Though his horror film appearances brought him fame and fortune, Cushing ruefully commented that he'd prefer not to be so tightly typecast. In 1975, after a decade's absence, Cushing made a return to the theater in Washington Square, ironically playing the role originated on Broadway by fellow Sherlock Holmes interpreter Basil Rathbone. Many of Cushing's later film assignments were in the tongue-in-cheek category, notably his sneeringly evil Governor Tarkin in Star Wars (1977) and his backwards-talking librarian in Top Secret! (1984). He retired from the screen in 1986. He was given an OBE in 1989 when really he should have been knighted in the late seventies.

Towards the end of his life - he showed no regret or remorse about the things he had or hadn't done. His only regret was losing his wife and living for over twenty years without her. So he looking on death, with a faith in God and reunification with Helen in Heaven.

There is lots of lovely trivia on Peter but perhaps my favourite is that he played the role of Grand Moff Tarkin (Star Wars, 1977) in his slippers; his boots apparently didn’t fit. It is well documented that Carrie Fisher found it quite difficult to get terrified at such a gentle and lovely man ‘in his evening slippers’.

Quotes:
’I don't think there is really a favourite {film that I’ve made} , I'm very fond of film making as a whole and as a medium and of course, there are some that I've enjoyed making more than others but I've enjoyed making all of them’

’I hope this doesn't sound pompous but I don't think of myself as famous, whatever fame I've got has come through what I've done and associations of things I've done’

’If I played Hamlet, they'd call it a horror film’

‘People look at me as if I were some sort of monster, but I can't think why. In my macabre pictures, I have either been a monster-maker or a monster-destroyer, but never a monster. Actually, I'm a gentle fellow. Never harmed a fly. I love animals, and when I'm in the country I'm a keen bird-watcher’

 

 

Autobiographies:
‘An Autobiography’ (1986)
‘Past Forgetting’ (1988)

Suggested films to see:

Dracula (1958)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Star Wars (1977)

One last word shall be given to his friend Christopher Lee,

‘Peter was much loved, not least by me; film lovers all over the world will grieve his loss deeply, and I've lost a wonderful friend. There will be no more phone calls from him with all those hilarious stories. I shall miss his wisdom. I shall miss him’