His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than films, as well as many television, stage and radio roles. He achieved recognition for his leading performances in the Hammer Productions horror films from the s to s and as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars Born in Kenley , Surrey, Cushing made his stage debut in and spent three years at a repertory theatre before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career.
After making his motion-picture debut in the film The Man in the Iron Mask , Cushing began to find modest success in American films before returning to England at the outbreak of the Second World War. Despite performing in a string of roles, including one as Osric in Laurence Olivier 's film adaptation of Hamlet , Cushing struggled to find work during this period.
His career was revitalised once he started to work in live television plays and he soon became one of the most recognisable faces in British television. Cushing gained worldwide fame for his appearances in twenty-two horror films from the Hammer studio, particularly for his role as Baron Frankenstein in six of their seven Frankenstein films and Doctor Van Helsing in five Dracula films.
Cushing often appeared alongside actor Christopher Lee , who became one of his closest friends, and occasionally with the American horror star Vincent Price. Cushing appeared in several other Hammer films, including The Abominable Snowman , The Mummy and The Hound of the Baskervilles both , the last of which marked the first of the several occasions he portrayed the detective Sherlock Holmes.
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Cushing continued to perform in a variety of roles, although he was often typecast as a horror film actor. He played Dr. Who in Dr. Cushing continued acting into the early to mids and wrote two autobiographies. His mother was the daughter of a carpet merchant and considered of a lower class than her husband. The latter was often fatal during that period, although he survived.
