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''[[New York Magazine]]'' stated that all of the films starring Sellers as Clouseau showcased his "comedic brilliance."<ref name="New York">{{cite book|title=New York|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=oaEpAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=3 August 2012|year=2003|publisher=New York Magazine Company|page=54}}</ref> Sellers's friend and ''Goon Show'' colleague Spike Milligan said that Sellers "had one of the most glittering comic talents of his age",<ref name="Milligan (DNB)" /> while John and Ray Boulting noted that he was "the greatest comic genius this country has produced since [[Charlie Chaplin|Charles Chaplin]]".<ref name="Boulting" /> In a 2005 poll to find "The Comedian's Comedian", Sellers was voted 14 in the list of the top 20 greatest comedians by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4141019.stm|title=Cook voted 'comedians' comedian'|accessdate=15 June 2008|work=[[BBC News]]|date=2 January 2005}}</ref> Sellers and ''The Goon Show'' were a strong influence on the [[Monty Python]] performers,{{sfn|Perry|2007|p=16}} as well as [[Peter Cook]];{{sfn|Perry|2007|p=19}} Cook described Sellers as "the best comic actor in the world".<ref name="Penny (1980)" /> The British actor [[Stephen Mangan]] stated that Sellers was a large influence,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/free-agents/articles/stephen-mangan-interview|title=Stephen Mangan Interview|date=6 March 2009|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|accessdate=20 July 2012}}</ref> as did comedians [[Alan Carr]] <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/channel-4s-comedy-gala/articles/an-interview-with-alan-carr|title=An Interview with Alan Carr|date=8 March 2010|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|accessdate=20 July 2012}}</ref> and [[Rob Brydon]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Grant|first=Brigit|title=Little big man boxing clever|newspaper=[[Sunday Express]]|date=18 December 2011|location=London|pages=47–49}}</ref> [[Sacha Baron Cohen]] referred to Peter Sellers as "the most seminal force in shaping his early ideas on comedy". Cohen was considered for the role of Sellers in the biographical film ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers''.{{sfn|Saunders|2009|p=22}} The three members of [[Spinal Tap (band)|Spinal Tap]]—[[Michael McKean]], [[Christopher Guest]] and [[Harry Shearer]]—have also cited Sellers as being an influence on them,<ref>{{cite news|last=Molitorisz|first=Sacha|title=Hard rock troubadours turn folk for larks|newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|date=22 July 2003|location=Sydney|page=12}}</ref> as has American talk-show host [[Conan O'Brien]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Houpt|first=Simon|title=Conan gets creative with his Canadian invasion|newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]]|date=7 February 2004|location=Toronto|page=R1}}</ref> [[David Schwimmer]] was another whose approach was influenced by Sellers: "he could do anything, from Dr Strangelove to Inspector Clouseau. He was just amazing."<ref>{{cite news|last=Waterman|first=Ivan|title=After winning $1million an episode deal, the sitcom superstars call it a day; goodbye dear friends|newspaper=[[Sunday Express]]|date=17 June 2001|location=London|page=3}}</ref> [[Eddie Izzard]] notes that the Goons "influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as [[Alternative comedy|'alternative']]"—including himself,{{sfn| Games|2003|p=vii}} while media historian Graham McCann states "the anarchic spirit of the Goon Show ... would inspire, directly or indirectly and to varying extents, ... [[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy]], [[The Young Ones (TV series)|The Young Ones]], [[Vic Reeves Big Night Out]], [[The League of Gentlemen]] [and] [[Brass Eye]]."{{sfn|McCann|2006|pp=344–345}} |
''[[New York Magazine]]'' stated that all of the films starring Sellers as Clouseau showcased his "comedic brilliance."<ref name="New York">{{cite book|title=New York|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=oaEpAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=3 August 2012|year=2003|publisher=New York Magazine Company|page=54}}</ref> Sellers's friend and ''Goon Show'' colleague Spike Milligan said that Sellers "had one of the most glittering comic talents of his age",<ref name="Milligan (DNB)" /> while John and Ray Boulting noted that he was "the greatest comic genius this country has produced since [[Charlie Chaplin|Charles Chaplin]]".<ref name="Boulting" /> In a 2005 poll to find "The Comedian's Comedian", Sellers was voted 14 in the list of the top 20 greatest comedians by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4141019.stm|title=Cook voted 'comedians' comedian'|accessdate=15 June 2008|work=[[BBC News]]|date=2 January 2005}}</ref> Sellers and ''The Goon Show'' were a strong influence on the [[Monty Python]] performers,{{sfn|Perry|2007|p=16}} as well as [[Peter Cook]];{{sfn|Perry|2007|p=19}} Cook described Sellers as "the best comic actor in the world".<ref name="Penny (1980)" /> The British actor [[Stephen Mangan]] stated that Sellers was a large influence,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/free-agents/articles/stephen-mangan-interview|title=Stephen Mangan Interview|date=6 March 2009|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|accessdate=20 July 2012}}</ref> as did comedians [[Alan Carr]] <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/channel-4s-comedy-gala/articles/an-interview-with-alan-carr|title=An Interview with Alan Carr|date=8 March 2010|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|accessdate=20 July 2012}}</ref> and [[Rob Brydon]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Grant|first=Brigit|title=Little big man boxing clever|newspaper=[[Sunday Express]]|date=18 December 2011|location=London|pages=47–49}}</ref> [[Sacha Baron Cohen]] referred to Peter Sellers as "the most seminal force in shaping his early ideas on comedy". Cohen was considered for the role of Sellers in the biographical film ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers''.{{sfn|Saunders|2009|p=22}} The three members of [[Spinal Tap (band)|Spinal Tap]]—[[Michael McKean]], [[Christopher Guest]] and [[Harry Shearer]]—have also cited Sellers as being an influence on them,<ref>{{cite news|last=Molitorisz|first=Sacha|title=Hard rock troubadours turn folk for larks|newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|date=22 July 2003|location=Sydney|page=12}}</ref> as has American talk-show host [[Conan O'Brien]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Houpt|first=Simon|title=Conan gets creative with his Canadian invasion|newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]]|date=7 February 2004|location=Toronto|page=R1}}</ref> [[David Schwimmer]] was another whose approach was influenced by Sellers: "he could do anything, from Dr Strangelove to Inspector Clouseau. He was just amazing."<ref>{{cite news|last=Waterman|first=Ivan|title=After winning $1million an episode deal, the sitcom superstars call it a day; goodbye dear friends|newspaper=[[Sunday Express]]|date=17 June 2001|location=London|page=3}}</ref> [[Eddie Izzard]] notes that the Goons "influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as [[Alternative comedy|'alternative']]"—including himself,{{sfn| Games|2003|p=vii}} while media historian Graham McCann states "the anarchic spirit of the Goon Show ... would inspire, directly or indirectly and to varying extents, ... [[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy]], [[The Young Ones (TV series)|The Young Ones]], [[Vic Reeves Big Night Out]], [[The League of Gentlemen]] [and] [[Brass Eye]]."{{sfn|McCann|2006|pp=344–345}} |
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The stage play ''Being Sellers'' premiered in Australia in 1998, three years after release of the biography by [[Roger Lewis]], ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers''. The play premiered in New York in December 2010. In 2004, the book was turned into an [[HBO]] [[The Life and Death of Peter Sellers|film with the same title]], starring [[Geoffrey Rush]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Merwin|first=Ted|title=Who Was Peter Sellers?|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/theater/who_was_peter_sellers|accessdate=26 June 2012|newspaper=[[The Jewish Week]]|date=23 November 2010|location=New York}}</ref> The ''[[Belfast Telegraph]]'' notes how the film captured Sellers's "life of drugs, drink, fast cars and lots and lots of beautiful women".<ref name="DM1004">{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-10713796.html|title=The Life and Death of Peter Sellers: The monster who made us laugh |publisher=''[[Belfast Telegraph]]''|date=8 October 2004|accessdate=4 August 2012 |
The stage play ''Being Sellers'' premiered in Australia in 1998, three years after release of the biography by [[Roger Lewis]], ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers''. The play premiered in New York in December 2010. In 2004, the book was turned into an [[HBO]] [[The Life and Death of Peter Sellers|film with the same title]], starring [[Geoffrey Rush]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Merwin|first=Ted|title=Who Was Peter Sellers?|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/theater/who_was_peter_sellers|accessdate=26 June 2012|newspaper=[[The Jewish Week]]|date=23 November 2010|location=New York}}</ref> The ''[[Belfast Telegraph]]'' notes how the film captured Sellers's "life of drugs, drink, fast cars and lots and lots of beautiful women".<ref name="DM1004">{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-10713796.html|title=The Life and Death of Peter Sellers: The monster who made us laugh |publisher=''[[Belfast Telegraph]]''|date=8 October 2004|accessdate=4 August 2012}}</ref> Although the film was widely praised by critics, Lord Snowdon was highly critical of the film, saying "I absolutely loved Peter, he was one of my closest, dearest friends. He had a light touch, a sense of humour, I can't bear to see him portrayed as somebody who was apparently without either."<ref name="MS0904"/> |
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== Filmography and other works == |
== Filmography and other works == |
Revision as of 10:51, 5 August 2012
Peter Sellers | |
---|---|
Born | Richard Henry Sellers 8 September 1925 |
Died | 24 July 1980 | (aged 54)
Occupation(s) | Actor, comedian and singer |
Years active | 1948–1980 |
Known for | Character actor and improvisation |
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE (8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980), known as Peter Sellers, was a British film actor, comedian and singer. He is best known for his appearances in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, a number of comic songs that were radio favourites, and for his many film characterisations, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series of films.
