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HORROR 101: THE A-LIST OF HORROR FILMS AND MONSTER MOVIES  VOL 1

PETER CUSHING

Born: 5-26-13
Died: 8-11-94

The true gentleman of horror

    The Frankenstein genre has always been one of my favorites. There have been many different entries in this category, with many different actors playing the creature and the doctor. But I’ve always enjoyed Hammer’s Frankenstein series, mainly because they made the doctor the true monster. And with Cushing playing the immortal Baron Frankenstein, you have someone who came across with great intelligence and a psychotic drive to find those secret discoveries of life . . . even at the cost of human life.

   Those films are all but a small part of the great performances that Peter Cushing has given us. Whether it was for Hammer, Amicus, Tyburn, Cushing always delivered.

    But even past the movies and performances, one of the things that I’ve always admired about Cushing is that he wasn’t afraid of being typecast as a "horror actor", unlike some of his fellow actors. He was happy to be employed and to be able to keep working on a regular basis.

    In John Brosnan’s 1976 book THE HORROR PEOPLE, Cushing said:
   "I don’t mind being known as a horror star. My heavens, that would be like socking a gift horse in the face, or whatever the saying is. It doesn’t bother me at all. But I don’t think people should be called either comedy actors or horror actors or whatever, they’re just actors. One should be, if one is true to one’s trade, able to do it all. I don’t say that I can but one should be able to. But horror films have such a sensational impact upon people and prove so popular that one is naturally associated with this sort of thing more than the many other things that I’ve done. But I think horror films are marvelous."

    But Peter Cushing also knew what his audience wanted, and was more than happy to give it to them.
   "But I do the parts now that I think the audiences want to see me doing. Who wants to see me do Hamlet? Very few. But millions want to see me as Frankenstein, so that’s the one I do. Audiences are the most important thing to an actor. On the other hand I won’t just do anything that comes along in this type of film. The people who see horror films are very critical and they don’t like just any old nonsense. But as long as the people are going to entertained, and if the part’s good, I will do it."