Peter Cushing

"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."

- Peter Cushing

Peter Cushing (May 26, 1913–August 11, 1994) was the actor who played Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin in A New Hope. He was best known for his work in horror films produced by Hammer Studios, as well as some other British B-movies. These films often had him collaborating with his good friend and frequent co-star Christopher Lee, who played Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In another Hammer Studios Film, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Peter Cushing plays Dr. Victor aka Dr. Frankenstein. The Monster he creates in the film is played by David Prowse who would later play Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Early life and career
Peter Cushing was born in Kenley, England on May 26, 1913, to George Edward Cushing and Nellie Marie Cushing, nee King. His father was a quantity surveyor, and Cushing himself worked briefly as a surveyor's assistant for the local council, but he harbored aspirations for the arts from a young age, especially acting. His childhood inspiration was Tom Mix, an American film actor and star of many Western films. Cushing earned a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He made his stage debut in 1935, and spent three years in an apprenticeship at a repertory theater performing in almost 100 parts, before he felt the urge to pursue a film career in the United States. In 1939, his father bought him a one-way ticket to Hollywood, where he moved with only £50 to his name.

Cushing made his film debut in the 1939 film The Man in the Iron Mask, the James Whale-directed adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas tale based on the French legend of a prisoner during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Cushing was actually 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. Cushing would play one part against Hayward in one scene, then the opposite part in another, and ultimately the scenes would be spliced together in a split screen process that featured Hayward in both parts and left Cushing's work cut from the film altogether. However, he was also cast in a bit part himself as the king's messenger.

In 1940, Cushing appeared in the comedy film A Chump at Oxford, which featured the classic duo Laurel and Hardy. Later that year, he appeared in Vigil in the Night, a drama film about a nurse (played by Carole Lombard in a poorly-equipped country hospital. Cushing played Joe Shand, the husband of the Lombard character's sister, a role which director and screenwriter George Stevens wrote specifically for Cushing. The performance drew critical praise for the actor. In 1941, Cushing made his Broadway theater debut in the religious wartime drama The Seventh Trumpet, but it ran for only eleven days in New York City.

Cushing, who was starting to grow homesick for England, returned to the country during World War II. Although a childhood injury prevented him from serving on active duty, he acted and entertained the troops as part of the Entertainments National Service Association. in 1942, he played the lead role of Elyot Chase in a stage production of the Noel Coward play Private Lives, where he met Helen Beck, a former dancer who was starring in the leading female role. They were married in 1943. Cushing continued working in roles intermittently, making occasional radio appearances and appearing in week-long stints as a featured player in London's Q Theatre. But the war years proved difficult for him, and at one point he was forced to work designing ladies head-scarves at a Macclesfield-based silk manufacturer to make ends meet. Nearing middle age and finding it increasingly harder to make a living in acting, Cushing began to consider himself a failure.

In 1946, after the war ended, Cushing auditioned for the part of Paul Verrall in a stage production of the play Born Yesterday that was being staged by Laurence Olivier. He was not cast because he refused Olivier's request to attempt an American accent. The next year, when Olivier sought out to adapt the William Shakespeare play Hamlet into a film, Cushing's wife Helen pushed him to pursue a role. Far from deterred by Cushing's audition the year before, Olivier remembered the actor well and was happy to cast him, but the only character left uncast was the relatively small part of the foppish courtier Osric. Cushing accepted the role, and Hamlet (1948) marked his British film debut. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and earned Cushing praise for his performance. Also appearing in the film was Christopher Lee, who would eventually become a close friend and frequent co-star with Cushing, and would later go on to portray Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). The next year, Cushing was enlisted in Old Vic, Olivier's repertory theater company, which was about to enbark on a long tour of Australasia.

Success in television
Cushing worked in several small film roles in radio, theater and film over the next few years. Among them was the 1952 John Huston film Moulin Rouge, where he played a racing spectator named Marcel de la Voisier appearing opposite star José Ferrer, who played the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. During this period, his wife encouraged him to seek roles in television, which was only just starting to grow in popularity in England. She suggested he write to all the producers listed in the Radio Times magazine about work in the medium. The move proved to be a wise one, as Cushing was hired to fill out the cast of a string of major theater success that were being adapted to live television. The first was Eden End, which was televised on December 1951. Over the next three years, he became one of the most active and favored names in British television, and was considered something of a pioneer in British television drama.

He played the lead male role of Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC's 1952 television miniseries production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Other successful television ventures during this time included Epitaph for a Spy, The Noble Spaniard, Beau Burmmell and Anastasia, the latter of which won Cushing the Daily Mail National Television Award for best actor of 1953-54. But his largest television success of the period was the leading role of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Rudolph Cartier's 1954 British television adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel of the same name about a totalitarian socialist regime. The production would prove to be controversial, resulting in death threats for Cartier and Cushing to be vilified for appearing in such "filth". Parliament even considered a motion immediately after the first screening to ban the play's live repeat. Nevertheless, the performance continued to repeat and eventually drew Cushing both critical praise and acting awards, further cementing his reputation as one of Britain's biggest television stars.

