio commercials and joined a summer stock theatre company to raise money for his voyage back to England. 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. [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. But he never did it with that same natural panache. The actor has to smoke a pipe, but he did not like it. Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. Cushing agreed to take his place with very little notice or time to prepare, and earned a salary of ten pounds a week for the job. shocked by the marriage, learned to love their new daughter-in-law. His childhood inspiration was Tom Mix, an American film actor and star of many Western films. [68], Immediately upon completion of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Cushing was offered the lead role in the Hammer film The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), a remake of The Man in Half Moon Street (1945). During the early eighties, Peter Cushing was diagnosed with prostate Cancer, and a decade later, he died aged 81 on August 11 1994 at his home in Canterbury, with his close friend Christopher Lee one of the first people to be called following his death. [70] Hammer decided to heighten the source novel's horror elements, which upset the estate of Conan Doyle, but Cushing himself voiced no objection to the creative licence because he felt the character of Holmes himself remained intact. Clothes did not flatter his frame but they were flattered by him. [83] The film was called Mania in its American release. They first met on the set of the film, where Lee was still wearing the monster make-up prepared by Phil Leakey. Known for a number of iconic roles, Peter Cushing's career stretched across multiple genres. 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. 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. Cushing and Lee did switch roles for one Hammer film . [153], Several filmmakers and actors have claimed to be influenced by Peter Cushing, including actor Doug Bradley, who played Pinhead in the Hellraiser horror films,[154] and John Carpenter, who directed such films as Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982). [10], In 1947, when Laurence Olivier sought him out for his film adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Cushing's wife Helen pushed him to pursue a role. Was Tom Mix, an American film actor and Star of many Western films small- it! 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