To celebrate Peter Cushing's birthday (and just celebrate the man in general), here's a list of things people should know about and how he was a real life cinnamon roll:

- he was a student with shit grades and only liked doing arts and sports - his grandfather had worked in the theater, and traveled alongside Sir Henry Irving – a notable Victorian stage actor who was one of the inspirations for Count Dracula for author Bram Stoker (who was a business manager at Irving’s theater). - had a huge love for wildlife and nature in general and could talk for hours just about birds. I’m not kidding. There’s a whole radio recording of it too. - watched a bull fight for the first time in Mexico but was so appalled by the violence done to the bull he left immediately after and went to a Mexican mission to pray not only for the bull, but for the matadors as well - went to the US to do the first film he ever worked on which was ‘The Man in The Iron Mask’ as the double but his scenes were ultimately cut. Instead of being mad, he was happy because it taught him so much about how to act in films - ended up being broke and stranded in New York after paying the last of his savings for a surgery on his leg (which initially was going to get cut off) and decided to become a bohemian artist and painted with other artists (as well as other odd jobs) for awhile - lived on coffee and donuts at a Greek cafe for weeks. When the news arrived that the British helped against the Nazi’s occupation in Greece, the owner of the cafe knowing Peter was British thanked him personally with a full meal and told him that he could have as much coffee and donuts as he wants from now on - tried to join the army several times but couldn’t due to health problems and other issues. This caused him to go into depression because he felt that he was ‘useless to the world’ - continued working after getting a job in a film which made him realise that there were other things that he could contribute himself to and enjoy in life - lived in Canada for awhile working as a props man and was arrested by the mounted police for being mistaken as a Nazi spy after the landlady found flags of swastikas under his bed. Turns out they were set dressings made by Peter for a movie - had enough savings to get back to England on a ship which was being chased by the German battleship Tirpitz (luckily they managed to get away). They also had to lookout for enemy submarines on the prowl. - got appointed as a lookout on the crow’s nest of the ship. ended up frozen stiff and had to be carried down - got appointed to look after the ship’s cat instead afterwards - he was the type of guy who would make everyone laugh at a party and be the one to laugh the hardest to the point of tears

- Christopher Lee was one of his best friends - on his first movie with Peter, Chris went to meet him in his trailer. Lee complained, “I don’t have any lines!” Peter sitting in his chair, looked up gave a smile and said, “You’re lucky. I’ve read the script!” which was also his way of breaking the ice with Lee and calming his nerves. They became best friends ever since then. - They often would have ridiculous telephone conversations and do impressions of Looney Tunes characters because they’re fans - one time Peter had to tell him that he had to put down the phone because he couldn’t breath from laughing so much - Chris brought him to a cinema to watch one of the cartoons. They laughed so much that they had to be asked to leave the theater - was fine not taking on roles like Shakespeare because he’d rather do something the audience would love to see him do - 100% respects his audience - at one point he would go to his doctor’s a lot to ask him ‘how do you remove a brain’, what tools do you use, etc (for his role as Victor Frankenstein) because he knew that if there was one doctor in the audience watching his performance who’s not convinced then he hasn’t done his job

- did Star Wars because he thought kids would enjoy it - on the set of Star Wars he wore carpet slippers because the stock boots that they had were too small and painful to wear (the man had 12 inch feet) which is why you only see one wide shot of him in the entire film - Carrie Fisher found it really difficult to muster hate for him in their scenes because he was such a sweet dude and ‘smelled of lavender and linen’ - he smoked often with a lavender glove not just because he didn’t want the smell and stain on his fingers but because he didn’t want the smell to transfer on another person when he shakes their hand - was charming and funny af - got hit by a car once and flung off his bike (bleeding nose and hands). The driver rushed to his aid and gave him a ride. Driver’s companion realised who it was and asked if he was THE Peter Cushing. “Yes, I am Peter Cushing,” he said. She asked him if she could have his autograph to which Peter replied, “Absolutely! Would you like it in blood?” - broke his hip after falling off his bike because he didn’t want to hit a dog crossing the street. He then gave that bike to charity. - originally wanted to call the Death Star ‘Dunroamin’ or ‘Mon Repos’ the later of which means ‘My Place of Rest’ in French! Considering what happened to Tarkin in the end, that would’ve been poetically ironic af

