PETER CUSHING AND HIS LOVE FOR LADY TOBACCO:
It's no secret that Peter Cushing was quite a smoker. Both on and off
screen, he could give those 'coffin nails' quite a hammering! Of course,
Peter came from a time when the awareness of smoking and health related illnesses was not what it is today.
Along with
bits and bobs, props and business, he managed to work puffing into an
art form. He played a whole string of characters, who too, were no
strangers to a pack of twenty unfiltered tipped. Though pipe smoking was
never his thing, as Sherlock Holmes on both film and television,
Cushing gagged with the strength of the tobacco, always keeping a glass
of milk just out of shot to keep the wrenching at bay. In some ways this
is strange because Peter's personal preference for many years was John
Player unfiltered cigarettes, in packs of twenty. Real blow your socks
off puffers!
Nicolas Gadd,
in his book, 'Spending Time With Frankenstein', tells of various visits
to Peter's home in Whitstable, where after many months of having given
up smoking, there were still tens of unopened cartons of twenty packets
in drawers and cupboards.
Smoking was
something that Peter enjoyed. During interviews, many journalistswould
comment on the use of his 'trademark' white glove... Peter would tell
them, 'I use these gloves, so that I do not stain my fingers. You can't
play period roles with stained fingers!' From 'End of the Affair', Night
of the Big Heat, Nothing But The Night', 'Dracula AD 1972' right up to
'The Silent Scream in 1980, Peter and his unfiltered friends often
shared the screen...
