Peter Sellers

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This is about the British actor; for the American director, see Peter Sellars.

Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Birth name	Richard Henry "Peter" Sellers
Born	8 September 1925 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Died	24 July 1980, age 54 London, England

Richard Henry "Peter" Sellers, CBE (8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English comedian, actor, and performer, who came to prominence on the BBC radio series The Goon Show and later became a film star.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Marriages 3 Premature death and legacy 4 Trivia 5 Filmography 6 Other scripts 7 Comedy singles 8 Albums 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Biography

Sellers was born in Southsea, Portsmouth, England, to a family of entertainers. Despite his real name being Richard Henry Sellers, his parents called him "Peter" from an early age, in memory of his older stillborn brother of that name.^[1] He attended a Roman Catholic school - St. Aloysius College, Hornsey Lane, Highgate N5 - although his father Bill was Protestant and his mother Agnes ("Peg", nee Mendoza) was Jewish.

Following his family in the variety circuit,^[1] Sellers learnt this popular yet difficult art and the immediate instinct of the "gag". He was a very versatile artist: an excellent dancer, a drummer good enough to tour with several jazz bands (Sellers drumming is showcased in a clip of the Steve Allen show in 1964), and a skillful player of the ukulele and banjo (family legend has it that Sellers' father taught George Formby to play the ukulele)^{[citation needed]}. He is known to have performed at the Windmill Theatre.^{[citation needed]}

During World War II, Sellers was an airman in the Royal Air Force, rising to corporal by the end of the war. However, due to poor eyesight, he was relegated to RAF ground staff duties throughout this period.^[1] His tour of duty included such far away places as India and Burma, although the exact duration of his stay in Asia is largely unknown, and may have been exaggerated on Sellers' part.^[1] He also served in Germany and France after the end of the war.^[1] As a way of distracting himself from the often monotonous routines he faced as a non-commissioned officer, he became a member of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). This afforded him the opportunity to hone his performance skills as a drummer and standup comedian. During his leisure periods, he did occasional impersonations of his superiors,^[1] and it has been suggested that the portrayal of the RAF officer Lionel Mandrake by Sellers in the film, Dr. Strangelove, had been modeled on these impersonations.

Back in 1948 to his native England, which was heavily ravaged by the war, and freshly released from the RAF, Sellers found himself unemployed. For a while he supported himself with stand-up routines in sordid variety theatres whose impresarios were in need to legitimize their business.^[1] Utilizing his talent for impressions and urged on by the ambition to make a name for himself in radio, he phoned up the BBC radio producer, Roy Speer, pretending to be Kenneth Horne, who was currently in the show Much Binding in the Marsh, in order to get Speer to speak to him. Success came as one of the Goons on the radio programme The Goon Show with fellow comedians Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine and was followed by early television work.

Sellers' film success came with a series of British comedies, including The Ladykillers (1955), I'm All Right Jack (1959) and The Mouse That Roared (1959). Internationally he began receiving attention for the portrayal of an Indian doctor in The Road to Hong Kong in 1962, the seventh and last in the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope/Dorothy Lamour "Road" series.

Sellers found further international aclaim with the The Millionairess with costar Sophia Loren (1960). The film inspired the George Martin radio and television production Goodness Gracious Me. He also starred in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita as Clare Quilty alongside James Mason who played the main character Humbert Humbert. As in several subsequent performances, Sellers succeeded in diverting the attention of the audience away from the main role. After Stanley Kubrick decided to make his next film Dr. Strangelove a comedy, Columbia Pictures insisted on Sellers being cast. In Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Sellers played three different characters: United States President Merkin Muffley, Dr. Strangelove, and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the RAF (the first two appearing in the same room throughout the film). Originally, Sellers was also cast in the role of Major T. J. 'King' Kong. Initially, Sellers struggled with the Southern accent this role required, but a member of the crew made a recording of a Texan accent,^[1] which Sellers was able to master after repeated listenings to the recording. However, during a scene shot in a plane designed for this film, Sellers fell 15 feet and broke his leg, preventing him from further shooting scenes in the plane's cockpit. So Kubrick had to replace Sellers with Slim Pickens.

Preceding his roles in Dr. Strangelove, Sellers is most famous for his role as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, the role that Peter Ustinov had declined in the Pink Panther movies. The role of Inspector Clouseau gave Sellers a worldwide audience, first in The Pink Panther in 1963 and then its sequel, A Shot in the Dark(1963) in which he was featured more prominently. He returned to the character for three more sequels from 1975 to 1978. The Trail of the Pink Panther was released after his death in 1982, containing previously unused footage of Sellers. His widow Lynne Frederick later successfully sued the film's producers for having made unauthorized use of this footage.

He was a remarkably versatile actor, switching easily from broad comedy as in The Party (1968), to more intense performances, as in Lolita, where he played Clare Quilty, the nemesis of the film's (and novel's) principal protagonist, Humbert Humbert.

