Peter Cushing Centenary | The Horror Channel celebrates the iconic actor's 100th birthday

Today, The Horror Channel (Sky 319, Virgin 149, Freesat 138) celebrates 100 years of the birth of one of the country’s most beloved actors, Peter Cushing OBE with three films from his long film career, and a classic episode from the 1980s TV horror anthology series, Hammer House of Hammer.

10am Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
In the fourth of Hammer’s Frankenstein series, directed by Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing’s obsessed scientist Baron Frankenstein embarks upon his most ambitious work – bringing a young maiden (Susan Denberg) back to life using the soul of an executed man.




12noon The Blood Beast Terror (1968)
Victorian-set horror in which Peter Cushing plays a Scotland Yard detective investigating a series of grisly deaths in the English countryside and discovers an entomology professor (Robert Flemying) is trying to create a mate for his half-woman/half-moth daughter (Wanda Ventham aka Beneditch Cumberbatch’s mum).



1.30pm I, Monster (1971)
In this Amicus adaptation of the Jekyll & Hyde story, Christopher Lee plays Charles Marlowe, a psychologist who invents a drug that releases his patients’ inhibitions. But when Marlowe tests it on himself, he becomes the cruel, murderous Edward Blake. It’s up to Peter Cushing’s lawyer to discover the truth.



3pm The Beast Must Die (1974)
This 1970s action whodunit sees Cushing playing lycanthropy expert Dr Lundgre – one of a number of invited guests of a wealthy sportsman (Calvin Lockhart) who believes one of them is a werewolf. Near the conclusion, the audience have a 30-second interlude during which they can decide, who the hunted beast is.



4.50pm Hammer House of Horror:
The Silent Scream (1980)
Cushing gives a finely tuned performance as Martin Blueck, an ex-Nazi doctor posing as a seemingly kindly pet shopkeeper who befriends a released convict, Chuck Spillers (Brian Cox) only to trap him and his wife in his latest experiment. Classic chills.



***NEWS IN!*** There are just a handful of tickets left for the May 29 screening of Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell at BFI Southbank in London, which will be introduced by two stars from the film, Madeline Smith and Dave Prowse, plus the editors of the Peter Cushing: The Complete Memoirs, Jonathan Rigby and Joyce Broughton (Cushing's secretary). Click here for more information.

Peter Cushing at 100 | The Centenary Celebrations

On screen he portrayed some of most iconic characters, from Sherlock Holmes to Doctor Who and the Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars, and made his name in Hammer horror movies playing Baron Frankenstein and vampire hunter Dr Van Helsing. Yet for all the frights he gave audiences, Peter Cushing was well known as one of life’s gentlemen – devoted to his late wife Helen, a passionate watercolour artist, and in love with his adopted town of Whitstable in Kent – which he made his home from the 1950s until his death in 1994. To mark the 100th anniversary of the actor’s birth on 26 May, a number of special events are taking place in Whitstable and London.

Peter Cushing at 100
Whitstable Museum and Gallery (Kent) | 29 March-13 June 2013
A special exhibition celebrating the life of Whitstable’s favourite resident features a host of artefacts, from film stills and posters to examples of his artwork and even the pair of slippers he famously wore while filming Star Wars. Click here for ticketing details.

Peter Cushing: The Complete Memoirs | Book Launch
Cinema Museum (London) | Sunday 12 May, 7.30pm
Film historian Jonathan Rigby and Peter Cushing’s former assistant Bernard Broughton will be special guests at the launch of Peter Cushing: The Complete Memoirs, which collects together Cushing’s 1980s books – An Autobiography and Past Forgetting – with the 1955 memoir The Peter Cushing Story, and includes extensive unseen material from his private collection. For tickets, click here.

Brides of Dracula | Film Screening
Horsebridge Community Centre (Whitstable, Kent) | Saturday 25 May, 7.30pm
A screening the 1960 Hammer horror film starring Peter Cushing as vampire hunter, Van Helsing. Tickets are £5 – Box Office: 01227 281174

Peter Cushing Centenary Weekend
(Whitstable, Kent) | Saturday 25 May-Sunday 26 May
In 2004, on the 10^th anniversary of the actor’s death, more than 12,000 people from around the world descended on the coastal town, visiting the local museum and the strolling around the same places that Cushing frequented, including the Tudor Tea Rooms and Cushing’s View, a seaside spot much favoured by the actor. The 100^th anniversary will be even more special, with events being held in and around the town, including the Peter Cushing pub (a converted art deco cinema) on Oxford Street, which will host a special Hammer horror fancy dress party.

The Peter Cushing Scrapbook | Signings
Wayne Kinsey, Tom Johnson & Joyce Broughton (Peveril Publishing)
This 328-page pictorial history to Peter Cushing has been compiled in time for the centenary of the much moved actor and is only available direct from Peveril Publishing. Signings of the book will be held on 12 May at the 4th Norwich Sci Fi Convention and 25 May at the Peter Cushing pub (11am-5pm).

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell | Film Screening
BFI Southbank (London) | Wednesday 29 May, 6.30pm
This 1973 Hammer horror was the final instalment in the studio’s Frankenstein franchise starring Peter Cushing. The BFI are screening a new HD restoration of the film, with an introduction from actress Madeline Smith and Joyce Broughton, Cushing’s secretary for 35 years. For more information, click here.