Born in Portsmouth, Sellers made his stage debut at the Kings Theatre, Southsea, when he was two weeks old. He began accompanying his parents in a variety act that toured the provincial theatres. He first worked as a drummer and toured around England as a member of the Entertainments National Service Association. He developed his innate mimicry and improvisational skills during a spell in Ralph Reader's wartime Gang Shows, on tours of Britain and the far east. After the war, Sellers made his radio debut in ShowTime, eventually becoming a regular performer on BBC radio shows. During the early 1950s, Sellers, along with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, took part in the radio seriesThe Goon Show, which ended in 1960. He became a successful radio personality and screen actor, earning national and international nominations and awards thanks to his ability to speak in different accents and his talent in portraying a wide range of comic characters. Although the bulk of his work was comedic-based, often parodying characters of authority such as military officers or policemen, he also performed in other film genres and roles. His artistic range included films, such as I'm All Right Jack (1959), Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964), What's New, Pussycat? (1965), Casino Royale (1967), I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), The Party (1968), The Magic Christian (1969), The Great McGonagall (1974), Being There (1979), and the five films of the Pink Panther series, filmed between 1963 and 1978. Sellers' versatility enabled him to portray multiple characters within the same film, often including characters with contrasting temperaments and styles. Satire and black humour were major features of many of Sellers' films, and his performances—as an individual or as a member of The Goons—had an influence on a number of later comedians.
Sellers garnered much critical acclaim for his work. He was nominated three times for an Academy Award, twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performances in Dr. Strangelove and Being There, and once for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1960). He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role twice, for I'm All Right Jack and for the original Pink Panther film, The Pink Panther (1963), and three nominations for Only Two Can Play (1962), Dr. Strangelove, and Being There. In 1980 he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in Being There, and also garnered Golden Globe nominations in the same category for his performances in Lolita, The Pink Panther, The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976). The London Critics Circle Film Awards awarded him the Special Achievement Award posthumously for his performance in Being There in 1981.
In his personal life, Sellers struggled with depression, numerous insecurities, as well as alcohol- and drug-related addictions. He was often erratic and compulsive, frequently clashing with his directors and co-stars. His mental health problems worsened after a series of heart attacks in the 1960s, becoming most pronounced in the mid-1970s at a time his career was failing. He was married four times, and had three children from his first two marriages. Sellers died as a result of heart disease in 1980, aged 54. The Daily Mail describes Sellers as "the greatest comic talent of his generation as well as a womanising drug-taker who married four times in a fruitless search for happiness". He was labelled a "flawed genius" who, once latched on to a comic idea, "loved nothing more than to carry it to extremes", while others hailed him as the greatest comic talent since Charlie Chaplin.
Biography
Family background and early life (1925–35)
Sellers was born on 8 September 1925, in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. His parents were Yorkshire-born William "Bill" Sellers (1900–62) and Agnes Doreen "Peg" (née Marks, 1892–1967); both were variety entertainers, with Peg being one of the Ray Sisters troupe.[1] Although he was christened Richard Henry, his parents always called him Peter, after an elder stillborn brother,[2] apart from whom Sellers was an only child.[3] Peg Sellers was related to the pugilist Daniel Mendoza (1764–1836), an ancestor who Sellers greatly revered, and whose engraving later hung in his office. At one time Sellers planned to have Mendoza's image for his production company's logo.[4]
Sellers was two weeks old when he was carried on stage by Dick Henderson, the headline act at the Kings Theatre in Southsea: the crowd sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and Sellers burst into tears.[5] With both his parents in variety, the family were constantly touring. The theatre commitments caused much upheaval in the young Sellers's life, prompting him to say later, "I really didn't like that period of my life as a kid".[6]
Sellers had a very close relationship with his mother; his friend Spike Milligan considered later that "it really is unhealthy for a grown man to be so needful of his mother".[7] Sellers's agent, Dennis Selinger, recalled his first meeting with Peg and Peter Sellers, noting that "Sellers was an immensely shy young man, inclined to be dominated by his mother, but without resentment or objection".[8]
In 1935, the Sellers family settled in North London, initially in a flat in Muswell Hill.[9] Although Bill Sellers was Protestant and Peg was Jewish, Sellers attended the North London Roman Catholic school St. Aloysius College, run by the Brothers of Our Lady of Mercy.[1] Although the family were not well off, his mother insisted on expensive private schooling for him.[10] According to his biographer, Roger Lewis, Sellers was intrigued by Catholicism, but soon after entering Catholic school, he "discovered he was a Jew—he was someone on the outside of the mysteries of faith."[11] Later in his life, Sellers was quoted as saying "My father was solid Church of England but my mother was Jewish, Portuguese Jewish, and Jews take the faith of their mother."[11] He became a top student at the school, excelling in drawing in particular, but was often prone to laziness; he avoided criticism from his teachers due to his abilities.[12]Sellers later recalled one such occasion where a teacher scolded the other boys for not studying, saying: "The Jewish boy knows his catechism better than the rest of you!"[13][a]
Early experiences of performance (1935–39)
Accompanying his family on the variety show circuit,[15] Sellers learned stagecraft, which proved valuable later. However, he grew up with conflicting influences from his parents and developed mixed feelings about show business. His father doubted that Peter would achieve much in the entertainment field, even suggesting that his son's talents were only enough to become a road sweeper, while Sellers's mother encouraged him continually.[16]
While at St Aloysius College, Sellers began to develop his improvisational skills. Sellers and his closest friend at the time, Bryan Connon, both enjoyed listening to early radio comedy shows and Connon remembers that "Peter got endless pleasure imitating the people in Monday Night at Eight. He had a gift for improvising dialogue. Sketches, too. I'd be the 'straight man', the 'feed', ... I'd cue Peter and he'd do all the radio personalities and chuck in a few voices of his own invention as well."[17]
With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, St Aloysius College was evacuated to Cambridgeshire, but Peg did not allow Sellers to go,[18] a decision which ended his formal education at fourteen.[1] Early in 1940 Peg decided to move to the north Devon town of Ilfracombe, where her brother managed the Victoria Palace Theatre;[18] Sellers got his first job at the theatre aged fifteen, starting as a caretaker.[19] He was steadily promoted, becoming a box office clerk, usher, assistant stage manager and lighting operator. He was also offered some small acting parts.[19] Working backstage gave him a chance to see serious actors at work, such as Paul Scofield. He also became close friends with Derek Altman, and together they launched Sellers's first stage act under the name "Altman and Sellers," where they played ukuleles, sang, and told jokes. They also both enjoyed reading detective stories by Dashiell Hammett, and were inspired to start their own detective agency, although "their enterprise ended abruptly when a potential client ripped Sellers's fake moustache off."[19]
During his regular job backstage at the theatre, Sellers began practising on a set of drums that belonged to the band Joe Daniels and his Hot Shots. Daniels noticed his efforts and gave him practical instructions. Sellers's biographer Ed Sikov wrote that "drumming suited him. Banging in time Pete could envelop himself in a world of near-total abstraction, all in the context of a great deal of noise."[20] Spike Milligan later noted that Sellers was very proficient on the drums and might have remained a jazz drummer, if his mimicry and improvisation skills had not been so good.[1]
Second World War (1939–45)
As the Second World War progressed, Sellers continued to develop his drumming skills, and he joined a series of bands to tour, including those of Oscar Rabin, Henry Hall and Waldini,[7] as well as his father's quartet, before he left and joined a band from Blackpool.[21] In the latter two of these bands, Sellers was a member of Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), the organisation that provided entertainment for British forces and factory workers during the war.[21] Sellers would also perform comedy routines at these concerts, including impersonations of George Formby, with Sellers accompanying his own singing on ukulele.[22]
In September 1943 he joined the Royal Air Force, although it is unclear whether he volunteered or was enlisted;[23][24] his mother tried to have him disqualified on medical grounds, but failed.[1] Although Sellers wished to become a pilot, his poor eyesight meant he was restricted to ground staff duties only.[25] He found the duties dull, and auditioned for Squadron Leader Ralph Reader's RAF Gang Show entertainment troupe: Reader accepted him and Sellers toured the UK before being the troupe was transferred to India.[26] His tour also included Ceylon and Burma, although the duration of his stay in Asia is unknown and its length may have been exaggerated by Sellers himself.[27] He also served in Germany and France after the war.[27]
Another Gang Show player, actor David Lodge, became friends with Sellers and described his role in the show, saying "Peter on the drums was one of the best performers ever. 'Drumming Man' was how he was billed. He closed the show. To see him do his jazz numbers was a show in itself, throwing up the sticks, catching them. Nothing could have followed him!"[28] Occasionally Sellers impersonated his superiors by bluffing his way into the Officers' Mess using mimicry and make-up. Lodge clearly remembers the first time he witnessed Sellers impersonating an officer, after he pulled a squadron leader's uniform out of the props. The band's trumpeter first tried to stop him: "I noticed his walk had even gotten years older, and carried an authority I never imagined Peter could muster. He threw open the door of the men's bunkhouse and waited a second before he entered—even then he had a great sense of timing ... Then he walked down the centre, eyeing them with quiet pride ... imitating impeccably the tones of a man unused to having his authority questioned."[29] Biographer Roger Lewis believes that Sellers felt a natural compulsion to perfect mimicry as an escape from a deep rooted insecurity which stemmed from his childhood.[30]
Early post-war career and The Goon Show (1946–55)
In 1946 Sellers performed his final show with ENSA, Jack and the Beanstalk at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris,[31] before being posted back to England to work at the Air Ministry.[32] He was demobilised later the same year.[31] On resuming his theatrical career, Sellers had difficulty in securing bookings and work was sporadic.[33] He was fired after one performance of a stand-up comedy routine in Peterborough, but the headline act, Welsh vocalist Dorothy Squires, took pity on him and persuaded the management to reinstate him.[34] Sellers was also continuing his drumming and was billed on his appearance at the Aldershot Hippodrome as "Britain's answer to Gene Krupa".[33] In March 1948, Sellers gained a slot at the Windmill Theatre in London which predominantly staged revue acts: he provided the comedy turns in between the nude shows on offer.[35] He undertook a six-week run at the theatre, earning £30 a week.[36]
Sellers wrote to the BBC in 1948, and was subsequently auditioned. As a result he made his television debut on 18 March 1948 in New To You, with an act that was largely based on impressions; he was well received and returned to appear the following week.[37] Frustrated with the slow development of his career, Sellers telephoned BBC radio producer Roy Speer, pretending to be Kenneth Horne, star of the radio show Much Binding in the Marsh. Speer called Sellers a "cheeky young sod" for his efforts, but gave him an audition as a result, which initially led to a brief appearance on 1 July 1948 on ShowTime[38] and subsequently to his work on Ray's a Laugh with comedian Ted Ray.[39] By the end of October 1948 Sellers was a regular radio performer, appearing in Starlight Hour, The Gang Show, Henry Hall's Guest Night and It's Fine To Be Young.[40]