Sellers' career had slumped by the early 1970s (he was dubbed "box office poison")^{[citation needed]}, but, after reviving the Clouseau character, he was able to produce his cherished^[1] project Being There in 1979, winning his best reviews since the 1960s. This brought him his second Academy Award nomination. He was unsuccessful on both occasions, although he did win a Golden Globe for Being There and a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for I'm All Right Jack. While he won many accolades for his artistic contributions, his offscreen persona often jarred with fellow actors and directors alike, and increasingly became a liability to Sellers's career as a screen actor. This is best illustrated by Sellers relationship with director, Blake Edwards, with whom he had worked on the Pink Panther series and other Edwards films. Both their professional and private relationships were frequently tested by Sellers's demeanour, highlighted in the HBO/BBC film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.

His work with fellow actor Orson Welles on Casino Royale deteriorated as Sellers became aware and jealous of Welles's casual relationship with Princess Margaret. The relationship between the two actors eventually reached its lowest point, and created enormous logistic problems during filming, by Sellers's refusal to share the set with Welles, who himself was no stranger to strident behaviour.^[1] Sellers could also be cruel and disrespectful, as he demonstrated in his treatment of actress Jo Van Fleet on the set of I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968). One night during the making of that film, Van Fleet had declined an invitation to Sellers' house, and the next day a misunderstanding between the two actors during filming prompted Sellers to launch into an irate and lengthy verbal tirade against Van Fleet, which was witnessed by the actors and crew present on the set.^[1]

Sellers had casual friendships with two of the Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.^[1] Harrison told occasional Sellers' stories in interviews, and Starr appeared with him in the anarchic movie The Magic Christian (1970), whose theme song was Badfinger's cover version of Paul McCartney's "Come and Get It". Starr also gave Sellers a rough mix of songs from the Beatles' White Album, and the tape was auctioned (and bootlegged) after his death. Perhaps his more famous association with The Beatles is his cover of A Hard Day's Night (1965)in the style of Laurence Oliver's interpretation of Richard III.

Sellers was also a close friend of Princess Margaret, and had likewise a close relationship with Sophia Loren, for whom Sellers seemed to have felt a strong romantic attraction, which was however not apparently reciprocated by Loren.^[1] He loved cars: he was believed to have owned and sold many different models by the 1960s. This was briefly parodied in a fleeting cameo in the short film Simon Simon[1], which was directed by his friend Graham Stark. It was also mentioned in the The Goon Show episode "The Space Age", where Harry Secombe introduces Sellers with the comment: "Good Heavens, it's Peter Sellers, who has just broken his own record of keeping a car for more than a month".

Sellers was the first man to appear on the cover of Playboy — he appeared on the April (1964) cover with Karen Lynn.

Sellers played ukulele-banjo on the New York Girls track for Steeleye Span's 1975 album, Commoner's Crown.

Sellers' artistic genius, however, came at a cost, precipitating in a troubled personal life. His personality has been described as very difficult and demanding by many who personally knew and experienced Sellers. His eccentricities and unreasonable behaviour caused physical and emotional hurt to many people in his life, most notably his first three wives.^[1] According to the semi-biographical movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, he told his only eight-year-old son that the boy's mother, and Sellers' wife at the time, was having an affair with another man. The relationship with director and friend Blake Edwards was also frequently tested by Sellers' behaviour and eccentricities, to a point where the two sometimes ceased speaking to each other during filming.^[1] Sellers is known to have physically assaulted Ekland^[1] often prompted by fits of (unsubstantiated) jealousy. It has been suggested that Sellers suffered from some form of depression brought on by deep-seated anxieties of artistic and personal failure (see comments in^[1]). Some of his behaviour may be attributable to, or exacerbated by, substance abuse, for Sellers was known to regularly smoke cannabis, drink large amounts of alcohol, and use other recreational drugs.^[1] It is now believed that his drug use (especially amyl nitrites^[1]) had contributed to a string of heart attacks he suffered in 1964 (see below).

[edit] Marriages

Sellers was married four times:

1. Actress Anne Howe (1951–1961). They had two children, Michael and Sarah, together. This marriage ended after she claimed he was having affairs with Wanda Jackson and Sophia Loren.^{[citation needed]}The latter is disputed: Loren has maintained that Sellers had become obsessed with her, but she did not respond to his advances.^{[citation needed]}
2. Swedish actress Britt Ekland (1964–1968). Peter and Britt had a daughter, Victoria Sellers, together. The couple appeared in two films together: After the Fox (1966) and The Bobo (1967).
3. Australian model Miranda Quarry (now the Countess of Stockton) (1970–1974)
4. English actress Lynne Frederick (1977–1980), who later married Sir David Frost.

