Peter Cushing

Peter Cushing, OBE (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. He is best known for his roles in horror movies and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

 Career 
Born Peter Wilton Cushing in London, England. His movie career began in 1939 in a small role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), followed by Laddie (1940). He played a character called Osric in a movie version of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet (1948), with Laurence Olivier.

His most famous roles were Victor Frankenstein, in the British horror movie The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), by Terence Fisher. Victor creates a monster in the attic of his castle. His other famous role was that of Doctor Van Helsing in Dracula (1958), in this movie he must fight Dracula. In these two movies he was accompanied by another famous actor Christopher Lee. They formed a very successful duo, starring in dozens of Hammer movies as The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), The Mummy (1959), The Gorgon (1964), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965). They clashed again as Van Helsing and Dracula, in Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974).

Also re-interpret the character of Baron Frankenstein, in The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), by Freddie Francis, Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), directed by Terence Fisher.

Peter Cushing also teamed with Vincent Price in movies including Scream and Scream Again (1970), Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), Madhouse (1974), which plays an evil agent movie., and House of the Long Shadows (1983).  

In 1977 he obtained the role of Grand Moff Tarkin, in Star Wars by George Lucas. 

In the last years of his career had appearances in some comedies Top Secret! (1984). 

His last job was in 1986 in the movie Biggles (1986). 

In 1982 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died of the disease in 1994.

 Television 
Cushing also made television, in mystery series, including Sherlock Holmes (1968), as Sherlock Holmes, The Avengers, Great Mysteries, Space: 1999, The New Avengers, Hammer House of Horror, and the TV movies The Masks of Death (1984), as Sherlock Holmes

 Filmography 

+ Movies Year Títle Role Note 1939 The Man in the Iron Mask  Second Officer   1940 Laddie    Robert Pryor   1940 A Chump at Oxford    Student (Jones)  1940  Vigil in the Night  Joe Shand  1940  The Hidden Master (short)  Robert Clive 1940  Women in War  Capt. Evans (uncredited) 1940  The Howards of Virginia  Leslie Stephens (uncredited)1941  They Dare Not Love  Sub-Lieutenant Blackler (uncredited)   1948 Hamlet   Osric  1952  Moulin Rouge    Marcel de la Voisier  1954 The Black Knight    The Black Knight  1955 The End of the Affair    Henry Miles 1955  Magic Fire    Otto Wesendonk  1956 Alexander the Great  General Memnon 1957  Time Without Pity  Jeremy Clayton 1957 The Curse of Frankenstein  Victor Frankenstein  1957 The Abominable Snowman  Dr. John Rollason  1958 Violent Playground  Father Laidlaw  1958 Dracula   Van Helsing  1958 The Revenge of Frankenstein  Doctor Victor Stein  1959 The Hound of the Baskervilles  Sherlock Holmes  1959 John Paul Jones    Captain Richard Pearson  1959 The Mummy   John Banning  1960 Manía   Dr. Robert Knox  1960 Cone of Silence  Capt. Clive Judd  1960 The Brides of Dracula  Dr. J. Van Helsing 1960 Suspect   Capt. Clive Judd   1960 Sword of Sherwood Forest   Sheriff of Nottingham   1961 The Hellfire Club   Merryweathe 1961 Fury at Smugglers' Bay   Squire Trevenyan   1961  The Naked Edge   Mr. Evan Wrack  1962 Cash on Demand  Fordyce  1963 The Man Who Finally Died   Dr. Peter von Brecht    1964 The Evil of Frankenstein   Baron Frankenstein  1964 The Gorgon  Dr. Namaroff  1965 Dr. Terror's House of Horrors     Dr. Terror 1965 She  Holly 1965 The Skull  Dr. Christopher Maitland  1965 Dr. Who and the Daleks   Dr. Who  1966 Island of Terror  Dr. Brian Stanley  1966 Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.  Dr. Who   1967 Some May Live    John Meredith   1967 Frankenstein Created Woman    Baron Frankenstein  1967 Night of the Big Heat  Dr. Vernon Stone  1967  Torture Garden  Lancelot Canning 1968  The Blood Beast Terror   Detective Inspector Quennell 1968  Corruption  Sir John Rowan  1969  Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed  Baron Frankenstein  1970 Scream and Scream Again   Major Heinrich Benedek  1970  One More Time    Dr. Frankenstein (uncredited)  1970 The Vampire Lovers    General von Spielsdorf  1971 The House That Dripped Blood    Philip Grayson 1971  Twins of Evil    Gustav Weil  1971 I, Monster  Frederick Utterson 1972 Incense for the Damned  Dr. Walter Goodrich 1972 Tales from the Crypt  Arthur Edward Grimsdyke  1972 Dracula A.D. 1972  Professor Van Helsing  1972 Fear in the Night  The Headmaster/Michael Carmichael  1972 Dr. Phibes Rises Again   Captain   1972 Asylum  Mr. Smith  1972 Horror Express  Dr. Wells  1973 Nothing But the Night    Sir Mark Ashley  1973 The Creeping Flesh   Emmanuel Hildern  1973 And Now the Screaming Starts!   Dr. Pope 1973 The Satanic Rites of Dracula  Prof. Van Helsing  1974 From Beyond the Grave   The Proprietor 1974  Madhouse   Herbert Flay   1974 The Beast Must Die   Dr. Christopher Lundgren   1974 Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell   Baron Victor Frankenstein 1974 The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires  Professor Laurence Van Helsing  1974  Tendre Dracula   MacGregor   1975 The Ghoul  Dr. Lawrence  1975 Legend of the Werewolf   Prof. Paul   1975 Shatter   Paul Rattwood   1976 Trial by Combat  Sir Edward Gifford  1976 At the Earth's Core   Dr. Abner Perry   1976 The Devil's Men  Baron Corofax  1977 Star Wars  Grand Moff Tarkin  1977 Shock Waves   SS Commander  1977 The Uncanny  Wilbur Gray  1977 Die Standarte  Baron von Hackenberg  1978 Son of Hitler  Heinrich Haussner  1979 A Touch of the Sun  Commissioner Potts  1979 Arabian Adventure  Wazir Al Wuzara  1981 Mystery on Monster  William T. Kolderup  1981 Black jack  Sir Thomas Bedford  1983 House of the Long Shadows  Sebastian Grisbane  1984 Top Secret!  Bookstore Proprietor  1984 Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  Seneschal / Gaspar  1986 Biggles  Colonel William Raymond 

 References 



 Overview of Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street Dozen.
 Literature on Peter Cushing
 Peter Cushing Association 

Category:1913 births
Category:1994 deaths
Category:Actors from Surrey
Category:Cancer deaths in England
Category:Deaths from prostate cancer
Category:English movie actors
Category:English stage actors
Category:English television actors