Peter Cushing Thing" (1982). Director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp both said the portrayal of Ichabod Crane in "Sleepy Hollow" was intended to resemble that of Cushing's old horror film performances. In 2008, fourteen years after his death, Cushing's image was used in a set of stamps issued by the Royal Mail honouring Hammer Studios films on the fiftieth anniversary of the release of "Dracula". Peter Cushing was dedicated to his wife Helen, to whom he was married for twenty-eight years until her death in 1971. Cushing often said he felt his life had ended when hers did, and he was
Ichabod Crane War of 1812 whom he had met in 1814 in Sackets Harbor, New York. According to a notation by Irving and a certification written in long hand by Martin Van Buren, the 'pattern' (Van Buren's words) for the character of Ichabod Crane was based on the original Kinderhook schoolmaster named Jesse Merwin—born in Connecticut—whom Irving became friends with in Kinderhook, New York, in 1809. The two friends continued a pen-pal correspondence for thirty years. The Columbia County Historical Society (New York) owns the original Kinderhook Schoolhouse named after the Irving character based on Jesse Merwin, the town's first schoolteacher. The