By the end of 1948 the BBC Third Programme began to broadcast the comedy series Third Division, which starred, among others, Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Sellers.[41] One evening Sellers and Bentine visited the Hackney Empire, where Secombe was performing, and Bentine introduced Sellers to Spike Milligan.[42] The four would meet up at Grafton's public house near Victoria, which was owned by Jimmy Grafton, who was also a BBC script writer; he was dubbed KOGVOS (Keeper of Goons and Voice of Sanity)[b] by the four comedians, and he later edited some of the first Goon Shows.[44]
In 1949 Sellers had started to date Anne Howe,[45][c] an Australian actress who had been living and working in London for some time.[47] The couple were introduced by Sellers's agent in late 1949,[48] and Sellers proposed to her in April 1950.[49] The couple married at Caxton Hall in London on 15 September 1951,[50] and their son, Michael, was born on 2 April 1954,[51] with a daughter, Sarah, following in 1958.[52]
Sellers was first involved in film work in 1950, when he dubbed the voice of Alfonso Bedoya in The Black Rose.[53] He continued to work with Secombe, Bentine and Milligan; from their first meeting the four tried to interest the BBC in their work, but it was not until 3 February 1951 that, as "the Goons", they made a trial tape for BBC producer Pat Dixon, which was eventually accepted. The first Goon Show[43] was broadcast on 28 May 1951[54] under the name Crazy People—against the wishes of the Goons themselves.[3] Sellers appeared in every episode of The Goons; the last programme of the ten-series run was broadcast on 28 January 1960.[43] Starting with a listener base of 370,000, the show eventually reached up to seven million people in Britain,[43] and was described by one newspaper as "probably the most influential comedy show of all time".[55]
In 1951, the Goons cast made their feature film debut in Penny Points to Paradise. Shot at Brighton Studios by Tony Young, Sellers was paid just £100 for his performance as a major.[56] According to Sellers it was "a terrifyingly bad film" and was not profitable on initial release.[56] A 16 mm copy of "Penny Points to Paradise" was discovered in 2006 in the archives of Adelphi Films, and in 2007 a 64-minute partial restoration was screened at BFI Southbank. Vic Pratt, curator of the British Film Institute, described it as "a cheap and cheerful film that was filmed in just three weeks".[57] Following this, Sellers and Milligan penned the script to Let's Go Crazy, although Sellers was uncredited for his part in the writing. It was the earliest film to showcase Sellers's ability to portray a series of different characters within the same film, playing the roles of Groucho, Giuseppe, Cedric, Izzy, Gozzunk and Crystal Jollibottom. Sellers also narrated Burlesque on Carmen in 1951, a re-release of a 1915 Charlie Chaplin short film. In 1952, Sellers again starred opposite his Goons co-stars Milligan, Secombe and Michael Bentine as a colonel in Maclean Rogers's Down Among the Z Men, It was filmed over two weeks in April of that year.[58] Biographer Roger Lewis says of his character, In "Down Among the Z Men, his role suggests that within the roly-poly singer and good sport of The Goon Show, somebody very like Albert Herring has always been trying to escape—somebody earnest and sympathetic is behind the imbecile's mask."[59] The film performed poorly at the box office.[58]
Sellers was cast opposite Sid James, Tony Hancock, Raymond Huntley, Donald Pleasence and Eric Sykes in the British Lion Film Corporation comedy production, Orders Are Orders in 1954. John Grierson believes that this was Sellers's breakthrough role on screen and credits this film as launching the film careers of both Sellers and Hancock; this is disputed by Val Guest.[60] That year, Sellers also starred opposite Dick Bentley in the BBC comedy series And So to Bentley, a production which was scripted by Denis Norden.[61] Although it was one of the earliest examples of Sellers's ability to perform a range of different roles and adopt different guises on camera, the series was regarded as a flop.[62] Similar performances came later in Associated-Rediffusion television productions such as A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred in 1956, both co-starring Milligan, Valentine Dyall, Kenneth Connor, and Graham Stark.
I'm All Right Jack and early years in film (1956–59)
Sellers continued his attempts to move into films, taking a number of small parts such as a police inspector in William Fairchild's John and Julie (1955) opposite Sid James, Noelle Middleton, Moira Lister and Wilfrid Hyde-White,[63] before being offered a bigger role in the 1955 Alexander Mackendrick-directed Ealing comedy The Ladykillers. Starring opposite Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom and Cecil Parker as Harry Robinson, the teddy boy, biographer Peter Evans considers this to have been the first "good role" enacted by Sellers.[64] The Ladykillers was a success in both Britain and the US and it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 29th Academy Awards.[65] Adrian Hennigan, film critic with the BBC, describes the film as "The last of the great Ealing Comedies, The Ladykillers is a wonderfully macabre black comedy that really does improve with age."[66] No further film work was available for Sellers immediately after the film, so, in 1956, The Goons ran three series on Britain's new television station, ITV; the series were The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d, A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred.[67] In 1957 film producer Michael Relph was so impressed with one of Sellers's portrayals of an elderly character in Idiot Weekly, that he cast the 32-year-old actor as a 68-year-old projectionist in Basil Dearden's The Smallest Show on Earth, where he supported Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna and Margaret Rutherford.[68] The film was a considerable commercial success and is now seen as a minor classic of British screen comedy in the post-war period."[69] Sellers also provided the growling voice of Winston Churchill to the BAFTA winning film The Man Who Never Was.[70] Later that year, Sellers starred in Mario Zampi's offbeat black comedy The Naked Truth, opposite Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton and Dennis Price.[71]
Sellers's difficulties in improving his film career and increasing problems in his personal life prompted him to seek periodic consultations with astrologer Maurice Woodruff, who held considerable sway over his later career.[72] After a chance meeting with a North American Indian spirit guide in the 1950s, Sellers became convinced that the music hall comedian Dan Leno, who died in 1904, haunted him and guided his career and life decisions.[73][74]
In 1958, Sellers starred opposite David Tomlinson, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Lodge and Lionel Jeffries as a fly chief petty officer in Val Guest's Up the Creek.[75] Guest had claimed that it was he who started Peter Sellers's career in films by writing and directing the film specifically as a vehicle for Sellers.[76][77] In order to practice his voice, Sellers purchased one of the earliest reel-to-reel tape recorders.[78] Roger Lewis views the film itself as having been an important practice ground for Sellers to nurture his voice and to "exercise his helter-skelter rhythms", as opposed to being a purely slapstick comedic performance.[78] The film received critical acclaim in the United States; Variety wrote "a ripe and fruity performance by Peter Sellers is such an hilarious mainstay of this film, it's disconcerting to find he's not in the sequel."[79] Next, Sellers starred as a grocer from Dallas, Texas in George Pal's Tom thumb, an MGM fantasy musical film opposite Russ Tamblyn and Terry-Thomas. Footage for the film was shot in both Hollywood and London. Biographer Michael Starr regards Tom thumb as a major landmark in his career, representing an important stepping stone not only because it was his first international endeavour and contact with the Hollywood film industry, but symbolised a "fruitful partnership that would blossom in future screen endeavors" with co-star Thomas.[80] The film was praised for its special effects and won the Oscar for Best Effects; one scene saw a full-size 5 ft 8 inch Sellers holding a six-foot Russ Tamblyn, scaled down to 5.5 inches, in his hand.[81] The Times listed the film as the eighth most popular film at the British box office in 1959.[82]
Sellers released his first album in 1958, The Best of Sellers, a collection of sketches and comic songs,[83] the latter of which were undertaken in a variety of comic characters.[84] The record reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart;[85] it was produced by George Martin and released on Parlophone.[86] The same year, Sellers made his first film with John and Roy Boulting in Carlton-Browne of the F.O., a comedy in which he played a supporting role for the film's lead, Terry-Thomas.[87] Before the film had been released, the Boultings, with Sellers and Thomas in the cast, started filming I'm All Right Jack.[87] When he first saw the script for I'm All Right Jack, Sellers turned the role down, asking "Where are the funny lines?"[88] After a week of discussion and persuasion he agreed to take the role of Fred Kite, a shop steward;[88] Sellers prepared for the role by watching footage of union officials, but was still unsure whether his characterisation would be humorous[89] until his screen test was met with laughter and spontaneous applause from the crew.[90] The critic for The Manchester Guardian thought that "the honours ... belong incontestably to Peter Sellers, whose chief shop steward is the best performance by far that he has yet given on the screen ... Sellers in this role is memorable".[91] Sellers won the Best British Actor at the 13th British Academy Film Awards for his portrayal of Kite;[92] the film became the biggest British box office hit of 1960.[93]
In between Carlton-Browne of the F.O. and I'm All Right Jack, Sellers also starred in The Mouse That Roared opposite Jean Seberg, under the helm of director Jack Arnold. He played three leading and distinct roles: the elderly queen, the ambitious Prime Minister and the innocent and clumsy farm boy selected to lead an invasion of the United States.[94] The film was universally praised by critics; the film reviewer for The Guardian wrote "as a funny man of the screen he is growing up very fast, not to the detriment or restraint of his virtuosity or versatility, but to their much more subtle and profound use."[95] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said "Mr. Sellers is the dominant performer and is most persistent in the role of the horn-rimmed-spectacled Field Marshal who is carried away by zeal. But his prissy primness as the duchess and his elegant swash as the Prime Minister make for a great deal of amusement in the British comedy vein."[96]
After completing I'm All Right Jack, Sellers returned to record a new series of The Goon Show.[97] Over the course of two weekends he took his 16mm cine camera to Totteridge Lane in London and filmed himself, Spike Milligan, Mario Fabrizi, Leo McKern and Richard Lester. Lester also helped with the editing and the result was The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film, an eleven-minute short film which was only meant for showing amongst friends.[98] Instead the film was screened at the 1959 Edinburgh and San Francisco film festivals, winning the award for best fiction short in the latter festival.[99] The film was then nominated for an Academy Award for Short Subject (Live Action) at the 1960 Academy Awards.[100] In 1959 Sellers released his second album, Songs For Swinging Sellers, which, like his first record, also reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart.[85] Sellers's last film of the fifties, The Battle of the Sexes, was directed by Charles Crichton, and co-starred Robert Morley, Constance Cummings, Jameson Clark and Donald Pleasance. The film received a very warm reception from critics in Britain and the United States; A. H. Weiler of The New York Times praised the professionalism of the cast, and remarked, "As viewers will recall from his performance in the current "The Mouse That Roared," Mr. Sellers' humor is both vocal and physical but rarely muscular. And, again in "The Battle of the Sexes," he is a Casper Milquetoast to the manner born".[101]
The Millionairess, Lolita, The Pink Panther and divorce (1960–63)
