In 1999 several people suggested we reprint the Peter Cushing autobiographies.   We were great fans of Mr. Cushing and felt it would be wonderful to bring the two volume autobiography to U.S. readers.   Tom Johnson helped us get in touch with Joyce Broughton, Mr. Cushing's secretary for over 35 years and holder of the copyright for the books.

Joyce Broughton is a charming lady and graciously flew over to appear at Monster Rally in 1999 and sign books and speak about the legendary Peter Cushing.

Can you tell us about some of his acting method?

I can only remember bits of them, you know.   And he had to be a judge and he wanted to know what happened, where he looked, how he placed himself.   And when he did--I think it was The Masks of Death [1984, television; U.S. Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death ], he had to play Sherlock Holmes and he had to play the violin and he couldn't play the violin.   So he went and had lessons on how to hold the violin and the bow and how to hold his chin and everything.   He was very good with things like that.

We're heard Mr. Cushing had a huge book collection .

Hundreds and hundreds of books, words were his favorite thing, quotations particularly, he'd spend hours looking up a quotation.   He was a very, very well-read man.

Could you talk about Mr. Cushing's relation with the fans and the fan mail.

Well we did get a great deal of mail, and strangely enough, I still get a lot of it now.   There wasn't one fan letter that he didn't answer personally. There wasn't one fan letter that didn't have his own signature on it.   The fans were very important to him.   We had some funny things, obviously. I can remember one, a family of four girls between 14 and 15 years old and they had these odd names like Merilee and Melody, really odd names, and they sent these photographs and sent along some papers and they said we really feel we'd like you to adopt us.   And another one sent a photograph of a really voluptuous fan and she had said she'd heard that he needed somebody to clean the floors and scrub the floors and she'd be only too willing.   Bernard [Joyce's husband] looked at the photo and said, "She can come clean my floors any day."

How much did Peter Cushing generally charge for autographs?

Oh, nothing, nothing, ever.   (Enthusiastic crowd applause)

Did you visit Mr. Cushing on the Star Wars set?

No, I never did get to the Star Wars set.   I did take my kids to see the Daleks when he did Dr. Who and the Daleks [1965].   It was very much in vogue then and they were real fans and they couldn't get over seeing the Daleks which had a thing that you plunge down the sink [on their costumes].   Their illusions were quite shattered then.   I did go to many sets, but I didn't stay for too long.   He was awfully busy and I never wanted to drag him away from business time.

Which American actors did he admire?

Well, he was a great fan of the Duke [John Wayne], of course.   He loved him, thought he was great.   I used to watch more cowboy movies than I watched anything else.   We used to have to tape them all over the place.   He did have admiration for many of your stars and he worked with quite a few.   Alan Ladd he particularly liked.   He did a film with Alan Ladd [ The Black Knight , 1954], he was fond of Alan.   None come to mind quickly, but he said he had admiration for the American stars.

Could you comment on his relationship with Christopher Lee?

Mr. Cushing used to make Christopher laugh very much, they had this wonderful way where Christopher would be Sylvester [the puddy tat] and I'd come in sometimes when he was on the phone and I'd find him on the floor just laughing and laughing.   They did have a great respect for one another and a great camaraderie.   I'm sure Christopher misses him too.

Toward the end of his life when he found it hard to entertain, he never entertained, I always did.   He had just a very small cottage. We would try very hard to ask stars that he was fond of to come to dinner because, although we had a great relationship, I didn't know the business.   He missed it so much. We had Francis Matthews, Curt Jackson, Ian Richardson, so many of them, I can't really remember.   He had a really great time, and he loved it too.