Peter Wilton Cushing OBE was born on the 26th of May 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England.
He was an English actor whose acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in well over 100 films as well as Television, Stage and Radio roles.
He achieved international recognition for his performances in the horror films made by Hammer Productions from the 1950s to 1970s and will always be remembered for playing the character ‘Grand Moff Tarkin’ in “Star Wars” (1977).
Cushing made his stage debut in 1935 and spent three years working in repertory theatre before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career.
Peter made his motion picture debut in the film “The Man in the Iron Mask” (1939) and Cushing began to find modest success in American films, before returning to England during the Second World War.
In his infancy, Cushing twice developed pneumonia and once what was then known as "double pneumonia" he was lucky to survive although it did permanently affect his lungs so he was deemed unfit to serve in the military during the war.
A friend suggested he entertain the troops by performing as part of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).
In 1942, the Noël Coward play “Private Lives” was touring the military stations and hospitals in the British Isles, and the actor playing the lead role of Elyot Chase was called to service. Cushing agreed to take his place with very little notice or time to prepare but he did earn a salary of forty pounds a month (£1551.00 in 2024)
During this tour he met Violet Hélène "Helen" Beck, a former dancer who was starring in the lead female role in the play, the two fell in love and were married on the 10th of April 1943.
Cushing eventually had to leave ENSA due to lung congestion, which shows how much he wasn't fit for active service. As newlyweds, the pair had very little money having to get by living on National Assistance and the Actors' Benevolent Fund.
Cushing struggled to secure work, some of the plays he was cast in failed to even make it past the rehearsal stage and into theatres. Peter did get radio spots and appeared in week-long stints as a featured player in Theatre productions but steady work eluded him. The war years continued to prove difficult for him at one point he was forced to work designing ladies' headscarves at a Macclesfield-based silk manufacturer to make ends meet.
One of Peters Silk Scarf designs.
In the autumn of 1946, Cushing unsuccessfully auditioned for the part in a stage production that was being staged by famed actor and director Laurence Olivier.
He was not cast because he insisted he could not perform in an American accent, After Cushing was made to attempt an accent for Olivier, he replied,
"Well, I appreciate you not wasting my time. I shall remember you."
Cushing was 33 and finding it increasingly harder to make a living in acting, Cushing began to consider himself a failure.
Then in 1947 Laurence Olivier proved he did remember him and sought him out for a role in his film adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Olivier cast him in the relatively small part of the foppish courtier Osric. Cushing accepted the role so “Hamlet” (1948) was Cushing's British film debut. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
Due to the success of the film both Peter and his wife Helen Cushing accepted a personal invitation from Olivier to join Old Vic, Olivier's repertory theatre company, which embarked on a year-long tour of Australasia. The tour, which lasted until February 1949, took them to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart, Tasmania, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, and included performances of Sheridan's “The School for Scandal”, Shakespeare's “Richard III”, Thornton Wilder's “The Skin of Our Teeth” and Chekhov's “The Proposal”.
Unfortunately, when the tour came to an end and the Cushings' returned to England Peter again struggled to find any acting work and he became so stressed he felt he was on the verge of suffering a nervous breakdown.
Again he continued to make ends meet by getting several small roles in radio, theatre and film. Among them was the John Huston film “Moulin Rouge” (1952) in which he played a racing spectator.
During this discouraging period in Cushing's career, his wife encouraged him to seek roles in television productions, In the early 1950’s television was a new medium in the UK.
Helen suggested he write to the television producers listed in the Radio Times magazine introducing himself and making them aware he was keen to work on Television.
The move proved wise, as Cushing was cast in a string of major theatre successes that were being adapted for live television.
Over the next three years, 1952 - 1954 he became one of the most active and popular names in British television and was considered a pioneer in British television drama.
Cushing won the Daily Mail National Television Award for Best Actor of 1953–54.
His largest television success from this period was playing the leading role of Winston Smith in “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (1954) an adaptation penned by Nigel Kneale of George Orwell's novel of the same name about a totalitarian regime. The production proved to be controversial, resulting in death threats for director Rudolph Cartier and causing Cushing to be vilified for appearing in such "filth." The Conservative government in the UK Parliament even considered a motion immediately after the first screening to ban the play's live repeat.
(Funny that) Nevertheless, a second televised production was filmed and aired, and Cushing’s performance eventually drew both critical praise and acting awards, further cementing his reputation as one of Britain's biggest television stars.
In the two years following “Nineteen Eighty-Four” Cushing appeared in 31 television plays and two serials and won Best Television Actor of the Year from the Evening Chronicle. He also won best actor awards from the Guild of Television Producers in 1955, and the BAFTA in 1956.