- asks “Am I talking too much?” in interviews THAT WERE SPECIFICALLY FOR HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE - was a really good artist and painted and crafted in his spare time - had a passion for making and building miniature models - was SUPER nice - got so awestruck when he met and acted with Carole Lombard in a film, he asked the director, ‘Am I allowed to touch her?’ - like almost everyone who knew him or met him never had anything but kind words for the guy. If he had any enemies, they had problems with him but he NEVER had any beef with them.

- has never been known to swear or get angry or bad mouth anybody. EVER. (Lee himself has attested to that).

- surprised his costar with champagne and cake after he found out that it was going to be her father’s 100th birthday.

- made a costar from Russia feel more at home by having his wife (who herself was from Russia and knew many languages) communicate with her in mother tongue - saved a costars life once after she was seconds from fainting on an empty set. Fortunately, Peter happened upon the scene and rushed to undo the extremely tight laces on her corset/costume - had an immense fear of the dark after his father locked him in a cellar for one night for misbehaving. He dealt with his fear by going out to the forest at night until he was 16 and ended up enjoying it. - similarly faced his fear of rats by using that fear in a torture scene in a tv adaptation of 1984, where they used ACTUAL LIVE RATS. The performance earned him an award for best actor. - when he met his secretary for the first time, he kept telling her to stop calling him ‘Mr. Cushing’ because he felt uncomfortable about it and asked if she could just call him ‘Peter.’ So as a compromise, she decided to refer to him as ‘Sir Boss’ and his wife as ‘Lady Boss’ and it stuck ever since.

- the love between him and his wife, Helen was LEGENDARY, and the way they met was cute af. Like Roger and Anita from 101 Dalmatians cute. - she was a replacement for a lead actress in a play he was in. Here’s her first impression of meeting Peter: ‘From the stage door stepped a vision and my heart skipped a beat. I had never met him, yet I knew, deep in my heart, we had been together before.

Tall and lean, a pale, almost haggard face, with astonishing large, blue eyes: on his head an old grey velvet hat with a hole between the dents of its crown, a jacket beyond description and repair, spotless white shirt badly frayed at the cuffs and collar, a pair of once dark blue corduroy trousers, most of the nap worn away from constant wear, down-at-heel shoes of grey suede.

Late I was to discover the soles were as worn down as the heels and had holes as large as had crowns in their centres, also woolen socks, that had never known the comfort of a darning needle.

He walked with a slight limp, using an ash walking stick, on his back a huge and obviously very heavy kit bag, such as sailors use. There was an aura about this ‘beloved vagabond’. His hands told me he was either a musician or an artist - they reminded me of those drawn by the artist, Albrecht Durer - and when he bent over one of mine to kiss it, a faint, and quiet delightful waft of tobacco and lavender water hung upon the air.

I knew I would love him for the rest of my days - and beyond…’

- when Peter didn’t have enough money to get a gift for Helen, he painted on a scarf for her to wear (he often made her handmade things as gifts) at an opening party which got noticed by a costar who THEN proceeded to show it to a textile manufacturer. Peter ended up getting a part time job designing scarves, one of which got recognized by the Queen mum herself. - they were broke during the earlier stages of his career. At one point, Helen decided to sell some of her family’s priceless heirlooms that she brought along while fleeing Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution; remaining pieces of Faberge-delicate gold and enamel Russian Easter eggs plus some exquisite jewelry, saying that ‘it was him that mattered, not possessions.’ - his father at one point called him ‘40 and a failure’. After telling what had happened to Helen, she got upset and went to have a chat with his dad without Peter knowing. One day, he received flowers by an unknown admirer after a successful performance. Helen told him that they were from ‘Pop’ after she told him that his own son is a very talented man and that he should support him and not end up pushing him away. Peter’s relationship with his father from then onward got better. - one time he got pulled by the police and interrogated after being suspected as a deserter (this was still around WWII). He kept fumbling with answers from nervousness. The only question he answered straight away was ‘What is your wife’s name?’ They let him go after that.

