' HOW DO YOU MAKE AN ACTOR CRY AND MAKE A MASK TO COVER THE PHANTOM?' VIDEO INTERVIEW #HAMMERHORRORFILMS MAKE UP ARTIST ROY ASHTON

HOW DO YOU MAKE an actor cry on screen and why was it so difficult to create a MASK for 'The Phantom of the Opera'? Here's some answers in a little teaser clip of a PCASUK video interview with Hammer and Amicus films ace make up artist Roy Ashton at his home in 1983. During his long career Roy worked many times with #PeterCushing #ChristopherLee also #VincentPrice #JohnCarradine #VeronicaCarlson #BarbraShelley, just about every Brit fantasy actor and many others, from the mid 1950's until the end of his career in 1988. We interviewed Roy first in 1980, when he was made an honorary member of PCASUK along with Vincent Price, Milton Subotsky, Ingrid Pitt and Geofreffy Bayldon. Maybe his stand out creation on screen was Oliver Reed's lycanthrope in Hammer's 'Curse of the Werewolf', Christopher Lee's Kharis in 'The Mummy' and his uncredited assistance with Christopher Lee's first appearance as Dracula in Hammer's 'Dracula' in 1958. Maybe you have your own fav and opinion on the best of Roy Ashton's work? Please feel free to click this link to see the clip and maybe share your thoughts on the page too? Link HERE! 

 

ALSO POSTING THIS TODAY, over at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page to see how many of you grabbed this excellent book, back in the day? ' Greasepaint and Gore' by Bruce Sachs and Russell Wall, published by their company Tomahawk, a few years ago now. It's a interesting read, with some lovely illustrations of Roy's sketches and personal reference photographs.

 

THERE WAS ALSO A DVD, you could order which covered the career of Hammer's first make up artist, Phil Leakey. A very good interview. When I bought my copy of the dvd, I wondered why there wasn't any video interview footage of Roy. I met Bruce at a function a short while after the book and dvd had been launched, and ask him, why no Roy interview footage in the dvd. 'There isn't any footage of Roy being interviewed and he has now sadly passed!' he said. It was then I realised, being out of the loop for so long, he sadly knew nothing of the three hour interview I shot at Roy's home back in 1983!

 

HOW ANNOYING AND FRUSTRATING! Maybe a missed opportunity. The footage is still unedited, raw material on a blu ray conversion disc. Maybe one day . . ? You can still grab a copy of Bruce's book though. Lots of copies on ebay. Here are a few pages, for you to sample too.. if you have a copy, let us know and share what you think of it at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page!

 

WATCH ROY ASHTON AT HOME CLIP : 

 

YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN US and over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing  OBE   

INDICATOR / POWERHOUSE ANNOUNCES AUGUST RELEASE FOR PETER CUSHING 1968 SHOCK SLASHER BLU RAY LIMITED RELEASE!

NEWS: WE GAVE A HEADS UP, at the beginning of the year, but at last we can announce that the UK gets finally gets it's own Blu Ray release of the #PeterCushing 1968 shocker, '#Corruption' from #Indicator / #Powerhouse films in August! Details of extras to be announced this week. Stay tuned!

 

SOMETHING NEW and a bit of fun, at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page today. Peter Cushing often had some pretty interesting dialogue in the 92 films he appeared in.. whatever the quality of 'the lines' many believe he had a gift, of making them sound convincing and true. Some are memorable, especially, those that were his final lines in the movie. Here are the first two of a weekly post. Can you name the two films in which these were the final Cushing Character lines? Slip your thoughts, onto the thread at the Facebook Page 😏 - Marcus

 

YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN US and over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing  OBE 

NEWS: MARY SHELLEY'S 'HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN' MUSEUM IN ENGLAND ANNOUNCES OPENING DATE!

NEWS: You might remember the #PCASUK News post we made back in April last year ( See second image in this album) . . It covers the fact that #MaryShelley, author of the classic novel '#Frankenstein', wrote the book during 1817 in the historical city of Bath . . and we brought the breaking news of a plan to open a Mary Shelley 'Frankenstein' themed museum in the city of #Bath, England to celebrate 'Where Shelley created' the nightmare story that went on to spawn it's own industry on stage, film tv and fascinate millions of Gothic loving fans and readers ! Well, IT'S ALIVE! Great news, the plan has come to LIFE and the museum. 'Mary Shelley's House of Frankenstein' opens in a few weeks time, on JUNE 30th 2021! We'll be bringing you some more updates and news, as the opening comes closer. 

 

LAST YEARS PCASUK NEWS POST BELOW!

 

FOR DECADES the character of #BaronFrankenstein has fascinated audiences with new theatre, television and cinema productions being produced every year. And it is maybe this and the fact that that the company behind the Frankenstein Museum , Bath Attractions . . is based in the very city where Shelley wrote the iconic 'Frankenstein' novel in 1818! 

 

 

IT WAS THE ROLE THAT nailed #PeterCushing to the movie map and made both him and Christopher Lee into household names, with a mini budget movie produced by an even smaller UK film company called, #Hammerfilms. Jimmy Sangster wrote a scaled down script of the classic novel by Mary Shelley, #Britishfilm director, Terence Fisher called the shots, and 'The Curse of Frankenstein' not only hit huge box office success, it also change the style of horror films and rebooted the Frankenstein film forever!