Among the plays he appeared in at this time was a production of Nigel Kneale's “The Creature” (1955) which Cushing later starred in the film adaptation of Kneale’s work “The Abominable Snowman” (1957) which was made by Hammer.
Despite this continued success, Cushing found the high-pressure medium of live television too stressful and he wanted to return to film.
Cinematic roles still proved somewhat difficult for him to secure. Now he was a recognised name but film producers were resentful of television stars for drawing audiences away from the cinema in the 1950’s.
He did manage to get work in films such as “The Black Knight” (1954) opposite Alan Ladd. He also starred in the film adaptation of the Graham Greene novel “The End of the Affair” (1955) and he also appeared in “Magic Fire” (1955), an autobiographical film about the composer Richard Wagner.
Cushing read in a trade publication about “Hammer Productions Ltd.” a low-budget production company seeking to adapt Mary Shelley's horror novel “Frankenstein” into a new film. Cushing was a big fan of Shelley’s novel and back in 1939 in Hollywood, he worked with the Director James Whale who directed him in “The Man in the Iron Mask” who was well known for directing the Universal Horror film’s “Frankenstein”(1931) & “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935).
Cushing instructed his agent John Redway to inform Hammer of his interest in playing Baron Victor Frankenstein.
The bosses at Hammer were very keen to have Cushing; in fact, Hammer co-founder James Carreras had been courting Cushing for film roles for years… apparently!
Cushing was about twenty years older than Dr. Frankenstein as he appeared in the original novel, but that kind of frivolous details did not deter Hammer.
Cushing was cast in the lead role in “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957)
He later said that his career decisions entailed selecting roles where he knew that he would be accepted by the audience. "Who wants to see me as Hamlet? Very few. But millions want to see me as Dr. Frankenstein, so that's the one I do."
After his Hammer film debut, he went on to appear in 76 films between 1957 and his retirement in 1986.
He did specialise in what is now called “Genre Cinema” appearing in Horror and Sci-Fi films but not exclusively. In my mind his most notable is a non Horror work is,
He is in a wonderful 1961 British thriller still made by Hammer Production adapted from a teleplay called “Cash on Demand”.
He played Dr Who in two feature films “Dr. Who and the Daleks” (1965) &
“ Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.” (1966) these films have nothing to do with the established Dr Who canon but are both lots of fun.
He worked with Hammer Film’s arch-rivals Amicus Productions and I highly recommend the three anthology horror films Cushing appears in
“The House That Dripped Blood” (1971), “Tales from the Crypt” (1972) & “Asylum” (1972).
He also starred opposite B movie star Doug McClure in the 1976 film “At the Earth’s Core” made by Amicus Productions it is a rip-off of Jules Vern mixed with Cushing's take on the Dr Who character and I think it's great.
In 1977 he had a small role in a lesser-known Sci-Fi movie called “Star Wars” definitely worth checking out if you are not familiar.
Cushing also has an amazing mind-bending cameo in the Zucker Brothers & Abrahams comedy
“Top Secret” (1984).
I try and keep what I write routed in people's work and not drift into people's private lives or gossip but while reading and researching this blog it is clear that Peter Cushing was a lovely and kind person who did seem to struggle with his mental health at times.
Cushing was known in the film business for being kind and a real gentleman as well as being a true professional who took his craft seriously no matter what the genre or budget of the production he was working in and always rigorously prepared for every role.
It was obvious his wife Helen meant everything to him when she passed away from emphysema in 1971. Cushing often said he felt his life had ended when hers did and he did attempt to take his own life after her passing but what is clear from reading about their relationship his she would not have wanted Peter to stop acting so he didn’t.
He loved playing games and practical jokes, He collected toy soldiers and his collection contained over 5000 figures the majority of which he hand-painted personally.
In his retirement, Peter enjoyed drawing and painting with watercolours.
In May 1982, Cushing was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Doctors told him he had determined he had twelve to eighteen months to live. Although his health continued to gradually decline, Cushing lived another twelve years without any operative treatment or chemotherapy.
He continued to take acting roles until 1986.
In August 1994, Cushing checked himself into Pilgrims Hospice in Canterbury, where he died on 11 August at the age of 81.
Peter left strict instructions for a low-profile funeral with family and friends, although hundreds of fans and well-wishers came to Canterbury to pay their respects.
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
In an interview, Christopher Lee said of his friend's death:
“I don't want to sound gloomy, but at some point in 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.”
In 2013, Cushing was honoured by the Royal Mail as one of ten people selected for their "Great Britons" commemorative postage stamp issue.
Thank you Peter.
