Showing posts with label yoda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yoda. Show all posts

Thursday 28 February 2019

WITHOUT GETTING PLASTERED TARKIN MAY NEVER HAVE RETURNED PLUS A HAMMER GLAMOUR BIRTHDAY!


THINK ABOUT IT! This #THROWBACK THURSDAY post at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE today, has prompted some memories. Make up artist, the late STUART FREEBORN was responsible among many other excellent creations, like the appearnce  #STARWARS YODA, made the prosthetic giant EYE for Cushing Book Store character in the 1984 film, 'Top Secret'. The practice of getting an actor to come into the workshop, and have his ENTIRE face in latex rubber or plaster, was common practice back in the day. Hammer make up artist, Roy Ashton had a whole collection of actors and actresses faces and heads, that he used to produce the latex attachments of some of the studios, best monsters and creatures! 


I GUESS, Freeborn would never have guessed that HIS plaster face of Peter Cushing would go on to be quite central and MAJOR and contentious step in the creation of the CGI Grand Moff Tarkin in the film, 'ROGUE ONE'. FX creators Industrial Light and Magic, found there was little on file, of actual helpful and accurate reference material on Cushing's features and face. A mass of artwork, but only Freeborn's plaster head, could provide the measurements and dimensions that were needed, along with footage of Peter Cushing's performance on the big screen as Tarkin in 'Star Wars: A New Hope, from 1977, to make the CGI possible. The role of the Book Store Owner, was a small guest role and one that Cushing could have easily have passed on. A fact no doubt, that could have effected the potential of making Tarkin's return, along with Guy Henry's assistance . .  a non starter! 



TODAY WE ALSO MARK the birthday of Stephanie Beacham. Beacham has had a very full career on stage, screen and television. Star of tv's 'Tenko', 'The Colbys' 'Dynasty' 'Bad Girls' and 'SeaQuest'... she has also slipped in an episode of 'Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense'. Her Peter Cushing connection links to two films, 'Dracula AD 1972' playing Jessica Van Helsing, granddaughter to Peter Cushing. and 'And Now, The Screaming Starts'... Please join us in wishing her a Happy Birthday!



STEPHANIE BEACHAM: 'My mother Joan had chicken pox when she was pregnant so I was born with no nerve endings in my right ear. I’m totally deaf in that ear and I have just 80% hearing in my left ear. I’ve never heard in stereo and where most people’s hearing is three dimensional, mine is all on the same plane. Background and foreground sounds flatten, out so a car coming down the road is as loud as a person’s voice right next to me. I was taken to a specialist when I was four. They said, ‘She’s perfectly intelligent,’ and my mother said very snappily, ‘I realise that. I know she’s intelligent, she just can’t hear’.
 

'ONE OF THE BIGGEST problems was that deafness and stupidity were often linked together because a speech defect often accompanies the deafness. I’ve never had a speech defect but I still got called ‘Deaf Steph’ at school and because I often didn’t know people were talking to me I’d walk right past them and they assumed I was snooty. In my adult life I’ve always struggled with people sitting to my right at dinner parties as I can’t hear a word and I’ve had to avoid pop concerts or noisy clubs because of my lack of nerve endings. As for my future health, I fully intend to age naturally without cosmetic surgery and there’s nothing that can be done about my saggy neck, apart from a bulldog clip. I’m convinced mental and physical flexibility is the secret to staying young and yoga provides that for me. I’m also aware that you become what you eat so I’ll continue to steer clear of fizzy drinks and too much sugar or salt." - Daily Mirror Newspaper 2107
 

Wednesday 12 October 2016

#GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY : TARKIN PUSS PUSS AND A HOWLING WOLF


#GIMMETHEGIFWEDNESDAY: ...and so we happily wheel out our weekly roster of grim and creepy 'ANIMATED GIFS', all cheerfully requested by your good-selves from the films and work of our very own, #PETERCUSHING. First off comes a request from RUTH HELLMAN, for 'Any gif featuring Peter Cushing, but Legend of the Werewolf, would be good;)' . . You've got it, Ruth. Above Peter as Paul Catalque, Paris police surgeon, taking his lunch, among the cadavers, entrails and bits (!!). Chasing werewolves is hungry and thirsty work! The howling wolf or werewolf of this film is one of best make up's, prior 'An American Werewolf In London, which reset the bar. Jack Pierce, make up artist behind Lon Chaney Jr's wolfman was great for its time, But Roy Ashton's Lycanthrop, in the shape of Oliver Reed, was a howling success with the public during the 1960's. In 1975 David Rintoul as Etoile, wore a make up by Graham Freeborn, son of the genius make up artist Stuart Freeborn, who created Yoda and many other of the make up in the #STARWARS series. Stuart was also behind Cushing's 'MEGA-EYE' in the 1984 film, #TOPSECRET.


  

MARTIN BOUTON sent us a request for Peter Cushing's terrified Wilbur Gray from Milton Subotsky's THE UNCANNY  from 1977. Out of all of the portmaneau films that Peter Cushing appeared in for Amicus and Subotsky, this is the one that gets the least love. I am not sure why. All the others, Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, Dr Terrors House of Horrors, all have that quintessential 'made in England' look. A little like with the television series 'The New Avengers', which at first was  rebooted and 'kitted for the 70's' and made in the UK. The original series starring Patrick Macnee and several capable and classy female assistants, was 'BRIT' from it's bowler hat, umbrellas and tea pots. The same path was kept for the come back series. The moment The New Avengers production was moved to Canada... all the class was lost. Maybe what we see with 'The Uncanny' is the same thing? Made away from blighty, it's just not the same.


#gimmethegifwednesday: last gif of the day... requested by LEXI CONROY : 'Can I request the shot from Dracula AD 1972, where Peter Cushing as Van Hesling comforts his grand-daughter Jesscia after a nightmare! Makes you wish everyone had a grand-father like that! Thank you. '....


THERE IS ONLY ONE PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY ON FACEBOOK, COME AND JOIN ALMOST 26,000 OF OUR OUR FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS! UPDATED THROUGHOUT EVERY DAY: JUST CLICK HERE 

Thursday 30 June 2016

#TBT '?UOY PLEH I YAM' CUSHING TOP SECRET!


#‎tbt‬ RELEASED JUNE 1984, Peter Cushing in 'TOP SECRET'. When Peter Cushing first appears in his scene, he is looking through a magnifying glass, pretty much the same way he had done in countless other films. The trick in this case is, when he lowers the glass...his eye REMAINS HUGE!


'FORWARDS,BACKWARDS, it's all the same to me,' said Peter Cushing in the film's pressbook, 'I've done so many pictures by now that I try to do what's asked of me to the best of my abilities and trust that all is well. My scene in 'Top Secret' was a very interesting exercise in technique and I enjoyed it very much...' Even though his scene is brief, the amount of prep and time spent on his make up appliance and the rehearsing and blocking of shooting his dialogue and action ..BACKWARDS... must have taken considerable time and effort. How do you think it LOOKED??

... THE GUY on the bottom left is STUART FREEBORN make up artist who made the Cushing prosthetic... he is also quite famous for something else... do you know what that is??


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