Peter Cushing Net Worth in 2023 (Biography, Career, Personal Life, Net Worth, Age, etc.)

Peter Cushing Net Worth. Cushing, Peter Wilton OBE, was an English actor. His acting career lasted six decades, including roles in more than 100 films, as well as numerous television, theatre, and radio productions. Peter Cushing’s Net Worth is estimated to be approximately $10 Million.

Peter Cushing Net worth and profile in one glance

Biography of Peter Cushing

Early life

Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913, in Kenley, Surrey, England, to George Edward Cushing (1881–1956) and Nellie Marie Cushing (1882–1961). He was the younger of two boys, his older brother George being three years his senior.

His mother had longed for a daughter so much that she dressed Peter in girls’ frocks for the first few years of his life, letting his hair grow in long curls and tying it in pink ribbon bows so that others frequently mistook him for a girl.

Stepping stone into Peter Cushing Net Worth (Career)

Cushing eventually applied to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London for a scholarship. Cushing’s first audition was in front of actor Allan Aynesworth, who was so displeased with Cushing’s delivery that he flatly refused him and told him not to come back unless he corrected his diction.

Cushing persisted in his pursuit of a scholarship, penning exactly twenty-one letters to the school until actor and theatre manager Bill Fraser consented to see Cushing in person in 1935 merely to ask him to stop writing.

Cushing was offered a walk-on part as a courier in J.B. Priestley’s Cornelius that night at that meeting. Although he had no lines and did little more than stand on stage behind other actors, this was his professional stage debut.

Following that, he received the scholarship and was assigned various jobs around the theatre, including serving refreshments and working as an assistant stage manager.

Primary source of Peter Cushing Net worth (Acting)

He soon felt compelled to seek a career in movies in the United States. His father gave him a one-way ticket to Hollywood in 1939, and he moved there with only £50 in his pocket.

Cushing met Larry Goodkind, a Columbia Pictures employee who wrote him a letter of recommendation and introduced him to contacts he knew at Edward Small Productions.

Cushing paid a visit to the studio, which was just days away from filming The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), a James Whale-directed adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ storey based on a French legend about a prisoner during Louis XIV of France’s reign.

Cushing was brought in as a stand-in for Louis Hayward, who played both King Louis XIV and Philippe of Gascony in the film. Cushing played one part against Hayward in one scene, then the opposing part in the next, and the scenes were eventually stitched together in a split-screen technique that showed Hayward in both parts and removed Cushing’s work entirely from the film.

Despite the fact that Cushing had no actual screen time as a result of the assignment, he was finally cast in a tiny part as the king’s messenger, making The Man in the Iron Mask his official cinema debut.

Cushing had no expertise with fencing but told Whale he was a good fencer to ensure he got the part despite his lack of skill. Cushing subsequently admitted that his unscreened moments with Hayward were dreadful, but that his time on the set provided him with a good opportunity to learn and see how a studio set worked.

Success in television

Over the next three years, Cushing struggled to find work and got so agitated that he believed he was having a nervous breakdown. Despite this, he continued to appear in minor roles on radio, stage, and film.

Among them was John Huston’s 1952 film Moulin Rouge, in which he played Marcel de la Voisier, a race fan, alongside José Ferrer, who played the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Cushing’s wife pushed him to look for opportunities in television, which was just getting started in England, during this depressing time. She advised him to contact all of the producers listed in the Radio Times magazine who were looking for employment in the medium.

Cushing was engaged to complement the cast of a run of huge theatre triumphs that were being converted to live television, and it proved to be a wise decision. J.B. Priestley’s Eden End, which aired on television in December 1951, was the first.

He became one of the most active and popular names in British television over the next three years and was regarded as a pioneer in British television drama.

Star Wars

Cushing was approached by film director George Lucas in the hopes of casting him in his impending space fantasy film, Star Wars. Because the film’s main enemy, Darth Vader, wore a mask the entire time and never showed his face, Lucas thought a strong human evil character was required. This inspired Lucas to create Grand Moff Tarkin, a high-ranking Imperial governor and commander of the Death Star, a planet-destroying battle station.

Cushing was Lucas’ first option for the character since he felt the role required a good actor. Cushing, on the other hand, claims that Lucas first approached him about playing Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and that it was only after they met that he was cast as Tarkin.

Cushing stated that he would have chosen to play Kenobi rather than Tarkin, but he was unable to do so due to other production commitments at the time Star Wars was being shot, and Tarkin’s parts took less time to film than the larger Kenobi character.

Cushing accepted the position despite not being a fan of science fiction because he believed his audience would love Star Wars and appreciate seeing him in the picture.

Personal life

Outside of acting, Cushing had a variety of hobbies, including collecting and fighting model troops, of which he had over 5,000. He hand-painted several of them and used H. G. Wells’ Little Wars rule book for miniature wargaming.

He also enjoyed playing pranks and practical jokes, as well as drawing and painting watercolours, which he did frequently in his senior years.

Cushing visited numerous churches and chatted with religious pastors after his wife died, but was disappointed by their unwillingness to confront death and the hereafter, and never joined an organised religion. Despite this, he continued to believe in God and an afterlife.

For most of his life, he was a devout vegetarian who served as a patron of the Vegetarian Society from 1987 until his death. He was extremely passionate about ornithology and animals in general. He had nyctophobia from a young age but conquered it in his adult years by forcing himself to take walks outside after midnight.

Conclusion

In the Hollywood film industry, Peter Cushing is a very accomplished and well-known actor. The Peter Cushing Net Worth is a source of motivation and inspiration. You should also check out – Steven R. McQueen Net Worth.