Editing Peter Cushing (section)

==Early life==
Peter Wilton Cushing was born in [[Kenley]], then a village in the [[English county]] of [[Surrey]], on 26 May 1913 to George Edward Cushing (1881–1956) and Nellie Marie ([[Name at birth|née]] King) Cushing (1882–1961).<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=54835|title=Cushing, Peter Wilton (1913–1994)}}</ref> His father, a [[quantity surveyor]], was a reserved and uncommunicative man whom Peter said he never got to know very well. His mother was the daughter of a carpet merchant and considered of a lower class than her husband.<ref name="Cush1">Cushing, Peter. ''Peter Cushing: An Autobiography and Past Forgetting'' (1999). Midnight Marquee. pp. 13—17. {{ISBN|1887664262}}.</ref> Cushing's family consisted of several stage actors, including his paternal grandfather, Henry William Cushing (who toured with [[Henry Irving]]),<ref name="Barker">Barker, Dennis and Malcolm, Dennis (12 August 1994). "Horrormeister Cushing belonged to gentlemanly school of actors". ''[[The Gazette (Montreal)|The Gazette]]'': p. D2.</ref> his paternal aunt Maude Cushing (his father's sister) and his step-uncle Wilton Herriot, after whom Peter Cushing received his middle name.<ref name="Cush1" />

[[File:Peter Cushing 1913-1994 Actor lived here.jpg|thumb|upright|[[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] at 32 St James' Road, Purley, London]]

The Cushing family lived in [[Dulwich]] during the [[World War I|First World War]], but moved to [[Purley, London|Purley]] after the war ended in 1918.<ref name="Cushing28" /> Although raised during wartime, Cushing was too young to understand or become greatly affected by it, and was shielded from the horrors of war by his mother, who encouraged him to play games under the kitchen table whenever the threat of possible bombings arose.<ref name="Cush1" /> In his infancy, Cushing twice developed [[pneumonia]] and once what was then known as "[[double pneumonia]]". The latter was often fatal during that period, although he survived.<ref name="Cushing28">Cushing, p. 28</ref> During one Christmas in his youth, Cushing saw a stage production of ''[[Peter and Wendy|Peter Pan]]'', which served as an early source of inspiration and interest in acting.<ref>Cushing, p. 19</ref> Cushing loved dressing up and [[make believe]] from an early age, and later claimed he always wanted to be an actor, "perhaps without knowing at first."<ref name="Cushing30">Cushing, p. 30</ref> A fan of comics and toy collectibles in his youth, Cushing earned money by staging [[Puppetry|puppet shows]] for family members with his glove-puppets and toys.<ref>Cushing, p. 21</ref>

He began his early education in Dulwich, South London, before attending [[Shoreham Grammar School]] in [[Shoreham-by-Sea]], on the [[Sussex]] coast between [[Brighton]] and [[Worthing]]. Prone to homesickness, he was miserable at the boarding school and spent only one term there before returning home.<ref>Cushing, p. 24</ref> He attended [[Purley High School for Boys|Purley County Grammar School]], where he swam and played [[cricket]] and [[Rugby football|rugby]].<ref name="Cushing28" /> With the exception of art, Cushing was a self-proclaimed poor student in most subjects and had little attention span for that which did not interest him. He got fair grades only through the help of his brother, a strong student who did his homework for him.<ref name="Cushing30" /> Cushing harboured aspirations for [[the arts]] all throughout his youth, especially acting. His childhood inspiration was [[Tom Mix]], an American film actor and star of many [[Western (genre)|Western films]].<ref name="SWI56">[[Star Wars Insider]] 37, "Peter Cushing: Charming to the Last" by Constantine Nasr</ref> D.J. Davies, the Purley County Grammar School [[physics]] teacher who produced all the school's plays, recognised some acting potential in him and encouraged him to participate in the theatre, even allowing Cushing to skip class to [[Set construction|paint sets]]. He played the lead in nearly every school production during his teenage years, including the role of Sir Anthony Absolute in a 1929 staging of [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]]'s [[comedy of manners]] play, ''[[The Rivals]]''.<ref name="Cushing35">Cushing, p. 35—37</ref>

Cushing wanted to enter the acting profession after school, but his father opposed the idea, despite the theatrical background of several of his family members. Instead, seizing upon Cushing's interest in art and drawing, he got his son a job as a surveyor's assistant in the drawing department of the [[Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council]]'s surveyor's office during the summer of 1933.<ref name="Cushing35" /> Cushing hated the job, where he remained for three years without promotion or advancement due to his lack of ambition in the profession. The only enjoyment he got out of it was drawing perspectives of proposed buildings, which were almost always rejected because they were too imaginative and expensive and lacked strong foundations, which Cushing disregarded as a "mere detail."

Thanks to his former teacher Davies, Cushing continued to appear in school productions during this time, as well as amateur plays such as [[W.&nbsp;S. Gilbert]]'s ''[[Pygmalion and Galatea (play)|Pygmalion and Galatea]]'',<ref name="Cush37">Cushing, pp. 37—41</ref> [[George Kelly (playwright)|George Kelly's]] ''The Torch-Bearers'', and ''The Red Umbrella'', by Brenda Girvin and Monica Cosens.<ref name="Cush45">Cushing, pp. 45—49</ref> Cushing often learned and practised his lines in an attic at work, under the guise that he was putting ordnance survey maps into order. He regularly applied for auditions and openings for roles he found in the arts-oriented newspaper ''[[The Stage]]'', but was turned down repeatedly due to his lack of professional experience in the theatre.<ref name="Cush37" />