Peter Cushing - Later Career

Later Career

After Star Wars, Cushing continued appearing in films and television sporadically, as his health allowed. In 1982, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but managed to survive for the remaining 12 years up to his death without surgery, though his health was precarious.

Cushing appeared in a comedy play written by Ernie Wise in The Morecambe and Wise Show on BBC2 in 1969. Throughout the BBC era of the shows he would appear often with Morecambe and Wise on stage looking to be paid for his very first appearance on their show. This comedy skit continued when the comedy duo left the BBC and moved to Thames Television in 1978. Peter appeared in their first special for Thames Television on 18 October 1978, still looking to be paid with the hosts trying to get rid of him; at the end of the show Eric Morecambe placed money in a wallet connected to a bomb, to try and blow Cushing up in a huge comedic style. On the duo's Christmas special, Cushing pretended to be the Prime Minister when they were caroling in front of 10 Downing Street; he actually made them give him money and finally coming out to say "paid, at last!"

In 1989, Cushing was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, though his close friend Christopher Lee publicly opined that this was "too little, too late." He retired to Whitstable, on the Kent coast, where he had bought a seafront home in 1959, and continued his hobby of birdwatching, and to write two autobiographies. Cushing worked as a painter, specialising in watercolours, and wrote and illustrated a children's book of Lewis Carroll-style humour, The Bois Saga. He was the patron of the Vegetarian Society from 1987 up until his death.

His final professional engagement was as co-narrator of Flesh and Blood, the Hammer Heritage of Horror, produced by American writer/director Ted Newsom. His narration was recorded in Canterbury near his home. The show was first broadcast in 1994, the week before his death.