[roshiq]

Why do we have so much love & care for our favorite actors in cinema?

In celluloid media I think it's actually in the process of viewing beautiful films of a certain actor(s). After watching some great performances that we liked so much that we developed an emotional bond with them intentionally or not. But when the business is to frighten the audience in an uncanny & shivering tale things get bit challenging for an actor. But there were some masters who entertained the genre fans all over the world for years, kept us always wanting to see more of their films and on a day when nothing goes right, we sit down & watch one of their films was like visiting an old friend and that always feels comforting and blissful. Peter Cushing is undoubtedly one of those kind of legends in horror cinema and today, on his 98th birthday we...HDC, a small but great community of fans likes to thank & salute him for the numerous hours of entertainment he given to us in a career that spanned well over fifty years, from the irrepressible Baron Frankenstein, the tireless Van Helsing, the quick-witted Sherlcok Holmes and the sympathetic Arthur Grimsdyke, any fan is sure to find some character that they can identify with and love immensely.

"That character of his always shined through in all of his movies. No matter how mean they were supposed to be, you always felt that underneath the makeup or acting was a real Santa Claus character. That's certainly true of Peter Cushing." Forrest J Ackerman.

Though I'm sure we all more or less know about him well but just for a little tribute let's take a glimpse in the life & works of this great legend of Horror cinema:

Peter Wilton Cushing was born in Kenley, a district in the English county of Surrey, on May 26th, 1913.

At age of 9.

After various repertory experiences, he saved enough money to sail to the USA in 1938. In Hollywood, he doubled for Louis Hayward in The Man in the Iron Mask and played second male lead in The Vigil in the Night.
He returned to the United Kingdom after two years and started again working in theater, film and television. It was while appearing in Noel Coward's Private Lives, in 1940 that he met and married actress Helen Beck.
Following his part in George Orwell's 1984, Hammer cast him as the infamous and amoral Baron Frankenstein in THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and the film's success brought him international stardom marking the first of twenty-two films he made with Hammer Studios where he played the role of Baron a total of five times.
The other Hammer character for which hi is known is that of the compassionate Doctor Van Helsing, arch-foe of Count Dracula.
Cushing's other famous roles include Sherlock Holmes (for both Hammer and the BBC), Doctor Who (in two theatrical films) and Grand Moff Tarkin in STAR WARS.
His wife Helen dies in 1971. While he continued to work actively, it is said by those who knew him best that he never fully recovered from her death. During the filming of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, Cushing played something of a tribute to his beloved wife with the character he portrayed-a man who appears to have lost all after the death of his beloved wife; and in fact, it's her photo we see him talking to in the film.

Peter Cushing died on August 11, 1994.

Although he will be forever identified with horror, a quick look at his screen credits will show that although he made numerous horror films, an even larger chunk of his work was in Shakespeare, drama and comedy. He loved his horror roles, but ironically, did not enjoy horror films very much at all.

"Strangely enough, I don't like horror pictures at all. I love to make them because they give pleasure to people, but my favourite types of films are much more subtle than horror. I like to watch films like Bridge Over the River Kawi, The Apartment or lovely musicals."

During his declining years, Cushing was not an idle man, heavens no. In the years before his death he wrote "Peter Cushing - An Autobiography" and "The Bois Saga", an alphonetic history of his homeland, which was forty years in the making. He also indulged in his hobbies of painting, bird watching and answering fan mail. A skilled craftsman, he also worked on many personal projects. The "gentle man of horror", as he was dubbed, died after a long bout with prostate cancer on August 11, 1994, in Cantebury, Kent, England. He had had the disease since the early 1980's, and had made an almost complete recovery when it struck back with a vengeance. His last project was "Flesh and Blood - The Hammer Heritage of Horror", a documentary he had completed with Christopher Lee just a few weeks before his death.

Sources: Online Archives & Articles