Happy birthday to Peter Cushing OBE, English actor. Yes I am just doing this entry because I felt kind of mean about making fun of him in the last blog entry and then discovered it was his birthday.
Peter Cushing was born in Surrey in 1913 and lived for a remarkably long period of time. He would be best known for his appearance in all sorts of horror movies (frequently opposite old friend Christopher Lee) if it weren't for the fact that towards the end of his career, like Alec Guinness, he wound up in Star Wars. Unlike Alec Guinness he took the role seriously but (also unlike Guinness) neglected to negotiate 2% of the gross as part of his fee.
Cushing was charmingly direct about his choices of roles. "Nobody wants to see me as Hamlet. They'd call it a horror movie, but millions of people want to see me as Frankenstein so that's the one I do." He did step outside that rule slightly on a couple of occasions in the 1960s when he appeared in a pair of Doctor Who movies largely because he was tired of people being scared of him when they met him. He also appeared as Sherlock Holmes on several occasions.
He was married to fellow actress Helen Beck from 1943 until her death in 1971. In more than one interview after that time he stated that he was simply waiting for death so they could be reunited. He was awarded an OBE in 1989 and spent the last years of his life in Whitstable where, among other things, he was president of The Vegetarian Society. Perhaps all those Frankenstein movies had an affect after all.
I love the old Hammer horror movies; Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are two of my favourite actors. Christopher Lee is still with us but Peter Cushing has gone to join his wife.
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Me too.
ReplyDeleteI loved Christopher Lee as Saruman.
"The hour grows late, smoke rises from Mount Doom and Gandalf the Grey rides to Isengard"