Peter Cushing - The Good Man Behind Evil Characters

[Forkboy]

This will probably be more interesting to horror fans, but Cushing has done his share of Sci-Fi too, so I thought I'd pass this little article on.

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Horror film enthusiasts love, respect and fear Peter Cushing as the fanatical scientist Baron von Frankenstein and Dracula’s perennial nemesis, the determined and steely Van Helsing. Now he has become Grand Moff Tarkin, the Governor of the Imperial Outland regions, whose insatiable political ambitions to become Emperor have driven him to ruthless means to quell an intergalactic rebellion.

Although Peter Cushing has had a remarkable career portraying deadly characters in horror movies, he is a decidedly unsinister person off-screen. As greatly loved for his gentleness by his co-workers as he is loved for his evil ways by horror movie cultists.

Carrie Fisher says, “I like Peter Cushing so much that it is almost impossible for me to feel the hatred I need to act against him.”

Cushing is delighted, but not overwhelmed by the enthusiasm his name brings to members of the vast horror film audience. “I have no deep personal interest in the horror genre, but I do enjoy making films.”

more at:
http://robojapan.blogspot.com/2008/08/peter-cushing-good-man-behind-evil.html

[Orrex]

1. I've never heard a negative word said about him

It's also a nice piece of symmetry that both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee got to play heavy-duty bad guys in the Star Wars cycle. Sort of an indirect crossing of paths by two guys who had crossed paths onscreen more than once before!

Nice link--thanks!

[Forkboy]

2. When I was a kid the Boston area had Creature Double Feature on every Saturday.

Two, usually similar horror/monster movies back to back. I usually watched it no matter what movies they showed, but two kinds of movies I always went out of my way to see. Any Godzilla movie (obviously) and any of the Hammer Studios movies. I never really liked the Universal Dracula with Bela Lugosi (though I do love both Frankenstein and the Wolfman movies), but I loved the Hammer versions with Cushing and Lee. They were just much cooler to me.

When I went to see Star Wars in the theater and saw them I was all excited about Dracula and Van Helsing being in it. I was a strange ten year old. :)