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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.
BiographyEarly lifeSellers 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.
World War IIDuring 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. Post-war radio yearsBack 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. National and international career as a screen actorSellers' 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. Image:Dr-strangelove-06.jpg Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Image:Sellers pinkpanther7.jpg Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies 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. Personal and professional strugglesSellers' artistic genius, however, came at a cost, precipitating in a troubled personal life. 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. Image:Casinoroyale11.jpg Peter Sellers with Ursula Andress in Casino Royale 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 Britt Ekland[1] often prompted by fits of (unsubstantiated) jealousy. 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] 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). Sellers seemed to have been aware of his own frail psyche affecting his career and also personal life. However, rather than seeking professional counselling, he opted for periodic consultations with astrologer Maurice Woodruff who seemed to have held considerable sway over Sellers's later career.[1] Relationships with other celebrities and obsession with automobilesSellers 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 other friendships included fellow actor and director Roman Polanski who shared Sellers's passion for fast cars. [1] 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 apparently not reciprocated by Loren.[1] Very characteristic of Sellers was his life-long obsession with 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". Image:Playboy April 1964.jpg First man on the cover of Playboy Sellers was the first man to appear on the cover of Playboy — he appeared on the April (1964) cover with Karen Lynn. He also played ukulele-banjo on the New York Girls track for Steeleye Span's 1975 album, Commoner's Crown. MarriagesSellers was married four times:
Premature death and legacyIn 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 of 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 Los Angeles. 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. Trivia
Filmography
Other scriptsThe 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) Comedy singlesSellers released several comedy singles many of them produced by George Martin and released on the Parlophone record label. These include the following hits:
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. AlbumsPeter Sellers Hit Discography is as follows:
References
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