In 1960 Sellers portrayed an Indian doctor, Dr Ahmed el Kabir in Anthony Asquith's romantic comedy The Millionairess, a film which was based on a George Bernard Shaw play of the same name. Sellers was entirely disinterested in accepting the role until it came to his attention that his glamorous co-star was to be Sophia Loren.[102] When asked about Loren, he explained to reporters "I don't normally act with romantic, glamorous women ... she's a lot different from Harry Secombe."[103] Sellers and Loren developed a close relationship during filming, with Sellers declaring his love for her, even in front of his wife;[104] Sellers went as far as to wake his son at 3am to ask "Do you think I should divorce your mummy?"[105][d] Roger Lewis notes how Sellers literally became the characters he enacted during production, saying that "he'd play a role as an Indian doctor, and for the next six months, he'd be an Indian in his `real' [daily] life."[30] The film inspired the George Martin-produced novelty hit single with Sellers and Loren Goodness Gracious Me, which reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart in November 1960.[107] A follow-up single by the couple, Bangers and Mash, reached number 22 in the UK chart.[107] The songs were included on an album released by the couple, Peter & Sophia, which reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart.[85]
In 1961 Sellers made his directorial debut with Mr. Topaze, a film in which he also starred.[108] The film was based on the Marcel Pagnol play Topaze.[109] Starring opposite Herbert Lom, Leo McKern and Nadia Gray, Sellers portrayed an ex-schoolmaster in a small French town who turns to a life of crime to obtain wealth. Tom Hutchinson of the Radio Times wrote "Sellers makes an endearing innocent at large. Alas, his direction lacks the cynical edge the idea needed."[110] The film also received an unenthusiastic response from the public,[111] and Sellers rarely referred to it again.[112] That year he starred in the Sidney Gilliat-directed Only Two Can Play, a film based on the novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis.[113] He was nominated for the Best British Actor award at the 16th British Academy Film Awards for his role as John Lewis, a frustrated Welsh librarian whose affections swing between the glamorous Liz (Mai Zetterling), and his long-suffering wife Jean (Virginia Maskell).[114]
In 1962, Sellers played a retired British army general in John Guillermin's Waltz of the Toreadors, based on the play of the same name. The film was widely criticised for its slapstick cinematic adaption, and director Guillermin himself considered the film an "amateurish" effort.[115] However, Sellers garnered the San Sebastián International Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a BAFTA award nomination for his performance, and it was critically fairly well received.[115][116] Later in 1962, Stanley Kubrick asked Sellers to play the role of Clare Quilty in Lolita, opposite James Mason and Shelley Winters.[117] Kubrick had seen Sellers in The Battle of the Sexes and listened to the album The Best of Sellers, and was impressed by the range of characters Sellers portrayed.[118] Sellers was apprehensive about accepting the role, dubious of his ability to successfully portray the part of a flamboyant American television playwright who was according to Sellers "a fantastic nightmare, part homosexual, part drug addict, part sadist".[119] Kubrick eventually succeeded in persuading him; he did not think his portrayal had been plausible until people came up to him afterwards and told him they felt he had been believable.[120] Unlike most of his earlier well-rehearsed film roles, Sellers was encouraged by Kubrick to improvise throughout the filming in order to exhaust all the possibilities of his character. In order to capture Sellers in the shortest number of takes, Kubrick often used as many as three cameras.[121] Kubrick later described the filming process: "When Peter was called to the set he would usually arrive walking very slowly and staring morosely ... As work progressed, he would begin to respond to something or other in the scene, his mood would visibly brighten and we would begin to have fun. Improvisational ideas began to click and the rehearsal started to feel good. On many of these occasions, I think, Peter reached what can only be described as a state of comic ecstasy."[121] According to Alexander Walker, working on Lolita was "the first time he tasted what it was like to work creatively during shooting, not just in the preproduction run-up."[122] Kubrick had American jazz producer Norman Granz record Sellers's portions of the script for Sellers to listen to, so he could study the voice and develop confidence, granting him a free licence to break the rules.[118] As Sellers's biographer Alexander Walker notes, Sellers "indulged in his liking for setting himself problems, encouraged by Kubrick to explore the outer limits of the comédie noire—and sometimes, he felt, go over them—in a way that appealed to the macabre imagination of himself and his director."[121] Oswald Morris, the film's cinematographer, further commented that, "the most interesting scenes were the ones with Peter Sellers, which were total improvisations."[123] Because of this experience, Sellers later claimed that his relationship with Kubrick became one of the most rewarding of his career.[124] Writing in The Sunday Times, Dilys Powell noted that Sellers gave "a firework performance, funny, malicious, only once for a few seconds overreaching itself, and in the murder scene which is both prologue and epilogue achieving the macabre in comedy."[125] Towards the end of 1962, Sellers appeared in The Dock Brief, a legal satire directed by James Hill and co-starring Richard Attenborough. Sellers's performance as a cynical and unsuccessful barrister was overshadowed by that of Attenborough, who was nominated for the 1963 BAFTA Award for best British Actor for his role. The critic of The Guardian noted that Sellers's portrayal had moved closer to acting as opposed to mimicry or impersonation,[126] while Bosley Crowther of The New York Times identified differences in perception between the British and American audiences over the numerous characterisations enacted by Sellers and Attenborough, in that it was revered by Peter Sellers's many American fans, but generally detested by the British.[127]
Sellers's behaviour towards his family worsened in 1962; according to his son Michael, at one point Sellers talked to him and his sister Sarah and "asked us who we love more, our mother or him. Sarah, to keep the peace, said, 'I love you both equally'. I said, 'No, I love my mum.' He threw the two of us out and said he never wanted to see us again."[128] At the end of 1962 his marriage to Anne finally broke down,[129][e] and in October Sellers's father Bill died, aged sixty-two.[131] In 1963, Sellers starred opposite Bernard Cribbins, Lionel Jeffries, John Le Mesurier and Bill Kerr as gang leader "Pearly Gates" in Cliff Owen's The Wrong Arm of the Law. Bosley Crowther compared Sellers's role to that of The Ladykillers, remarking that he was "repeating his creation of a cool Cockney cove who handles matters of crime with the elegance and nonchalance of a member of the House of Lords."[132] The film was listed by The Times as one of twelve most popular films in Britain in 1963[133] Heavens Above!, released later that year, features Sellers opposite Bernard Miles,Cecil Parker and Ian Carmichael as a naive but caring prison chaplain accidentally assigned as vicar to a small and prosperous country town.
"I'll play Clouseau with great dignity, because he thinks of himself as one of the world's best detectives. Even when he comes a cropper, he must pick himself up with that notion intact. The original script makes him out to be a complete idiot. I think a forgivable vanity would humanize him and make him kind of touching. It's as if filmgoers are kept one fall ahead of him."
—Sellers on portraying Clouseau.[134]
After the death of his father, Sellers decided to leave England, and was approached by director Blake Edwards who offered him the lead role in The Pink Panther; Sellers's international filming engagement on mainland Europe.[135] Edwards' last minute offer for the role of Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau was prompted by the decision of Peter Ustinov to suddenly back out of the film;[136] Edwards later recalled his feelings as "desperately unhappy and ready to kill, but as fate would have it, I got Mr. Sellers instead of Mr. Ustinov—thank God!"[137] Sellers accepted a fee of £90,000 for five weeks work on location in Rome and Cortina.[138] The film starred David Niven in the principal role, with two other actors—Capucine and Claudia Cardinale—in more prominent roles than Sellers,[139] but Sellers's performance was "his first memorable performance as a visual screen comic in the Chaplin-Keaton tradition and class", according to biographer Peter Evans.[139] Although the Clouseau character was in the script, Sellers created the personality. While flying to Rome for filming, he used the time alone to devise the character and appearance which included the costume, accent, make-up, moustache and trench coat.[134]
The Pink Panther was not released until January 1964.[140] It received only a lukewarm reception from the critics,[141] although Penelope Gilliatt, writing in The Observer, remarked that Sellers had a "flawless sense of mistiming" in a performance which was "one of the most delicate studies in accident-proneness since the silents".[142] Despite the reaction of some critics, Sellers was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 22nd Golden Globe Awards,[143] and for a Best British Actor award at the 18th British Academy Film Awards.[144]
Dr. Strangelove, health problems, a second marriage and Casino Royale (1964–69)
In 1963, Stanley Kubrick cast Sellers to appear in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb alongside George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens. He asked Sellers to play four roles: US President Merkin Muffley, Dr. Strangelove, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the RAF and Major TJ "King" Kong.[145] Sellers was initially hesitant about undertaking the roles, but Kubrick convinced him that there was no better actor that could play the parts.[145] According to some accounts Sellers was also invited to play a fifth part, that of Buck Turgidson, but turned it down because it was too physically demanding.[146] Kubrick later commented that the idea of having Sellers in so many of the film's key roles was that "everywhere you turn there is some version of Peter Sellers holding the fate of the world in his hands".[147] Sellers was especially anxious about successfully enacting the role of Kong and accurately imitating a Texan accent.[148] Kubrick requested screenwriter Terry Southern to record a tape of Kong's lines spoken in his natural accent.[149] Using Southern's tape, Sellers was able to provide a satisfactory imitation, and started shooting the scenes in the airplane, approved by Kubrick. After the first day's shooting, Sellers sprained his ankle while leaving a restaurant and could not work in the cramped cockpit set.[150] Kubrick was forced to re-cast the part with Slim Pickens as Kong.[151] The three roles Sellers undertook were all distinct, "variegated, complex and refined",[152] and critic Alexander Walker considered that these roles "showed his genius at full stretch".[153] Sellers played Muffley as a bland, placid intellectual in the mould of Adlai Stevenson;[154] he played Mandrake as an unflappable Englishman;[152] and Dr. Strangelove, a character influenced by pre-war German cinema, as a wheelchair-bound fanatic.[155] The critic for The Times noted that the film includes, "three remarkable performances from M. Peter Sellers, masterly as the President, diverting as a revue-sketch ex-Nazi US Scientist ... and acceptable as an RAF officer,[156] although the critic from The Guardian thought his portrayal of the RAF officer alone was, "worth the price of an admission ticket".[157] For his performance in all three roles, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor at the 37th Academy Awards,[158] and the Best British Actor award at the 18th British Academy Film Awards.[144]
Between November 1963 and February 1964, Sellers began filming A Shot in the Dark,[159] an adaptation of a French play by L'Idiote by Marcel Achard.[160] Sellers found the part and the director, Anatole Litvak, uninspiring; the producers brought in Blake Edwards to replace Litvak. Together with writer William Peter Blatty, they turned the script into a Clouseau comedy, also bringing in part for Herbert Lom as Commissioner Dreyfus and Burt Kwouk as Cato. During the making of the film, Sellers's relationship with Edwards was often strained; the two sometimes stopped speaking to each other during filming, communicating by passing each other notes.[161] Sellers's personality was described by others as difficult and demanding, and he often clashed with fellow actors and directors.[162] Upon its release in late June 1964, Bosley Crowther noted the "joyously free and facile way" in which Sellers had developed his own "special comedy technique."[163]
"He came to the front of the hotel and drove us to Leicester Square and we went to see a film called The Pink Panther (which he was in) and I was very impressed because we didn't have to pay for it. It was fantastically funny. Then we went back to his hotel and his suite and everyone smoked in those days and he said do you smoke and I said yes and I'm puffing away on a cigarette. And he said "have you ever smoked one of these" and it was marijuana. I knew nothing about drugs, I hadn't seen anything about drugs in Sweden."