Here are some quotes from other people about their relationship: - ‘[During a drawing game]… You were given two vertical straight lines and you had to incorporate them into a drawing. Most people made a trunk of a tree or something, and you could, supposedly tell things about their character by what they drew. Peter made the linked letters ‘P and H’, for Peter and Helen. No great psychology needed there.

I said to him, “You love your wife very much!”’

- ‘He loved painting, and painted a lot of watercolour flowers. He was a wonderful artist. He also loved to write, and he loved birds, animals, flowers, children, children’s toys, music, and his home in Whitstable.

Above all, he loved his divine wife, Helen. She was his sunrise and his sunset.

Peter was a wonderful human being.’

- Helen was Peter’s best critic, and his rock. Whenever he got depressed, she would encourage him with messages. Here’s an excerpt from PC’s autobiography from Helen to Peter after being offered a role thinking that the producers involved wouldn’t have even heard of him let alone hire him;

‘Helen smiled. “I’m so glad for you, Peter dear, because I’m sure this will be the key to things you deserve. Being what you are, you have been unaware of jealousy in high places, but I’ve heard and seen things going on behind your back which made me so angry. […] You have all the qualities for true leadership, and are loved and admired by those who count - your audience”.

She gave me a kiss and said, “Now, while you digest all that, I’ll go and make you a cup of tea!“’ - Peter said that he owed everything to Helen, and that he would not have gotten to where he was because of her. He called her ‘the light of his life’.

- sadly, Helen passed away in 1971. Her death was unbearable for Cushing – driving him to a nervous breakdown. He’s been quoted saying: “Since Helen passed on I can’t find anything; the heart, quite simply, has gone out of everything. Time is interminable, the loneliness is almost unbearable and the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that my dear Helen and I will be reunited again some day. To join Helen is my only ambition.” - They had been married for 28 years. - being greatly impacted by her death, Peter made an attempt on his own life a few times. After the funeral service, he ran up and down stairs trying to induce a heart attack - another time he thought about ending his life again but he stopped, worrying that whoever came across his body would be upset and that someone had to clean up his body afterwards - Peter eventually found a letter from Helen that she had left which said:

’Let the sun shine in your heart. Do not pine for me, my beloved Peter, because that will cause unrest. Do not be hasty to leave this world, because you will not go until you have lived the life you have been given. And remember we will meet again when the time is right. This is my promise.’ - he went on to continue working and treating everyone kindly as much as he could until his own passing.

Peter had written a poem for Helen on their wedding anniversary three years prior which he also had engraved on her tombstone. The few last lines read:

Because I know that but for you This world would be a sad and lonely place And I as nothing in it. - He dedicated his autobiography to her, writing in the end:

‘Again for my beloved Helen, who will always shine in my heart like a good deed in a naughty world.’

- Peter was diagnosed with cancer and given a year at least. He went on to live for 13 more years. - before he passed, he told his long time secretary (who was family to him at that point) to go home and have a rest because she had been taking care of him for so long. The next day when she came back to the hospice that was caring for him, a nurse told her what had happened the night before, and to let her know that Peter didn’t want her to be there when he died because he didn’t want her to be upset. - Peter Cushing, happy that he had kept his promise to his wife, lived his life to the fullest, and finally passed at the age of 81. - when he died Christopher Lee said that, “He really was the most gentle and generous of men. I have often said he died because he was too good for this world.” - finally, here’s a quote from the man himself that summed up exactly the kind of person Peter Cushing was: “Went to bed, knowing the sun would shine again tomorrow, because it always does, even when we don’t actually see it.”

Happy bday to our Gentleman of Horror!

#peter cushing