 

Peter Cushing would go to appear in a further FIVE Frankenstein films for Hammer. 'The Curse of Frankenstein' also presented Christopher Lee as a very different 'monster-creation', his appearance compared to that of the traditional Universal #BorisKarloff / Jack Pearce make-up artist style, was quite a different creature. Hammer films continued their #Frankenstein series, but again in a different direction to the Universal horror films. In a clever turn, they created a focus on adventures of The Baron himself, instead of the '#TheMonster'. It was a brilliant and box office friendly plan, as not only did the audience get a different creation for every new story and title, but also Cushing's amazing Baron for the price of one ticket! READ ON . .

NEWS : PLANS ARE BEING DRAWN UP for ‘Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’ to celebrate the author’s “extraordinary life and her most lauded work” - much of which was penned in the Somerset city. Bath Attractions Ltd are planning to convert Grade II-listed offices in Gay Street - a few doors up from the Jane Austen Centre - and hope it could open later this year. The planning application says: “Mary#Shelley’s House of Frankenstein'' is a new multi-sensory, fully immersive family-friendly visitor attraction proposed for the City of #Bath, and the UK’s first attraction dedicated to Mary Shelley and her novel, Frankenstein , one of the world’s most famous, iconic and lauded creations.

 

“Exploring her complicated and tragic personal life, literary career and the novel’s continuing relevance today in regards to popular culture, politics and science, the attraction aims to deliver a sophisticated, entertaining and visceral experience like no other, and one which we hope the city of Bath can be proud of.”
 

THE AUTHOR'S LINKS to Bath are commemorated on a plaque at the site of 5 Abbey Church Yard, where she took lodgings arriving in the city in September 1816, then named Mary Wollstenecraft Godwin. It was there that she wrote much of Frankenstein, which was published anonymously in 1818 and is now regarded as the world’s first science fiction novel. We'll keep you posted of any more news!  

 YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN US and over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing  OBE

'THE SAME AS A PLASTIC MODEL KIT!' PETER CUSHING MUSING ON FRANKENSTEIN

SYMPATHY for Frankenstein. Here is a quote from an interview Peter did way back in June 1967, for the UK ITV Granada programme 'Cinema', where he actually gets into the giggles, while trying to defend, Baron Frankenstein. A role he had played for #HammerHorrorFilms, four times at this point and was busy making another, 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'. A terrible title. Over at the FACEBOOK PACSUK FAN PAGE, we are asking you take PC's opinion into account and share your opinion too, in the comments thread - Marcus

 

YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN US and over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing  OBE 

 

NEWS: NOT JUST NEWS BUT GREAT NEWS PLUS MAKE UP ARTIST PHIL LEAKEY REMEMBERED

Not just news but GREAT NEWS!
In an auction house far, far away (well, Bristol actually), the enduring power of the force was clear. The Dave Prowse Auction happened today, and the date and the timing were perfect! 

 

A DARTH VADER HELMET sold for £2,200, more than five times the top estimate, and a signed picture of Alec Guinness in his Obi-Wan Kenobi robes was snapped up for £3,100, treble what was anticipated. Someone, somewhere, paid £9,000 for a prototype lightsaber, the weapon of choice of #Jediknights in the Star Wars saga, which the Earthlings at East Bristol Auctions had judged might bring in £80-£120. An image of Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, with Prowse went for £15,000. The interest may well have been the inscription, “For David – You’ll Always Be ‘Dad’ #Vader To Me.”And a colour still from The Empire Strikes Back signed by Prowse and James Earl Jones – who provided Vader’s voice – sold for £4,100.

 

THE AUCTION HOUSE and Alzheimer’s Research UK said they were delighted. Tim Parry, the director of the charity, said: “The response to the auction has been simply incredible and testament to the iconic role David brought to life in one of the biggest movie franchises of all time. Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of bids have been placed from around the world, helping to smash pre-auction estimates. TWO personal letters from #petercushing to Prowse sold for £600! 

 

TODAY we mark and remember the BIRTHDAY of make up artist, PHIL LEAKEY. This is the man we can thank for kick staring the '#Hammer look' not just in their very first #Frankenstein film, 'The Curse of Frankenstein' but a much smaller little flick called 'X The Unknown' in 1956. He started with Hammer when they were first known as exclusive films and moved with them from #OakleyCourt to #DownPlace, which became Bray studios. After Curse of Frankenstein, Leakey would work on other Peter Cushing Hammer films like #TheAbominableSnowman 1957, #Dracula 1958, #TheRevengeofFrankenstein. 

 

DURING THIS TIME, a young Australian called Roy Ashton, worked along side him as an uncredited assistant. After the feature, 'I Only Asked' Leakey moved on and Ashton, became Hammer's make up artist. Leakey worked on a variety of films, 90 in all retiring in 1975. 

 

HIS LAST HORROR genre feature was ' Vampira' with #DavidNiven, #LindaHayden and #VeronicaCarlson. His last work with #PeterCushing was the TV series 'The Zoo Gang' in an episode called 'The Counterfeit Trap' in 1974.

 

#PhilLeakey, was the gentlest of men, a real gentleman and a real craftsman. Without him putting his mark on the #HammerFilms creations, I doubt they would have had the appeal and the box office draw. Happy Birthday, Phil Leakey!

 

YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN US and over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing  OBE