In the next 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 from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1956. Among the plays during this time were Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version, Gordon Daviot's Richard of Bordeaux, and a 1955 production of Nigel Kneale's The Creature, the latter of which Cushing would star in a film adaptation for two years later. Despite this continued television success, however, Cushing found live television too stressful and wished to return to film. He continued to work in some movie roles during this period, including the 1954 adventure film The Black Knight opposite Alan Ladd, and the 1955 film adaptation of the Graham Greene novel The End of the Affair. In the latter film, he played the central role of Henry Miles, and important civil servant and the cuckolded husband of Sarah Miles, played by Deborah Kerr.

Hammer fame: Frankenstein & Dracula
During a brief quiet period following Cushing's television success, he read in the trade publications about Hammer Studios, a low-budget independent production company seeking to adapt Mary Shelly's monster story Frankenstein into a new film. Cushing, who enjoyed the tale as a child, dispatched his agent John Redway to inform the company of Cushing's interest in playing the protagonist, Baron Victor Frankenstein. The studio executives were anxious to have Cushing; in fact, Hammer co-founder James Carreras had been unsuccessfully courting Cushing for film roles in other projects even before his major success with Nineteen Eighty-Four. Cushing was cast in the role, although the actor was about 20 years older than Baron Frankenstein as he appeared in the original novel. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster wrote the protagonist as a prideful, ambitious, arrogant and coldly intellectual scientist who was disdainful of his contemporaries. The Curse of Frankenstein was released in 1957, starring the now 45-year-old Cushing and his old Hamlet co-star and friend Christopher Lee, who played Frankenstein's monster.

Cushing so valued preparation for his role that he insisted on being trained by a surgeon to learn how to wield a scalpel authentically. Shot in dynamic color with a meager £65,000-budget, the film was noted for its heavy usage of gore and sexual content. As a result, while the film did well with its target audience, the film drew mixed to negative reviews from professional critics. Most, however, were complimentary of Cushing's performance, which many felt helped create the archetypical mad scientist character. Picturegoer writer Margaret Hinxman, who was less complimentary of Lee's performance, praised Cushing and wrote of the film: "Although this shocker may not have created much of a monster, it may well have created something more lasting: a star!" The film was an overnight success, launching both Cushing and Lee into a level of fame they had never previously known. The two men would continue to work together in many films at Hammer Studios, and their names would go on to become synonymous with the company. Cushing reprised the role of Baron Victor Frankenstein in five sequels, although the character would become softer and less devious in most of them as time went on. In The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), his protagonist is sentence to death by guillotine, but he flees and hides under the alias Dr. Stein. He returned for The Evil of Frankenstien (1963) and Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), in which the Frankenstein's monster was reincarnated as a woman played by Playboy magazine centerfold model Susan Denberg. Cushing played the lead role twice more in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1970), In the latter film, Cushing portrayed the Frankenstein doctor as completely mad, a departure from the previous movies. Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell featured David Prowse as the monster; the actor would later go on to play Darth Vader alongside Cushing in Star Wars (1977).

When Hammer Studios sought to adapt Bram Stocker's classic vampire character Count Dracula to film, they cast Cushing to play the vampire's arch-nemesis Dr. Van Helsing. Cushing envisioned the character as an idealist warrior for the greater good, and sought to infuse the common decency and good-naturedness he tried to practice in his personal life into the role. Dracula was released in 1958, with Cushing once again starring opposite Lee, who played the title character, although Cushing was given top billing. During filming, Cushing himself suggested the staging for the final confrontation scene, in which Van Helsing leaps onto a large dining room table, opens window curtains to weaken Dracula with sunlight, then uses two candlesticks as a makeshift crucifix to hold the vampire off until he died.

He reprised the role of Dr. Van Helsing in the 1960 sequel, The Brides of Dracula. In 1972 he played Lorrimer Van Helsing, a descendant of his original character, in Dracula AD 1972, a Hammer modernization of the Dracula story set in a then-present day 1970s setting. Lee once again starred as Dracula. Cushing and Lee both reprised their respective Dracula roles in the 1974 sequel The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which was known in the United States as Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride. Also that year, Cushing played Lawrence Van Helsing in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a co-production between Hammer Studios and the Shaw Brothers Studio, which brought Chinese martial arts into the Dracula story.

