Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May, 1913 – 11 August, 1994) was an English actor known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, and to (slightly) younger viewers as the Grand Moff Tarkin, the ostensible primary villain of Star Wars: A New Hope.
Cushing played Sherlock Holmes many times, starting with Hammer's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in 1959, the first Holmes film made in colour. He also played Holmes in 16 episodes of the BBC series "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes" (1968), of which only six episodes remain. Finally, Cushing played the detective in old age, in "The Masks of Death" (1984) for Channel 4, in what was his own last major appearance onscreen. He was best friends with another actor strongly tied to the world created by Conan Doyle, Christopher Lee.
External links[]
- Peter Cushing on the Internet Movie Database.
- Peter Cushing on Wikipedia.