—Ekland on Sellers attempting to seduce her with drugs.[164]
Towards the end of filming, in early February 1964, Sellers met Britt Ekland, a Swedish actress who had arrived in London to film Guns at Batasi. Ekland met Sellers at The Dorchester hotel in London after she was hired by 20th Century Fox, and although she had heard of his name, she didn't know who he was. Ekland claims that he introduced her to marijuana in his room in the biggest suite of the hotel, using it to seduce her.[164] She recalls how she passed out after being introduced to the drug and awaking after their first night together fully clothed, with a room filled with flowers and a quirky note saying "hope you slept well, Inspector Clouseau".[164] Just ten days after their meeting—on 19 February 1964—the couple married[148] at the Registry Office in Guildford, Surrey.[165] Shortly after the wedding Sellers started filming on location in Twentynine Palms, California for Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid, playing opposite Dean Martin and Kim Novak.[166] On the night of 5 April 1964, Sellers visited Disneyland with his family; that evening he took amyl nitrates prior to having sex with Ekland, after which he suffered a series of eight minor heart attacks over the course of three hours.[167][168] His health meant he had to withdraw from the filming of Kiss Me, Stupid and he was replaced by Ray Walston.[169] Wilder was unsympathetic about the heart attacks, saying that "you have to have a heart before you can have an attack".[170]
After his illness, Sellers returned in October 1964 to film for three days, playing King of the Individualists alongside Ekland in Carol for Another Christmas,[171][f] a United Nations special, broadcast on ABC on 28 December 1964.[172] Sellers had been concerned that his heart attacks may have caused brain damage[171] and he would be unable to remember his lines, so the filming reassured him.[173] Sellers followed this with the role of Doctor Fritz Fassbender in Clive Donner's What's New Pussycat?, appearing alongside Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress; Capucine had also appeared with him in The Pink Panther.[139] The film was the first screenwriting and acting job for Woody Allen and the film featured an Academy Award-nominated title song by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics), sung by Tom Jones.[174] The film features Sellers in a love triangle, as a "crazy psychiatrist who happens to be dating a patient who happens to be in love with O'Toole's character."[175] The film was widely criticised for its vulgarity and irrelevance.[176][177] Life magazine launched a scathing attack on the film, describing it as an illogical, foul-mouthed, star-filled, and expensive picture which was a "witless attempt to cash in on the spirit of Camp which now blights our land".[178] Because of Sellers's poor health, producer Charles K. Feldman personally insured him at a cost of $360,000[179] ($3,536,652 in 2024 dollars[180]).
Sellers became a very close friend of Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, a photographer who was then married to Princess Margaret. Snowdon shared a great number of interests with Sellers, a playboy who like Sellers had a love of beautiful women, photography, fine wine, exotic cars and luxury; both also had a taste for the absurd and were prone bouts of depression.[181] They spent many weekends "racing around in fast cars and enjoying country pursuits at Snowdon's Sussex cottage", and Snowdon, the Princess, and Britt Ekland went on several holidays together on Sellers's yacht Bobo in Sardinia.[181] On 20 January 1965 Sellers and Ekland announced the birth of a daughter, Victoria,[182] before they moved to Rome in May to film After the Fox, an Anglo-Italian production in which they were both to appear.[183] The film was directed by Vittorio De Sica, whose English Sellers struggled to understand.[184] As a result, the film shoot was a troubled one with Sellers attempting to have De Sica fired.[184] The problems with the film were compounded by Sellers being unhappy with his wife's performance, which put a strain on their relationship.[185] The couple argued on a number of occasions and during one fight Sellers threw a chair at Ekland.[186] Despite the traumas of production, the script was praised for its wit.[187][188] Sellers also recorded "A Hard Day's Night" in the style of a Shakespeare soliloquy by Sir Laurence Olivier. The single reached 14 in the UK singles chart in December.[189] In 1966, Sellers starred in Bryan Forbes's The Wrong Box, a farce based on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1889 novel, featuring an all-star cast of many of Britain's leading actors of the time, including John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Irene Handl and Tony Hancock. The New York Times describes Sellers's character as a "drink-sodden, absent-minded skip-jack", a "cracked physician who lives in an attic surrounded by cats."[190]
Following the commercial success of What's New Pussycat?, Charles Feldman again brought together Sellers and Woody Allen for his next project, Casino Royale, which also starred Orson Welles;[191] Sellers was on a $1 million contract for the film.[192] ($9,137,725 in 2024 dollars[180]) Seven screenwriters worked on the project,[191] and the filming process was chaotic.[193] To make matters worse, according to Ekland, at the time Sellers was "so insecure, he won't trust anyone".[194] A poor working relationship quickly developed between Sellers and Welles and Sellers eventually demanded that the two should not share the same set.[195] Sellers eventually left the film in May or June, before his part was completed, and the script was re-written for Terence Cooper to take over as another 007.[196][g]
Shortly after Sellers left Casino Royale, he was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).[199] The day before the investiture at Buckingham Palace, Sellers and Ekland fought again, with Ekland scratching his face in the process. Sellers called a make-up artist to cover the scratches, noting afterwards that "the Queen didn't spot it".[200] During his next film, The Bobo, which co-starred Ekland, the couple's marital situation worsened. Three weeks into production in Italy, Sellers told director Robert Parrish to fire his wife, saying "I'm not coming back after lunch if that bitch is on the set".[201] Sellers also upset the film crew with his derogatory comments about his wife.[202] Ekland later stated that the marriage was "an atrocious sham" at this stage.[203] In the midst of filming The Bobo, Sellers's mother had a heart attack; Parrish asked Sellers if he wanted to visit her in hospital, but Sellers remained with the film. She died within days, without Sellers having seen her.[202] He was deeply depressed by her death and remorseful at not having returned to London to see her.[204] Sellers's marriage broke up shortly afterwards and Ekland served him with divorce papers; it was finalised on 18 December 1968, and Sellers's friend Spike Milligan sent Ekland a congratulatory telegram.[205] Upon its release in September 1967, The Bobo was poorly received. Bosley Crowther said of the film, "It's a booboo—and that goes not only for the title character, played by a strangely lackluster Mr. Sellers, but also for the film. It's amazing how labored and unfunny is the screenplay of this pseudocomic tale."[206]
Sellers's first film appearance of 1968 was a reunion with Blake Edwards for the fish out of water comedy The Party, starring opposite Claudine Longet, Gavin MacLeod and J. Edward McKinley. He appears as Hrundi V. Bakshi, a bungling Indian actor who accidentally receives an invitation to a lavish Hollywood dinner party, a character which Sellers's biographer Peter Evans sees as "clearly an amalgam of Clouseau and the doctor in The Millionairess".[207] Roger Lewis notes that like a number of Sellers's characters, he is played in a sympathetic and dignified manner.[208] He followed it later that year with Hy Averback's I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, playing an attorney who abandons his lifestyle to become a hippie. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times was critical of Seller's performance as a character he described as "orthodox, conventional and almost monomaniacal about respectability", saying "It's unfortunate that Peter Sellers should be making his comeback just at a moment when American movie comedies are not. Sellers has been at his worst recently with "The Bobo," "Casino Royale" and "What's New Pussycat?" – all of which pampered his seemingly insatiable desire to dress in half a dozen costumes and try out new accents."[209]
In 1969, Sellers starred opposite Ringo Starr, John Cleese, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski in Joseph McGrath's The Magic Christian. Sellers plays Sir Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire with a habit of playing elaborate practical jokes on people. During production, Sellers clowned around with Ringo Starr, sailed his yacht, the Victoria Maria, to Majorca, took a voyage to New York on the QE-2, and indulged in his photography hobby.[210] Irv Slifkin remarked that the film was a reflection of the cynicism of Peter Sellers, describing the film as a "proto-Pythonesque adaption of Terry Southern's semi-free-form short novel", and "one of the strangest films to be shown at a gala premiere for Britain's royal family."[211] Incidentally, Cleese has claimed that a sketch which he wrote for the Monty Python's Flying Circus was based on material he and Graham Chapman had originally written for The Magic Christian but was rejected by Sellers.[212] The film, a satire of human nature,[213] was generally viewed negatively by critics, with the consensus being that its black humour was overcooked. Roger Greenspun of The New York Times believed that individual episodes in the film varied considerably in quality and that the film was an "unusually brutal satire."[214]
The "period of indifference": two marriages, two Pink Panther films (1970–78)
Roman Polanski, who had featured in Sellers's previous film, The Magic Christian, was originally scheduled to direct his next picture, A Day at the Beach (1970), but in the end he just wrote the script. Sellers made an appearance alongside Mark Burns and Beatie Edney. The film was largely forgotten about for 37 years until released on DVD in August 2007.[215] Like Sellers's previous film, Jeff Shannon of The Seattle Times viewed the quality of the scenes featured in the film as mixed; he wrote "A Day at the Beach" is definitely one of those lost-and-found oddities that deserves to be seen, if not remembered. If nothing else, a screenplay by Roman Polanski and an amusing cameo appearance by Peter Sellers make this forgotten film an attraction for the morbidly curious."[215] Sellers next starred in Hoffman under director Alvin Rakoff. In a rare serious performance with elements of drama, romance and comedy, Sellers appeared alongside Sinéad Cusack as Benjamin Hoffman, an ageing businessman who blackmails a young secretary to visit his flat in England for a sexual liaison. Film4 described the film as "positively creepy" and remarked that the character which Sellers portrays is cold and initially unlovable, with little respect for women, calling them "fallopian tubes with teeth".[216]
