Peter Cushing
Actor
1913 - 1994
Star who, along with Christopher Lee, was Hammer's most successful and prolific leading player. He had appeared in several film, TV and theatre productions before becoming a household name under the Hammer banner. Early film roles included the Laurel and Hardy film 'A Chump at Oxford' (1939) and Olivier's 'Hamlet' (1948), although his biggest pre-Hammer success was probably the role of Winston Smith in the BBC adaptation of George Orwell's '1984' (1954).
It was as Baron Victor Frankenstein in 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957) that Cushing established himself as Hammer's premier leading man, and it was followed swiftly by the heroic leads in 'Horror of Dracula' (as Van Helsing, a role he was to repeat in the 1960 'Brides of Dracula' and again in 'Dracula AD 1972'), 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (1959) and 'The Mummy' (1959). Dashing, cool and gentlemanly in an ever-so British way, 'the Cush' as he is affectionately known by fans, went on to play a variety of roles quite brilliantly for Hammer: His increasingly villainous Baron Frankenstein appeared a further four times; he took on the title role in 'Captain Clegg'; and he was the ambiguously sinister Dr Namaroff in 'The Gorgon' (1964). Non-Hammer roles during the '60s included the macabre Dr Schreck in 'Dr Terror's House of Horrors' (1965) for rival studio Amicus, and the eponymous time-traveller himself in 'Dr Who and the Daleks' (1965) and its sequel, 'Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 AD' (1966). His final role for Hammer was as his most famous character, Baron Frankenstein, in 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' (1974).
The actor was considerably affected by the death of his beloved wife, Helen, in 1971, after whom he famously had a rose named as part of the vintage BBC programme 'Jim'll Fix It'. He nevertheless continued to appear in a variety of film roles throughout the 1970s and '80s, including a string of horrors for Amicus and, bringing him newfound cult-status, the part of Grand Moff Tarkin in 'Star Wars' (1977).
He was made an OBE in 1989, and he passed away from cancer at the age of 81 in 1994.
HAMMER FILMOGRAPHY: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957); The Abominable Snowman (1958); Horror of Dracula (1958); The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958); The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959); The Mummy (1959); Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960); The Brides of Dracula (1960); Fury at Smuggler's Bay (1961); Cash on Demand (1961); Captain Clegg (1962); The Evil of Frankenstein (1963); The Gorgon (1964); She (1965); The Mummy's Shroud (voice only, uncredited 1967); Frankenstein Created Woman (1967); Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969); The Vampire Lovers (1970); Twins of Evil (1971); Dracula AD 1972 (1972); The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974); Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974); The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974).