Hammer Studios: Other roles
Although most well-known for his roles in the Frankenstein and Dracula films, Cushing appeared in a wide variety of other Hammer Studios productions during this time. He appeared in the 1957 horror film The Abominable Snowman, a Hammer Studios adaptation of a BBC Sunday Night Theatre television play from 1955, which Cushing had also starred in. He portrayed an English anthropologist searching the Himalayas searching for the legendary Yeti. In 1959, Cushing and Lee appeared in the Hammer Studios horror film The Mummy, with Cushing as the archeologist John Banning and Lee as the antagonist Kharis.

Also in 1959, he portrayed the famous detective Sherlock Holmes in the company's production of The Hound of the Baskervilles, an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel of the same name. He once again co-starred opposite Christopher Lee, who portrayed Sir Henry Baskerville in the film. Cushing was an ardent fan of Sherlock Holmes and was highly anxious to play the character. Hammer Studios 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 license because he felt the character of Holmes himself remained intact. However, when producer Anthony Hinds proposed removing the character's deerstalker, Cushing insisted they remain because audiences associated Holmes with his headgear and pipes. Cushing prepared extensively for the role, studying the novel and taking notes in his script. He scrutinized over the costumes and scoured over screenwriter Peter Bryan's script, often amending words or phrases. In later years, he considered his Holmes performance one of the proudest accomplishments of his career. Cushing drew generally mixed reviews: Film Daily called it a "tantalising performance" and Time Out's David Pirie called it "one of his very best performances", while the Monthly Film Bulletin called him "tiresomely mannered and too lightweight" and BBC Television's Barry Norman said he "didn't quite capture the air of know-all arrogance that was the great detective's hallmark".

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, originally conceived as a remake of the Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Cushing turned it down, in part because he felt he did not have enough time to prepare for the role, in part because he feared becoming typecast into horror films, and in part because he did not like the script by Jimmy Sangster. James Carreras, who sold the film to Paramount Pictures in part through Cushing's anticipated participation, was infuriated with the actor, and issued a legal threat to him demanding he behave with more circumspection in the future regarding role offerings. The move created a rift between Cushing and Carreras, and contributed to a slight decline in the frequency of Cushing's participation with the studio.

In 1960, Cushing played the Sheriff of Nottingham in the Hammer Studios adventure film Sword of Sherwood Forest, which starred Richard Greene as the legendary outlaw Robin Hood. Cushing starred as an Ebenezer Scrooge-like bank manager in the 1961 Hammer Studios thriller film Cash on Demand. Cushing considered this among the favorites of his films, and some believed it to be among his best performances, although it was one of the least seen films from his career. In 1962, he appeared in the Hammer Studios film Captain Clegg, known in the United States as Night Creatures. Cushing starred as the local reverend of an 18th century English coastal town believed to be hiding his smuggling activities with reports of ghosts. Cushing and Lee appeared together in the studio's 1964 horror film The Gorgon, about the female snake-haired Gorgon character from Greek mythology. The next year, Cushing and Lee yet again appeared together in the Hammer film She, about a lost realm ruled by the immortal queen Ayesha, played by Ursula Andress. Cushing later appeared in The Vampire Lovers (1970), an errotic Hammer Studios horror film about lesbian vampires, adapted in part from the Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla.

Non-Hammer Studios work
Although widely known for his Hammer Studios performances from the late-1950s to the late-1970s, Cushing continued to work in a variety of other performances during this time, and actively sought roles outside the horror genre in order to diversify his performances. Cushing appeared in the 1959 biographical epic film John Paul Jones, in which Robert Stack played the title role of the American naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. In 1960, Cushing played Robert Knox in The Flesh and the Fiends, based on the true story of a doctor who purchases human corpses for research from the serial murder duo Burke and Hare. Cushing had previously stated Knox was one of his role models in developing his portrayal of Baron Frankenstein. The film was called Mania in its American release. Cushing also appeared in The Naked Edge, a 1961 British-American thriller film starring Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr, Cushing's old co-star from The End of the Affair.

In 1965, he portrayed Dr. Who in two science-fiction films by AARU Productions based on the cult British television series, Doctor Who. Although Cushing's protagonist was based on the Doctor from that series, his character was fundamentally different, most especially in the fact that Cushing's Dr. Who was a human, whereas the original Doctor was extraterrestrial. Cushing played the role in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. Cushing was not a particular fan of science fiction, but was drawn to acting in the genre because he felt it was what his audience wanted to see. Cushing and Lee appeared together in a handful of horror films by the independent Amicus Productions, including The Skull in 1965 and I, Monster in 1971.

In 1968, Cushing starred in the 15-episode BBC television series Sherlock Holmes, once again reprising his role as the title detective character. Fourteen days of rehearsal was originally scheduled for each episode, but they were cut down to ten days for economic reasons. As a result of the stressful schedule, many actors turned down the role before Cushing accepted it, including Douglas Wilmer, who played the detective in a previous BBC production. Production lated from May to December, and Cushing adopted a strict regimen of training, preparation and exercise. He later said of the hectic schedule, "I'd rather sweep Bombay station for a living than go through that again."