Later in 1970, Sellers starred in Roy Boulting's There's a Girl in My Soup as Robert Danvers, a vain, womanizing and wealthy host of a high-profile cooking show who falls for Marion (Goldie Hawn), a no-nonsense American hippie living with an English rock musician in London. The film, based on the record-breaking stage comedy written by Terence Frisby,[217] was adapted for the screen by Frisby and garnered The Writer's Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Screenplay in 1970. According to The Times, the film was a major commercial success, listed as the seventh most popular film at the British box office in 1970.[218] Andrew Spicer, writing for the British Film Institute's Screenonline, considers that although Sellers favoured playing romantic roles, he "was always more successful in parts that sent up his own vanities and pretensions, as with the TV presenter and narcissistic lothario" [sic] he played in There's a Girl in My Soup.[219] Although the film was seen as a mini-revival in his career, the effects did not last long.[220] Professionally, fellow comedian and friend Spike Milligan noted that the early 1970s were for Sellers "a period of indifference, and it would appear at one time that his career might have come to a conclusion".[1] Sellers's biographer, Peter Evans, notes that "in four years he had made nine films: three were never released; five had flopped ... only There's a Girl in My Soup had done well".[221] In his private life he had been seeing the twenty-three-year-old model Miranda Quarry and the couple married on 24 August 1970 at Caxton Hall,[222][223] even though he had contacted his agent, Dennis Selinger, shortly after the announcement to ask "Den, how do I get out of it?"[224]
In 1972, Sellers starred in Rodney Amateau's Where Does It Hurt, alongside Jo Ann Pflug and Rick Lenz, portraying the character of Dr. Albert T. Hopfnagel, a corrupt hospital administrator who extorts money from his patients by all means at his disposal. The film was poorly received by film critics like many of Sellers's films of this period, and the acting was perceived as frenetic, rather than funny.[225] On 20 April 1972, Sellers reunited with Milligan and Harry Secombe to record The Last Goon Show of All, which was broadcast on 5 October.[226] In 1973, Sellers portrayed a bumbling pirate crewman named Dick Scratcher in Peter Medak's Ghost in the Noonday Sun. The film was unsuccessful, and the acting was again considered to be frenetic and under par.[227] In 1973, Sellers made a very rare appearance in a purely dramatic feature, The Blockhouse, a World War II drama set during the Normandy Landings when a a mixed group of forced French construction workers held by German forces take shelter from the bombardment inside a German bunker. The film analyses how they deal with their underground prison, with their relationships, and with death. Sellers spent time in Guernsey in the Channel Islands to shoot the film which was later entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.[228] Biographer Michael Starr describes the picture as a "fascinating narrative", a "complex psychological study of eight distinctive personalities faced with the nightmare of being buried alive."[228] The film was not even released at the box office.[229] Later in 1973, Sellers starred alongside Marjorie Yates in Anthony Simmons's The Optimists of Nine Elms, playing a former music-hall star turned street performer who becomes involved with homeless children. Film4 said of the film, "Amusing comedy drama that benefits from both Sellers's quietly understated, tragi-comedic performance and the musical contributions of Bart and The Beatles' producer [George] Martin."[230] The film earned Sellers a Best Actor award at the 1973 Tehran Film Festival, a rare achievement for this period.[231][232]
In May 1973, with his third marriage failing and divorce approaching,[197] Sellers went to the theatre to watch Liza Minnelli perform. He was entranced and three days later the couple were engaged, despite Minnelli being engaged to Desi Arnaz, Jr., and Sellers still being married.[233][h] The relationship lasted a month before breaking up.[235] In 1974, Sellers's friends were concerned that he was having a nervous breakdown.[207] Directors John and Roy Boulting considered that Sellers was "a deeply troubled man, distrustful, self-absorbed, ultimately self-destructive. He was the complete contradiction."[88] Sellers was shy and insecure when out of character.[236][237] When he was invited to appear on Michael Parkinson's eponymous chat show in 1974, he withdrew the day before, explaining to Parkinson that "I just can't walk on as myself". When he was told he could come on as someone else, he appeared dressed as a member of the Gestapo.[238] After a few lines in keeping with his assumed character, he stepped out of the role and settled down and, according to Parkinson himself, "was brilliant, giving the audience an astonishing display of his virtuosity".[239] During the course of 1974 Sellers claimed to have again spoken with the long-dead music hall comic Dan Leno, who advised him to return to the role of Clouseau.[207]
In 1974, Sellers portrayed Queen Victoria in Joseph McGrath's comedic biographical film of the Scottish poet William McGonagall, The Great McGonagall, starring opposite Milligan and Julia Foster. The New York Times noted the "bad jokes, carelessness and confusion" of the film, but remarked that Sellers "steals the show in drag as a sexually voracious Queen Victoria."[240] However, the film was a critical failure, and Sellers's career and life reached an all-time low to the point that by 1974 he agreed to accept salaries of £100,000 and 10% of the gross to appear in TV productions and even adverts, a far cry from the £1 million he had once commanded per film.[229] In 1973 he appeared in a Benson & Hedges advertisement which was shown on the cinema screens and in 1975 appeared in a series of advertisements for Trans World Airlines in which he played several eccentric characters, including Thrifty McTravel, Jeremy 'Piggy' Peak Thyme and an Italian singer, Vito.[241] Whilst financially Sellers was struggling at his time though, biographer Michael Starr claims that Sellers jumped at the chance to appear in the airline adverts and showed enthusiasm towards the roles he performed within them,[242] but the campaign itself bombed commercially.[243]
A turning point in Sellers's flailing career occurred in 1975 when teamed up with Blake Edwards to make The Return of the Pink Panther, starring alongside Christopher Plummer, Herbert Lom and Catherine Schell. The film was shot on location in Marrakech, Morocco, Gstaad, Switzerland (Sellers's adopted tax-free domestic haven) and Nice, France on a budget of £3 million. The film earned a handsome $33 million at the box office upon release in May 1975, reinvigorating Sellers's career as an A-list film star and making him a millionaire.[244][229][1] Russell Davies, writing in The Observer noted that "the nearer he gets to slapstick and accident-proneness, the more repetitive Sellers is made to appear", but blamed the director for the pacing of the film.[245] The film earned Sellers a nomination for the Best Actor – Musical or Comedy award at the 33rd Golden Globe Awards.[246] In 1976 he followed it with The Pink Panther Strikes Again. During the filming from February to June 1976, the relationship between Sellers and Blake Edwards, which was never very good, had seriously deteriorated. Edwards says of the actor's mental state at the time of The Pink Panther Strikes Again, "If you went to an asylum and you described the first inmate you saw, that's what Peter had become. He was certifiable."[247] Julian Upton states that in the mid seventies, with declining physical health, Sellers could at times be unbearable onset, unprofessional, uncooperative, childish, sullen, frequently throwing tantrums and cold rages, and often threatening to abandon projects.[229] Peter Evans notes that Sellers was a "volatile and perplexing character [who] left a trail of misery in his private life" and that he had a compulsive personality and was an eccentric hypochondriac who also became addicted to various medicines aside from his various recreational drug habits during this period.[73] Despite Sellers's deep personal problems, The Pink Panther Strikes Again was well received critically. Vincent Canby of The New York Times said of Sellers in the film, "There is, too, something most winningly seedy about Mr. Sellers' Clouseau, a fellow who, when he attempts to tear off his clothes in the heat of passion, gets tangled up in his necktie, and who, when he masquerades—for reasons never gone into—as Quasimodo, overinflates his hump with helium."[248] Sellers's performance earned him a further nomination at the 34th Golden Globe Awards.[249]
"He causes pain to everyone who gets close to him. There was always something madly ludicrous about the many dramas in his life: a Sellers crisis without a funny side was rare. Even when you're the victim of his outrageous behaviour, his selfishness, or one of his tantrums, you always found yourself smiling about it afterwards, even if you had to do it through gritted tears".
—Spike Milligan on Peter Sellers.[73]
In March 1976 Sellers began dating actress Lynne Frederick, whom he married on 18 February 1977.[250] Biographer Roger Lewis documents that of all of Sellers's wives, Frederick was the most poorly treated, and that Sellers would often play mind games with her, bluntly sending her notes with nothing but "Its over", and then sending her flowers in apology.[251] He states that their communion resembled something of a boxing match between a heavyweight and a featherweight, a relationship which "oscillated from ardour to hatred, reconciliation and remorse."[251] Peter Evans claims that Milligan detested his friend's choice of partner, who Sellers had claimed to be "dynamite in bed".[73] Milligan once said according to Evans, "Lynne Frederick is a little gold digger. Just trying to keep up with her will kill the silly bugger", and believed that she was responsible for his increasing alcohol and cocaine dependency.[73] Tessa Dahl, who knew both Sellers and Frederick in the late seventies, however, speaks fondly of both, and while acknowledging Sellers's dark mood swings, has noted that Sellers in a good mood could be "loving, so caring, so tender, so cuddly and adorable".[252] On 20 March 1977 he suffered a second major heart attack during a flight from Paris to London; he was subsequently fitted with a pacemaker.[251][253] Sellers returned from his illness to undertake Revenge of the Pink Panther, opposite Lom, Dyan Cannon and Robert Webber. Although a commercial success, the critics were tiring of the escapades of Inspector Clouseau. Julian Upton notes that the strain behind the scenes began to manifest itself in the sluggish pace of the film, describing it as a "laboured, stunt-heavy hotchpotch of half-baked ideas and rehashed gags."[251] He stated that the film had failed to sustain a single moment of comedy and that Sellers was absent from half the film.[251] Sellers too had become tired of the role, saying after production, "I've honestly had enough of Clouseau—I've got nothing more to give".[254] Steven Bach, the senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists, who worked with Sellers on Revenge Of The Pink Panther, considered that Sellers was "deeply unbalanced, if not committable: that was the source of his genius and his truly quite terrifying aspects as manipulator and hysteric".[255] Sellers would claim that he had no personality and was almost unnoticeable, which meant that he "needed a strongly defined character to play".[256] He would make similar references throughout his life: when he appeared on The Muppet Show in 1978, a guest appearance which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Variety or Music,[257] he chose not to appear as himself, instead appearing in a variety of costumes and accents. When Kermit the Frog told Sellers he could relax and be himself, Sellers replied:
But that, you see, my dear Kermit, would be altogether impossible. I could never be myself ... You see, there is no me. I do not exist ... There used to be a me, but I had it surgically removed.
