Peter Cushing^†

The BBC's 1954 live broadcast of Nineteen Eighty-Four made him a serious actor at 41, winning him a BAFTA. But it was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) that gave him a career. He'd reportedly read that Hammer was adapting the story and had his agent call before they'd cast the part. Hammer gave him Baron Frankenstein, gave him Christopher Lee as a co-star, and gave him a template he'd repeat across 22 films. Directors nicknamed him "Props Peter" because he'd spend hours arranging every object in a scene before cameras rolled. The preparation read as obsession. On screen, it read as authority.

His Hollywood crossover came in 1977 when George Lucas needed a human face for the Empire. Darth Vader was masked, so Grand Moff Tarkin had to carry the villain weight. His Star Wars boots didn't fit, so Lucas agreed to film him mostly from the waist up, meaning he played a villain synonymous with imperial authority in his own slippers. Carrie Fisher said she liked him too much to act like she hated him. When Rogue One (2016) resurrected him digitally, Lucasfilm got sued by a production company claiming a 1993 contract with Cushing gave them the right to approve any special-effects use of his likeness. The lawsuit survived Disney's attempt to have it dismissed.

Helen Beck died in 1971 from emphysema, and he never quite recovered. He lost so much weight after her death that his next Hammer role had to be rewritten from father to grandfather. He kept signing letters with both their names for years. Between films, he painted watercolors, maintained bird tables from his window, and spent hours painting toy soldiers in historically accurate detail. He was reportedly afraid of the dark. None of this stopped Tim Burton from naming him as a major influence, which feels about right: a man with the domestic habits of a retired schoolteacher who built a career out of credible menace.

Whitstable largely closed its shops on the day of his funeral in August 1994. The cortege passed "Cushing's View," a seafront spot named for him, and his favourite tea rooms on Harbour Street. A memorial service at St Paul's, Covent Garden, followed in January 1995, with Christopher Lee and Ron Moody reading the lessons. His final professional work, the Hammer documentary Flesh and Blood, was recorded weeks before he died; Lee later said he had a premonition it was their last time together.