Abraham Van Helsing was a doctor of medicine and philosophy, a physician and metaphysician, a scientist and a spiritualist. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Van Helsing is consulted for his expertise on rare diseases in the case of Lucy Westernra. He accurately deduces that she is a victim of vampirism and organizes the resistance against her assailant, the notorious Count Dracula. Thanks to the popularity of Bram Stoker’s novel, the name of Van Helsing has become synonymous with monster hunting, vampires especially.

Most media depictions of Van Helsing are based on the description in Stoker’s novel of an older, slightly eccentric yet avuncular figure. But Peter Cushing’s portrayal, beginning in 1958’s Horror of Dracula, presents a younger and much more athletic man. This version of Van Helsing is not only learned and wise but a man of action as well. He is not a mere advisor to the hero, he is the hero himself.

Cushing was a swashbuckler at heart and always sought to infuse a little derring-do into his performances. The table run at the end of Horror of Dracula was his idea. That stunt had to be topped in the sequel, Brides of Dracula, and Cushing lobbied to be allowed to do the windmill leap himself. In The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, the then 61-year-old actor threw himself backward into a campfire during a big battle sequence. No one asked him to do that. Who would ask him to do that? That was just ol’ Pete having fun.

Peter Cushing played the original Van Helsing in three films and his modern-day descendant, Lorrimer Van Helsing, in two more. For many film fans, he is the definitive vampire hunter; physician to the body, minister to the soul, and kicker of the rear end.

He was also one of Lil’ Preterite’s monster hunting heroes. But there are others…