— Peter Sellers, The Muppet Show, February 1978[258]
Being There, Fu Manchu and marital problems (1979–80)
In 1979, Sellers starred alongside Lynne Frederick, Lionel Jeffries and Elke Sommer in Richard Quine's The Prisoner of Zenda. He portrayed dual roles, including King Rudolf IV, ruler of the fictional small nation of Ruritania. Upon its release in May 1979, the film was well received; Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted how Sellers divided his energies between a serious character and a funny one, but that it was his serious performance which was more impressive."[259] However, Philip French, for The Observer, was unimpressed by the film, describing it as "a mess of porridge", stating that "Sellers reveals that he cannot draw the line between the sincere and the sentimental".[260]
Later in 1979, Sellers starred opposite Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas and Jack Warden in the black comedy Being There.[261] The film was considered by one critic, Danny Smith, to be the "crowning triumph of Peter Sellers's remarkable career";[262] it certainly garnered him the most critical acclaim. Sellers played the role of Chance, a mindless, emotionless gardener addicted to watching TV. During a BBC interview in 1971, Sellers had said that more than anything else, he wanted to play the role of Chance.[262] Jerzy Kosinski, the book's author, felt that the novel was never meant to be made into a film, but Sellers succeeded in changing his mind, and Kosinski allowed Sellers and director Hal Ashby to make the film, provided he could write the script.[262] Sellers described his experience of working on the film as "so humbling, so powerful".[263] During the filming, in order not to break his character, he refused most interview requests and kept his distance from other actors. He tried to remain in character even after he returned home.[263] Sellers considered Chance's walking and voice the character's most important attributes, and in preparing for the role, he worked alone with a tape recorder, or with his wife, and then with Ashby, to perfect the clear enunciation and flat delivery needed to reveal "the childlike mind behind the words".[263] Co-star Shirley MacLaine found Sellers "a dream" to work with, while the story's author and screenwriter Jerzy Kosinski claimed that "nobody thought Chance was even a character, yet Peter knew that man."[264] Sellers's performance was universally lauded by critics and biographer Ed Sikov considers that Sellers achieved "the pinpoint-sharp exactitude of nothingness. It is a performance of extraordinary dexterity".[265] Critic Frank Rich noted the acting skill required for this sort of role, with a "schismatic personality that Peter had to convey with strenuous vocal and gestural technique ... A lesser actor would have made the character's mental dysfunction flamboyant and drastic ... [His] intelligence was always deeper, his onscreen confidence greater, his technique much more finely honed":[266] in achieving this, Sellers "makes the film's fantastic premise credible".[266] The film earned Sellers a Best Actor award at the 51st National Board of Review Awards;[267] the London Critics Circle Film Awards Special Achievement Award, the Best Actor award at the 45th New York Film Critics Circle Awards;[268] and the Best Actor – Musical or Comedy award at the 37th Golden Globe Awards.[269] Additionally, Sellers was nominated for the Best Actor award at the 52nd Academy Awards[270] and the Best Actor in a Leading Role award at the 34th British Academy Film Awards.[271]
" "I feel extremely vulnerable, and I need help a lot. A lot. I suppose I feel mainly I need the help of a woman. I'm continually searching for this woman. They mother you, they're great in bed, they're like a sister, they're there when you want to see them, they're not there when you don't. I don't know where they are. Maybe they're around somewhere. I'll find one, one of these days."
—Sellers on his need for women.[210]
In March 1980 Sellers asked his fifteen-year-old daughter Victoria what she thought about Being There: she replied, "I said yes, I thought it was great. But then I said, 'You looked like a little fat old man'. ... he went mad. He threw his drink over me and told me to get the next plane home."[272] His other daughter Sarah told Sellers her thoughts about the incident and he sent her a telegram that read "After what happened this morning with Victoria, I shall be happy if I never hear from you again. I won't tell you what I think of you. It must be obvious. Goodbye, Your Father."[272]
Sellers's last film was The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, a comedic re-imagining of the eponymous adventure novels by Sax Rohmer; Sellers played both police inspector Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu, alongside Helen Mirren and David Tomlinson. The production of the film was troublesome before filming started, with two directors—Richard Quine and John Avildsen—both fired before the script had been completed.[273] Sellers also expressed dissatisfaction with his own portrayal of Manchu[274] and his ill-health also caused delays.[275] Arguments between Sellers and director Piers Haggard led to Haggard's firing at Sellers's instigation and Sellers took over direction, using his long-time friend David Lodge to direct some sequences.[276] Tom Shales of The Washington Post described the film as "an indefensibly inept comedy",[277] going on to say that "it is hard to name another good actor who ever made so many bad movies as Sellers, a comedian of great gifts but ferociously faulty judgment. "Manchu" will take its rightful place alongside such colossally ill-advised washouts as Tell Me Where It Hurts, The Bobo and The Prisoner of Zenda".[277]
Sellers's final performances were a series of advertisements for Barclays Bank. Shot in April 1980 in Ireland, he played a Jewish conman, Monty Casino.[278] Four adverts were scheduled, but only three were filmed as Sellers collapsed in Dublin, again with heart problems.[279][280] After two days in care—and against the advice of his doctors—he travelled to the Cannes Film Festival, where Being There was in competition.[281] Sellers was again ill in Cannes,[282] and Steven Bach, the United Artists VP, noted shortly afterwards that Sellers "seemed frail, infinitely fragile ... a spectral presence, a man made of eggshells".[283] Back at home in Gstaad, Switzerland, Sellers worked on the script for his next project, Romance of the Pink Panther.[284] He also agreed to undergo an angiogram at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, to see if he was able to undergo open-heart surgery.[285] Spike Milligan later noted that Sellers heart condition had lasted fifteen years and had "made life difficult for him and had a debilitating effect on his personality".[1] His fourth marriage was also in trouble, with his wife telling Malcolm McDowell that she was arranging a divorce,[285] and Sellers telling his son that "She annoys me ... I just wish the divorce was over and done with."[286] Sellers also phoned Milligan and discussed his will, agreeing that he would arrange for his children to receive a share of his estate.[285]
Sellers had recently started to rebuild his relationship with his son Michael after the failure of the latter's marriage. Michael later said that "it marked the beginning of an all-too-brief closeness between us".[287] Sellers admitted to his son that "he hated so many things he had done", including leaving his first wife, Anne, and his infatuation with Sophia Loren.[287]
Death and subsequent family issues
On 21 July 1980 Sellers flew into London from Geneva and checked into the Dorchester Hotel, before visiting Golders Green Crematorium for the first time to see the location of his parents' ashes.[288] He had plans to attend a reunion dinner with his Goon Show partners Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe, scheduled for the evening of 22 July.[282] On the day of the dinner Sellers took lunch in his hotel suite and shortly afterwards collapsed from a heart attack. He was taken to the Middlesex Hospital, London, and died just after midnight on 24 July 1980, aged 54.[289]
Following Sellers's death, fellow actor Richard Attenborough noted that Sellers "had the genius comparable to Chaplin",[290] while filmmakers, the Boulting brothers considered Sellers "was a man of enormous gifts; and these gifts he gave to the world. For them, he is assured of a place in the history of art as entertainment."[88] Burt Kwouk, who appeared as Cato in the Pink Panther films noted that "Peter was a well-loved actor in Britain ... the day he died, it seemed that the whole country came to a stop. Everywhere you went, the fact that Peter had died seemed like an umbrella over everything".[291] Director Blake Edwards thought that "Peter was brilliant. He had an enormous facility for finding really unusual, unique facets of the character he was playing".[292] Sellers's friend and Goon Show colleague Harry Secombe said "I'm shattered. Peter was such a tremendous artist. He had so much talent, it just oozed out of him",[293] although he also joked "Anything to avoid paying for dinner".[291] Secombe later noted to journalists "Bluebottle is deaded now".[294] Fellow Goon Spike Milligan was too upset to speak to the press at the time of Sellers's death,[295] but in retrospect he thought that "it's hard to say this, but he died at the right time."[291] The Daily Mail subsequently described Sellers as a "the greatest comic talent of his generation as well as a womanising drug-taker who married four times in a fruitless search for happiness, a "flawed genius" who once latching on to a comic idea, "loved nothing more than to carry it to extremes."[296]
A private funeral service was held at Golders Green Crematorium on 26 July, conducted by Sellers's old friend, Canon John Hester;[282] his final joke was the playing of "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller, a tune he hated.[297] His body was cremated and his ashes were interred at Golders Green Crematorium in London. After her death in 1994, the ashes of his widow Frederick were co-interred with his.[298] A memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 8 September 1980—what would have been Sellers's fifty-fifth birthday.[299] Close friend Lord Snowdon read the twenty-third Psalm, Harry Secombe sang "Bread of Heaven" and the eulogy was read by David Niven.[299]
Although Sellers was reportedly in the process of excluding Frederick from his will a week before he died, she inherited almost his entire estate worth an estimated £4.5 million while his children received £800 each.[298] Spike Milligan appealed to her personally on behalf of Sellers's three children, but she refused to increase the amount.[300][i] Sellers's only son, Michael, died of a heart attack at 52 during surgery on 24 July 2006, 26 years to the day after his father's death.[301] In 1986 Victoria appeared in Playboy and was indicted for cocaine smuggling; she worked as an escort with Heidi Fleiss in the "Hollywood Madam" scandal of 1993 and was deported from the US in 2006 after immigration violations.[302] As of 2004, Sarah Sellers continued to live in London.[303]
In 1982, Blake Edwards tried to continue with Romance of the Pink Panther and offered the role of Clouseau to Dudley Moore, who turned it down. Edwards subsequently released Trail of the Pink Panther, which was composed entirely of deleted scenes from his past three Panther films.[303] Frederick saw the film as an exploitation of Sellers, and she successfully sued the film's producers for unauthorised use of her late husband's image.[304]
Technique
"I start with the voice. I find out how the character sounds. It's through the way he speaks that I find out the rest about him. ... After the voice comes the looks of the man. I do a lot of drawings of the character I play. Then I get together with the makeup man and we sort of transfer my drawings onto my face. An involved process. After that I establish how the character walks. Very important, the walk. And then, suddenly, something strange happens. The person takes over. The man you play begins to exist."
