Peter Cushing (Midnight Marquee Actors Series)

Midnight Marquee Press, Inc. is pleased to introduce this volume that begins the "second phase" of Midnight Marquee Press' acclaimed Actors Series. Having shone the spotlight on those titans of Golden and Silver Age horror (all American by birth or naturalization)—Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney, Jr., Price, and Lorre—Midnight Marquee now ventures into the Iron Age of Hammer (and British horror) with a collection examining the work of Peter Cushing. Cushing has been the subject of other books (and his own autobiographies, reprinted in one volume by Midnight Marquee Press, 1999), so one might question the need for yet another work. The answer, I think, lies in the essays that make up this volume, which put the emphasis squarely on the performer himself (as befits an Actors Series). Not only do Midnight Marquee's stable of reliables and newcomers analyze 56 of Cushing's performances in depth, but the annotated filmography offers capsule comments about most of his other roles. Anyone interested in the enormous contributions to horror film and film in general by the "Gentle Man of Horror"—arguably the most accomplished actor ever to become a horror star—will find a great deal of insight and intelligence within these pages.