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Biography
His first appearances in his two most famous roles were in Terence Fisher's films The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958).
Cushing will always be associated with playing Victor Frankenstein and Van Helsing in an unending string of quota quickie horror films produced by Hammer Horror. These provided him with 20 years of steady employment despite being of often middling quality. Although talented as an actor, he admitted that career decisions for him meant choosing roles where he knew the audience would accept him. "Who wants to see me as 'Hamlet'? Very few. But millions want to see me as Frankenstein so that's the one I do." He also said "If I played Hamlet, they'd call it a horror film."
Reportedly, he thought The Blood Beast Terror (1968) to be the worst film in which he participated. Compact at 5'8", a mane of increasingly iron-grey hair and wiry, his unemotional, meticulous delivery gave him an energetic on screen presence, and he often performed stunts on camera. Cushing was blessed with a high crown but full head of hair and He was often cast opposite to the 6'5" Christopher Lee, with whom he became great friends.
"People look at me as if I were some sort of monster, but I can't think why. In my macabre pictures, I have either been a monster-maker or a monster-destroyer, but never a monster. Actually, I'm a gentle fellow. Never harmed a fly. I love animals, and when I'm in the country I'm a keen bird-watcher," he said in an interview published in ABC Film Review in November 1964.
In the mid-1960s, he played the eccentric Dr. Who in two movies (Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks — Invasion Earth 2150 AD) based on the television series Doctor Who. He also appeared twice in cult series The Avengers. In 1986 he played the role of Colonel William Raymond in 'Biggles'. In Space: 1999 he appeared as a Prospero-like character called Raan.
He was one of many stars to guest on The Morecambe and Wise Show — the standing joke in his case being the idea that he was never paid for his appearance.
Cushing played Sherlock Holmes many times, starting with Hammer's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), the first colour Holmes film. He followed this up with a performance in 16 episodes of the BBC series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (1968), of which unfortunately only six episodes survive. Finally, towards the end of his life, Cushing played the detective in old age, in The Masks of Death (1984]) for Channel 4.
Although madness was always a stronghold for Cushing, he was also regarded by many as one of the most "grandfatherly" horror actors on the screen. During movies such as "Dracula A.D. 1972," the audience was often far more capitavated by his sweet sensibility, than his races through mod London.
Death of his wife
In 1971, Cushing withdrew from the film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb when his wife died. He and actress Helen Beck had been married since 1943. The following year, he was quoted in the BBC Radio Times as saying "Since Helen passed on I can't find anything; the heart, quite simply, has gone out of everything. Time is interminable, the loneliness is almost unbearable and the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that my dear Helen and I will be united again some day. To join Helen is my only ambition. You have my permission to publish that... really, you know dear boy, it's all just killing time. Please say that."
A half-dozen years later, his feelings were unchanged: "When Helen passed on six years ago I lost the only joy in life that I ever wanted. She was my whole life and without her there is no meaning. I am simply killing time, so to speak, until that wonderful day when we are together again." The following year, he was cast in Star Wars, which was shooting in London.
Star Wars
Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin
In 1977 he appeared in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope as one of his (now) most recognized characters, Grand Moff Tarkin despite having originally been considered for the role of Obi-Wan. Cushing found accepting the role in a science fiction fantasy easy. "My criterion for accepting a role isn't based on what I would like to do. I try to consider what the audience would like to see me do and I thought kids would adore Star Wars."
Costuming difficulties resulted in an endearing piece of trivia about Star Wars. He was presented with ill-fitting Wellington boots for the Moff Tarkin role and they pinched his feet so much that he was given permission to play the role in slippers. The camera operators filmed him above the knees. A star-struck Carrie Fisher found it hard to seem terrified in his presence because of his comfortable slippers, and his well-polished genteel charm. She reported that he smelled of linen and lavender.
Later career
After Star Wars, he continued appearing in films and televisions, but would retire in another nine years. His longtime friend and contemporary Christopher Lee, in comparison, has continued acting.
In 1989 Cushing was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He retired to Whitstable (where he had bought a seafront house in 1959) to continue his hobby of birdwatching, and to write two autobiographies. His love for his deceased wife became one of the most warmly regarded aspects of his star persona, and he famously named a rose after her on the BBC programme Jim'll Fix It. Cushing died in Canterbury from cancer in 1994, aged 81.
Lee remarked on his friend's death: "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".