—Sellers describing how he prepared for his wide range of roles in an October 1962 interview for Playboy.[305]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times said of the Pink Panther films, "I'm not sure why Mr. Sellers and Mr. Lom are such a hilarious team, though it may be because each is a fine comic actor with a special talent for portraying the sort of all-consuming, epic self-absorption that makes slapstick farce initially acceptable—instead of alarming—and finally so funny."[248] Film critic Elvis Mitchell has said that Sellers was one of the few comic geniuses who was able to truly hide behind his characters, giving the audience no sense of what he's really like in real life, testament to his abilities as an actor to play such a diversity of roles and produce imitations completely unlike him.[306] A feature of the characterisations undertaken by Sellers is that regardless of how clumsy or idiotic they are, he ensured they always retain their dignity.[39] On playing Clouseau, he described that "I set out to play Clouseau with great dignity because I feel that he thinks he is probably one of the greatest detectives in the world. The original script makes him out to be a complete idiot. I thought a forgivable vanity would humanise him and make him kind of touching."[307] His biographer, Ed Sikov, notes that because of this retained dignity, Sellers is "the master of playing men who have no idea how ridiculous they are."[308] Film critic Dilys Powell also saw the inherent dignity in the parts and noted that Sellers had a "balance between character and absurdity".[309] Richard Attenborough also thought that because of his sympathy, Sellers could "inject into his characterisations the frailty and substance of a human being".[290] Critic Tom Milne saw a change over Sellers's career and noted that his "comic genius as a character actor was ... stifled by his elevation to leading man" and his later films suffered as a result.[162]
Writer and playwright John Mortimer saw the process for himself when Sellers was about to undertake filming on Mortimer's The Dock Brief and could not decide how to play the character of the barrister. By chance he ordered cockles for lunch and the smell brought back a memory of the seaside town of Morecambe: this gave him "the idea of a faded North Country accent and the suggestion of a scrappy moustache".[237] So important was the voice as the starting point for character development Sellers would walk round London with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, recording voices to study at home.[310]
Legacy
"The most prominent albeit ever-changing, face in comedies of the period was that of Peter Sellers. The prolific British comic changed like a chameleon throughout the era, dazzling audiences in ... Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, tickling funny bones as bumbling French detective Inspector Clouseau in Blake Edwards's Pink Panther series and as a blundering Indian actor in Edwards's The Party; going weird as a sex-crazed psychiatrist in What's New, Pussycat?; showing off of his eccentricities as the richest man in the world in The Magic Christian; playing an ill-fated James Bond in Casino Royale, and essaying a straitlaced attorney turned on to hash brownies and the counterculture in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! Whew. And that's not to mention the other nineteen films Sellers made in the 1960s alone, a decade that should always be remembered as a market as a Sellers market for comedy."
—Irv Slifkin on Peter Sellers.[311]
New York Magazine stated that all of the films starring Sellers as Clouseau showcased his "comedic brilliance."[312] Sellers's friend and Goon Show colleague Spike Milligan said that Sellers "had one of the most glittering comic talents of his age",[1] while John and Ray Boulting noted that he was "the greatest comic genius this country has produced since Charles Chaplin".[88] In a 2005 poll to find "The Comedian's Comedian", Sellers was voted 14 in the list of the top 20 greatest comedians by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.[313] Sellers and The Goon Show were a strong influence on the Monty Python performers,[314] as well as Peter Cook;[315] Cook described Sellers as "the best comic actor in the world".[290] The British actor Stephen Mangan stated that Sellers was a large influence,[316] as did comedians Alan Carr [317] and Rob Brydon.[318] Sacha Baron Cohen referred to Peter Sellers as "the most seminal force in shaping his early ideas on comedy". Cohen was considered for the role of Sellers in the biographical film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.[319] The three members of Spinal Tap—Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer—have also cited Sellers as being an influence on them,[320] as has American talk-show host Conan O'Brien.[321] David Schwimmer was another whose approach was influenced by Sellers: "he could do anything, from Dr Strangelove to Inspector Clouseau. He was just amazing."[322] Eddie Izzard notes that the Goons "influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as 'alternative'"—including himself,[323] while media historian Graham McCann states "the anarchic spirit of the Goon Show ... would inspire, directly or indirectly and to varying extents, ... The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Young Ones, Vic Reeves Big Night Out, The League of Gentlemen [and] Brass Eye."[324]
The stage play Being Sellers premiered in Australia in 1998, three years after release of the biography by Roger Lewis, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. The play premiered in New York in December 2010. In 2004, the book was turned into an HBO film with the same title, starring Geoffrey Rush.[325] The Belfast Telegraph notes how the film captured Sellers's "life of drugs, drink, fast cars and lots and lots of beautiful women".[326] Although the film was widely praised by critics, Lord Snowdon was highly critical of the film, saying "I absolutely loved Peter, he was one of my closest, dearest friends. He had a light touch, a sense of humour, I can't bear to see him portrayed as somebody who was apparently without either."[181]
Filmography and other works
Notes and references
Notes
- ^ Film critic Kenneth Tynan noted that one of Sellers's main "motive forces" for his ambition as an actor was "his hatred of anti-Semitism." Tynan opined that this led to Sellers's refusal "to be content with the secure reputation of a great mimic and his determination to go down in history as something more—a great actor, perhaps, or a great director".[14]
- ^ The meaning of the acronym KOGVOS was flexible: it has also been defined as "King of Goons and Voice of Sanity"[43] and "King of the Goons Voices Society".[44]
- ^ Her maiden name was Anne Howe, while her professional name was Anne Hayes.[46]
- ^ There is uncertainty if the relationship was anything more than platonic: a number of people, including Spike Milligan, consider it was an affair, whilst others, including Graham Stark, think it remained nothing more than a strong friendship. Sellers's wife at the time, Anne, afterwards commented that "I don't know to this day whether he had an affair with her. Nobody does."[106]
- ^ The decree nisi was granted in March 1963 and Anne married Elias 'Ted' Levy in October the same year.[130]
- ^ The character may have been called Imperial Me, according to The New York Times.[172]
- ^ Various theories have been given about the animosity between Sellers and Welles, including: Sellers trying to get Welles to laugh and Welles not responding; Sellers hearing a young woman comment that Welles was sexy; Sellers's comments about Welles' weight being objected to; and Seller's jealousy at Welles' friendship with Princess Margaret, who was also a friend of Sellers.[197] Sellers's biographer Peter Evans, notes that "the real reason for this ... hostility is still uncertain",[198] while another biographer, Ed Sikov notes that others were as much to blame for problems with the film.[196]
- ^ The marriage was formally dissolved in September 1974.[234]
- ^ Frederick subsequently married David Frost; she divorced him and married a cardiologist, Dr Barry Unger: she died in 1994 after struggling with drug and alcohol dependency.[300]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Milligan, Spike (2004). "Sellers, Peter (1925–1980)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31669. Retrieved 9 July 2012. (subscription required)
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 5.
- ^ a b Lewis 1995, p. 690.
- ^ Lewis 1995, p. 9.
- ^ Lewis 1995, p. 25.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 9.
- ^ a b Evans 1980, p. 45.
- ^ Evans 1980, p. 57.
- ^ Rigelsford 2004, p. 24.
- ^ Starr 1991, p. 84.
- ^ a b Lewis 1995, p. 44.
- ^ Current Biography Yearbook. H. W. Wilson Company. 1961. p. 371. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 12.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 11.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 8.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 18.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 28.
- ^ a b Walker 1981, p. 32.
- ^ a b c Sikov 2002, p. 19.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 20.
- ^ a b Sikov 2002, p. 22.
- ^ Lewis 1995, p. 85.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 40.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 25.
- ^ Rigelsford 2004, p. 32.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 42.
- ^ a b Sikov 2002, p. 26.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 44.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 46.
- ^ a b Chollet, Lawrence (1 December 1996). "PURSUING PETER SELLERS, COMIC AND MADMAN". Daily Mail. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
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(help) (subscription required) - ^ a b Lewis 1995, p. 132.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 32.
- ^ a b Sikov 2002, p. 38.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 57.
- ^ Walker 1981, p. 58.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 40.
- ^ Rigelsford 2004, p. 45.
- ^ Rigelsford 2004, pp. 47–48.
- ^ a b Lewis 1995, p. 164.
- ^ Rigelsford 2004, p. 48.
- ^ Sikov 2002, p. 46.
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(help) - Spicer, Andrew (3 October 2003). Typical Men: The Representation of Masculinity in Popular British Cinema. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-931-8.
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(help) - Starr, Michael (October 1991). Peter Sellers: A Film History. McFarland & Co. ISBN 978-0-89950-512-1.
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(help) - Walker, Alexander (1981). Peter Sellers. Littlehampton: Littlehampton Book Services. ISBN 978-0-2977-7965-0.
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(help) - Upton, Julian (1 September 2004). Fallen Stars: Tragic Lives and Lost Careers. Headpress/Critical Vision. ISBN 978-1-900486-38-5.
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(help) - Who Was Who (1971–1980). London: A & C Black. 1981. ISBN 978-0-7136-2176-1.
External links
- Official website
- Peter Sellers at IMDb
- Peter Sellers at the TCM Movie Database
- Peter Sellers at the BFI's Screenonline