London: N.p., 1987-9

2 ALS on personal stationery, lacking the envelopes. Faint original folds to letters, an occasional light smudge, but a very well preserved collection.

2 ALS FROM ANTHONY HOPKINS TO PETER CUSHING, PRAISING CUSHING'S PERFORMANCE IN THE HAMMER VERSION OF THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959) AND HIS RIGOROUS APPROACH TO BUILDING A CHARACTER.

In the summer of 1987 Peter Cushing had written a fan letter to Anthony Hopkins, prompting the reply we offer here:

'Dear Peter,

Thank you for your lovely letter. I am thrilled that you enjoyed my "One Man Show" on tape. It was done for fun and from an affectionate "wickedness", on my part, because ultimately it is all an act of madness - a wonderful madness - that inspires us to go on and on in this most peculiar of professions.'

If Hopkins ever performed a one-man show, it was never professionally screened or staged. The apostrophes Hopkins uses in the letter may mean he is referring to the film 84 Charing Cross Road, released in 1987, starring Hopkins and Anne Bancroft as two bookish transatlantic correspondents growing ever closer through their letters over a twenty-year correspondence, but destined never to meet.

Hopkins' letter then goes on to repay the compliment to Cushing -- and provides an extraordinary insight into Hopkins' early career as an actor:

'I have loved watching you. Actually I meant to bring up a performance of yours I particularly remember. When I was doing my National Service, before I had even dreamed of becoming an actor, I saw your marvellous performance as Holmes in "Hound of the Baskerville [sic]" and I was so taken aback by the precision and perfectionism of that performance, that I clung to that impression a few years later when I became an actor, and used to spend hours rehearsing details on my own. I found it so liberating, once the details had become absorbed into the 'psyche'. I must confess that I would then use it to show off a bit in rehearsal next day.'

The second, shorter letter offered here, written two years later, congratulates Cushing on an interview screened on Channel 4: '...I thought it was splendid: so interesting and then watched "Hound of the Baskerville" afterwards, and your magnificent Sherlock Holmes. It was lovely to see you so well and so entertaining. Yours, Anthony Hopkins'.

As well as mutual admiration, the two men shared a role: Cushing's Doctor van Helsing graced the Dracula films made by Hammer from 1958 onwards, while Hopkins played the role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 version of the story.

Accompanying the two letters is a handwritten postcard from Hopkins, written in May 1992 thanking Cushing for his congratulations -- this probably refers to Hopkins winning the Best Actor Oscar that year for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs -- and a typed note from Hopkins' secretary to Cushing's, regretting that due to prior commitments Hopkins will be unable to attend Cushing's surprise 80th birthday party. Written in 1993, it attests to the ongoing closeness and affection of the two men.

A warm and revealing correspondence, and very well preserved.