Actors - Peter Cushing

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	Actors - Peter Cushing

Peter Cushing, OBE, (26 May 1913–11 August 1994) was an English actor, best known for playing Baron Frankenstein and Professor van Helsing in Hammer films, often appearing opposite his close friend Christopher Lee (a typical example being Horror Express
, 1973).

Cushing was born in Kenley in Surrey on 26 May 1913. He was raised in Kenley and Dulwich, South London. He left his first job as a surveyor's assistant to take up a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After working in repertory theatre, he left for Hollywood in 1939, but returned in 1941 after roles in several films. His first major film part was as Osric in Hamlet (1948) with Laurence Olivier.

In the 1950s he worked in television, most notably as Winston Smith in the BBC's 1954 adaptation of the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, scripted by Nigel Kneale. Cushing drew much praise for his performance in this production, although he always felt that his performance in the existing version of the play — it was performed twice in one week and only the second version survives in the archives — was inferior to the first. During many of his small screen performances, Cushing also starred as Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC's 1952 production of Pride and Prejudice.

Hammer Horror

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.

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Actors - Peter Cushing

Hammer Horror

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