His wife Helen Beck died in 1971, and Cushing was devastated by the loss. He sought therapy by burying himself in his work, and filmed twelve films in a twelve-month period after her death. In 1971 he contacted the Royal National Institute for the Blind and offered to provide a voice for some of their talking books. They immediately accepted, and among the works Cushing recorded was The Return of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of thirteen, all one-hour in length. The readings proved therapeutic for Cushing during this difficult period. In 1972, Cushing starred alongside Vincent Price in Dr. Phibes Rises Again!, a sequel to the previous year's The Abominable Dr. Phibes. In 1975, Cushing starred in the British horror film Land of the Minotaur. He played Baron Corofax, the evil leader of a Satanic cult opposed by a priest played by Donald Pleasence. In 1976 he appeared in the television film The Great Houdini as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes character Cushing had played several times throughout his career.

Star Wars
George Lucas approached Cushing with the hopes of casting the actor as the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in his upcoming space fantasy film, Star Wars. When the two met, however, Lucas decided instead that he would be better suited for the role of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, one of the highest ranking villians in the evil Galactic Empire. Cushing would have preferred to play Kenobi than Tarkin, but would have been unable to because he was to be filming other movie roles when Star Wars was shooting, and Tarkin's scenes took less time to film than those of the larger Kenobi role. Cushing accepted the role because he believed his audience would love Star Wars and enjoy seeing him in the role. He joined the cast on May 1976, and his scenes were filmed at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood.

Cushing got along well with the entire cast, especially his old Hammer co-star David Prowse and Carrie Fisher, who was appearing in her first major role as Princess Leia Organa. During the scene where Tarkin and Fisher appeared together on the Death Star, Cushing worked hard to help define their characters as opposite representations good and evil, and the actor would purposely stand in the shadows so Fisher's face would be bathed in light. Fisher said she liked Cushing so much that it was difficult to act as though she hated Tarkin. Cushing had difficulty understanding some of the technical jargon in his dialogue, but worked hard to master the lines so they would sound natural. Costume designers did not have time to get him boots that fit his size 12 feet, and he was made to wear a pair that was far too small for him. He asked Lucas to film more close-up shots from the waist up, and wore slippers during the scenes where his feet were not visible.

When Star Wars was released in 1977, Cushing was extremely pleased with the final product. The film gave Cushing the highest amount of visibility of his entire career, and helped inspire younger audiences to watch his older films.

Later career
Toward the end of his career, after Star Wars, Cushing perofmred in films and roles widely considered below his talent. In 1984 he appeared in the television film The Masks of Death, marking both the last time he would play detective Sherlock Holmes, and the final performance for which he received top billing. He appeared alongside actor John Mills as Watson, and the two were noted for their strong chemistry and camaraderie. As both actors were in their seventies, screenwriter N.J. Crisp and executive producer Kevin Francis both in turn sought to portray them as two old-fashioned men in a rapidly changing world. Cushing biographer Tony Earnshaw said Cushing's performance in The Masks of Death was arguably the actor's best interpretation of the role, calling it "the culmination of a life-time as a Holmes fan, and more than a quarter of a century of preparation to play the most complex of characters". The final notable roles of Cushing's career were the 1984 comedy Top Secret!, the 1984 fantasy film Sword of the Valiant and the 1986 adventure film ''Biggles: Adventures in Time.

Personal life
Cushing wrote two autobiographies, Peter Cushing: An Autobiography (1986) and Past Forgetting: Memoirs of the Hammer Years (1988). He was fiercely dedicated to his wife, Helen Beck, for whom he was married 30 years until her death in 1971. Cushing often said he felt his life had ended when hers did, and he was so crushed that when his second autobiography was published in 1988, it made no mention of his life after her death. Cushing was an ardent vegetarian for most of his life, and served as a patron with the Vegetarian Society, a British charity aimed at promoting understanding and respect for vegetarian lifestyles. He also had a great interest in ornithology and wildlife in general.

Peter Cushing was known among his colleagues for his gentle and gentlemanly demeanor, as well as his professionalism and rigorous preparation as an actor. Cushing once said he would learn his parts "from cover to cover" before filming began. His co-stars and colleagues often spoke of his politeness, charm, old-fashioned manners and sense of humor. He actively provided feedback and suggestions on other elements beyond his performance, such as dialogue and wardrobe. At times, this put him at odds with writers and producers; Hammer Studios producer Anthony Hines once declared him a "fusspot [and] terrible fusser about his wardrobe and everything, but never a difficult man". Although he appeared in both television and stage productions, he preferred the medium of film, which allowed his perfectionist nature to achieve the best performance possible. Cushing himself was not a particular fan of horror or science-fiction films, but he tended to chose roles not based on whether he enjoyed them, but whether he felt his audience would enjoy him in them.