[edit] Premature death and legacy

In 1964 at the age of 39, Sellers had suffered a near-fatal heart attack. This seriously damaged his heart and affected his health for the rest of his life. Sellers' condition worsened over time when he decided to put off seeking proper medical treatment, instead opting for "treatment" from psychic healers. [2] He also wore a pacemaker which caused him considerable problems.^[1]

A reunion dinner was scheduled to take place in London with Goon Show partners Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe in the latter part of July, 1980. This reunion never took place: on 22 July Sellers suffered a massive heart attack and collapsed in his London Dorchester hotel room. He died 36 hours later in a London hospital just after midnight on 24 July 1980, at the age 54. He was survived by his fourth wife, the English actress Lynne Frederick and his three children Michael, Sarah and Victoria. At the time of his death he was due to undergo heart surgery within the month in L.A. The only personal item in his wallet was a photo of his first wife, Anne Howe.^[1]

According to some sources, on the day of his heart attack, Sellers had apparently meant to sign divorce papers and write his fourth wife out of his will.^{[citation needed]} This did not take place, and she subsequently inherited most of his estate. His children received only £800 each.^[1]

In his will, Sellers explicitly requested that Glenn Miller's song "In the Mood" be played at his funeral. The request is considered his last touch of humour: his friends knew he hated the song.^{[citation needed]} His body was cremated, and he was interred at Golders Green Crematorium.

Roger Lewis wrote about the madness and bizarre behaviour of Sellers in his biography, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Applause Books, 1997). Lewis' biography was adapted for the HBO/BBC movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), with Geoffrey Rush in the title role. Another biography of Peter Sellers, authored by Ed Sikov, is Mr Strangelove--A Biography of Peter Sellers and focused primarily on Sellers' acting career, but also reveals many details of his personal life.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, Sellers was voted among the top 20 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

[edit] Trivia

• Sellers' only son, Michael, died of a heart attack at age 52 during surgery on 24 July 2006, 26 years to the day after his father died of the same cause. He is survived by his second wife Alison, whom he married in 1986, and their two children.

[edit] Filmography

v • d • e  Main Filmography

The Ladykillers (1955) | The Smallest Show on Earth (1957)  | The Naked Truth (1957)  | The Mouse That Roared (1959) | I'm All Right Jack (1959) | The Millionairess (1960) | Two Way Stretch (1960) | Battle of the Sexes (1960) | Only Two Can Play (1962) | The Wrong Arm of the Law (1962) | Lolita (1962) | The Pink Panther (1963)  | Heavens Above! (1963)  | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)  | The World of Henry Orient (1964) | A Shot in the Dark (1964) | What's New, Pussycat?(1965) | Casino Royale (1967) | The Bobo (1967) | The Party (1968) | I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) | The Magic Christian (1969) | There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) | The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) | Murder by Death (1976) | The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) | The Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) | The Prisoner of Zenda (1979) | Being There (1979) | The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980)

[edit] Other scripts

The Romance Of The Pink Panther was a script that Peter Sellers was working on at the time of his death. He had planned to complete the film without Blake Edwards. (More information can be found in the book Peter Sellers - A Celebration)

[edit] Comedy singles

Sellers released several comedy singles many of them produced by George Martin and released on the Parlophone record label. These include the following hits:

• "Any Old Iron" (1957) UK # 17
• "Goodness Gracious Me" (1960) with Sophia Loren UK # 4
• "Bangers and Mash" (1961) UK # 22
• "A Hard Day's Night" (1965) UK # 14

This was re-issued in 1993 and reached Number 52 in the UK Top 75 Singles chart. He covered several other Beatles hits, including Help! and She Loves You.

[edit] Albums

Peter Sellers Hit Discography is as follows:

• The Best of Sellers (1959) UK # 3
• Songs For Swinging Sellers (1959) UK # 3
• Peter & Sophia (1960) UK # 5 with Sophia Loren
• Fool Britania (1963) UK # 10 with Anthony Newley and Joan Collins.
• How To Win An Election (1964) UK # 20 with Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan (Note: unlike The Last Goon Show Of All this release was not credited to The Goons.)

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v} Ed Sikov (2002). Mr. Strangelove: a biography of Peter Sellers. Pan MacMillan. ISBN 0-283-07297-0. 

[edit] External links

• Peter Sellers at the Internet Movie Database
• Peter Sellers at the TCM Movie Database
• Inspector Clouseau Site
• Peter Sellers Site
• Peter Sellers Appreciation Society
• (Spanish) Freemasonry and Peter Sellers
• Peter Sellers' Gravesite
• Peter Sellers Myspace

v • d • e The Goon Show
The Goons	Michael Bentine • Spike Milligan • Harry Secombe • Peter Sellers
Other Contributors	Ray Ellington • Max Geldray • Wallace Greenslade • Dennis Main Wilson • Larry Stephens • Wally Stott • Eric Sykes • Andrew Timothy
Radio and TV Series	The Goon Show • The Telegoons
Films	Let's Go Crazy • Penny Points to Paradise • Down Among the Z Men • The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn • The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
Characters	Cast members and their Characters • Major Bloodnok • Bluebottle • Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister • Eccles • Hercules Grytpype-Thynne • Count Jim Moriarty • Neddie Seagoon
General information	Episodes and archiving • Running Jokes