Cushing, Peter Wilton

▪ 1995

      British actor (b. May 26, 1913, Kenley, Surrey, England—d. Aug. 11, 1994, Canterbury, Kent, England), raised the horror film to an art form with his many portrayals of Baron Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing, and similar characters in such classics of the genre as The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), Dracula (1958), The Brides of Dracula (1960), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), The House That Dripped Blood (1971), and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974). Although the gaunt, elegant Cushing appeared in some 100 motion pictures in his 50-year career, he found his true métier in the horror movies made by Hammer Films, beginning with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). He was also successful as Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and in a television series a decade later, as Dr. Who in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks—Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), and as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977). Cushing made his professional stage debut with the Worthing Repertory Company in 1935 and his Hollywood film debut four years later in The Man in the Iron Mask. His early work was mainly in classical stage and screen roles, notably as Osric in the 1948 film version of Hamlet, but his career took off with his award-winning performance as Winston Smith in a 1954 BBC television adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four. Cushing continued to act through the 1980s and published two volumes of memoirs.

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