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Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school, Cushing pursued his acting interest in acting and also drawing, a talent he put to good use later in his first job as a government surveyor's assistant in Surrey. At this time, he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater in Worthing, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939). Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford (1940) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night (1940) and They Dare Not Love (1941). However, after a short stay, he returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland, he contributed to the war effort during World War II by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.
After the war, he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s, Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 (1954) and Beau Brummell (1954), until the end of the decade when he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958), and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).
Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster (1971), and others. By the mid-1970s, these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter.
Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986) was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide. Peter Cushing died at age 81 of prostate cancer on August 11, 1994.- Born Mark Benton Mitchell on August 1, 1961 in Houston, Texas, Red attended high school in Splendora, Texas, where he was an all-district athlete in football, baseball and basketball - but it was also there that he discovered his love for poetry and drama. He graduated with a BA in Drama from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas in 1984, and began an arduous career in regional theater and industrial film. After joining the Screen Actor's Guild, he changed his name to Red, largely to honor his father - who was also his high school football coach. He seemed on the cusp of great things after appearances in JFK (1991) and especially 8 Seconds (1994), opposite Luke Perry and Stephen Baldwin, but his career stalled and he returned home for an extended visit. Driving with his father, he crossed a "blind" rural railroad crossing - one without warning lights or barriers - at exactly the wrong time. Red the actor was killed instantly, though Red the father survived.
- Elias Canetti was born on 24 July 1905 in Russe, Bulgaria. He was a writer, known for Komödie der Eitelkeit (1972), Hochzeit (1972) and Zur Nacht (1967). He was married to Hera Buschor and Venetiana Taubner-Calderon. He died on 11 August 1994 in Zürich, Switzerland.
- Stanislav Chekan was a Russian character actor best known as Captain Mikhail Ivanovich in the popular Soviet comedy The Diamond Arm (1969).
He was born Stanislav Yulianovich Chekan on June 2, 1922, in Rostov-na-Donu, Rostov province, Russia. In 1937 his father, Julian Chekan, was arrested on accusations of anti-Soviet activity under dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. At age 15, young Stanislav Chekan was locked up in a Soviet labor camp for juveniles. There he revealed his acting talent and participated in amateur drama productions for prisoners. After liberation, from 1938 to 1941, he studied acting under Yuri Zavadsky at Rostov Theatrical School. There his classmate was Sergey Bondarchuk; the two actors became lifelong friends and eventually worked together in several films.
In 1941, Chekan was recruited in the Red Army, and served in the infantry during the Second World War. He was wounded in battle, and was decorated for his courage on the battlefield. After an honorable discharge, he was assigned as actor to the front-line Theatre of the Red Army. There Chekan gave numerous performances entertaining troops at the front lines during WWII.
After the war, he had a brief stint at Odessa Drama, then moved to Moscow and was member of the Central Theatre of the Red Army. Chekan made his film debut in Son of the Regiment (1946). He shot to fame in the Soviet Union with his portrayal of the legendary wrestler Ivan Poddubny in The Wrestler and the Clown (1957). During the 60s and 70s, he appeared in comedies by director Leonid Gaidai. Over the course of his career, Chekan played over 50 roles in Russian film and television productions.
Stanislav Chekan was designated Honorable Actor of Russia (1955). From 1958 to 1993 he was member of the Film Actors Theatre-Studio in Moscow. He died of a heart failure on August 11, 1994, in Moscow, and was laid to rest in Vagankovskoe Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.