Peter Cushing was born in 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey by his mother Nellie Marie and father George Edward, who was a quantity surveyor. At an early age Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school Cushing pursued his acting interest in acting and also drawing, a talent he put to good use later in his first job as a government surveyor's assistant in Surrey. At this time he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask. Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night and They Dare Not Love. However, after a short stay, he returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland he contributed to the war effort during World War II by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.

After the war he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in Hamlet, in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge but didn't meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 and Beau Brummell, until the end of the decade when he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein, Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula 1958 and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster, and others. By the mid-1970s these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter.

Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. Biggles: Adventures in Time (aka "Biggles: Adventures in Time") was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting.

In 1989 he was made an Officer of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide.


Shock Waves (1977): $5,000

Turned down the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween (1978). The costume boots they gave Cushing for Star Wars (1977) were too small and hurt his feet. Cushing told George Lucas this, and asked if he could wear slippers instead. Lucas agreed, and shot Cushing from the waist up for nearly all his scenes to compensate for Cushing's slippers. Withdrew from the film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) due to the death of his wife. His role was assumed by Andrew Keir. His sketch of Sherlock Holmes became the official logo for the Northern Musgraves, a British Sherlock Holmes society. During a television interview he confessed that fellow actor Christopher Lee had telephoned him earlier that evening to "Wish me luck!" Carrie Fisher said in an interview that doing her scenes with him in the Star Wars (1977) were difficult for two reasons: she thought the lines were ridiculous and she found Peter to be so polite and charming off camera that it was hard to project the sense of disdain that her character, Princess Leia, held for his character, Tarkin. Prior to casting Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977), George Lucas considered using him as Obi-Wan Kenobi (a role that ultimately went to Alec Guinness). Described by many presenters as the best interviewee they had. Cushing reprised his role, with dialog, from his last film Biggles (1986) in the video for the movie's theme song "No Turning Back" by The Immortals. He appears at the end to tell the camera: "I'm a restless sort of guy." Technically, this makes it his last performance and his last line of dialog. Only one of the main characters from Star Wars not to appear in the sequels (for the obvious reason).