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Peter Sellers

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

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

Contents

Biography

Sellers was born in Southsea, Hampshire, 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 still-born brother of that name. He attended a Catholic school, although his father Bill was Protestant and his mother Agnes ("Peg") was Jewish.

Probably following his family in the variety circuit, Sellers learnt this popular yet difficult art and the immediate instinct of the "gag". He was an incredibly versatile artist: an excellent dancer, a drummer good enough to tour with several jazz bands (an excellent clip of him drumming exists when he a guest on the Steve Allen show in 1964), and a skilful player of the ukulele and banjo (family legend has it that Seller's father actually taught George Formby to play the ukulele). He is known to have performed at the Windmill Theatre.

During World War II, Sellers was an airman in the Royal Air Force, rising to corporal by the end of the war. During his leisure periods, he did impersonations of his superiors. This helped Sellers in his later film Dr. Strangelove.

His success was quite slow in coming. He phoned up a television producer pretending to be Kenneth Horne, who was currently in the show Much Binding in the Marsh, in order to get them to speak to him. Success came as one of the Goons on the radio programme The Goon Show with fellow comedians Spike Milligan, Sir Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine and was followed by early television work.

Sellers' first film successes were in British comedies, including The Ladykillers (1955), I'm All Right Jack (1959) and The Mouse That Roared (1959). On the international scene, in 1962 he portrayed a hilarious Indian Doctor in The Road to Hong Kong, the seventh and last in the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope/Dorothy Lamour "Road" series.

Sellers was launched internationally with the hit The Millionairess (1960). His portrayal (or caricature) of Asian characters though, here and elsewhere, has caused some controversy in recent years. In Stanley Kubrick's (1964) he notably played a triple role, comprising U.S. President Merkin Muffley, Dr. Strangelove, and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the RAF (the first two appearing in the same room throughout the film). Sellers was also cast in the role of Major T.J 'King' Kong. However, he was unable to master the Southern drawl Kubrick wanted for the role and Slim Pickens played it instead. (The special edition DVD says he broke his leg and could not get into the cockpit set.)

However, Sellers is most famous for his role as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies, which gave him a worldwide audience. He would play the character in four sequels between 1964 and 1978. The Trail of the Pink Panther was released posthumously in 1982, containing previously unused footage of Sellers. His widow Lynne Frederick later successfully sued the film's producers.

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"), but, after reviving the Clouseau character, he was able to produce his cherished project Being There in 1979, winning his best reviews since the 1960s. This, his last great film, brought him his second Academy Award nomination. He was unsuccessful on both occasions, although he did win a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for I'm All Right Jack. With Sophia Loren Sellers also recorded the top 10 UK single, Goodness Gracious Me.

Commonly considered a master actor and sometimes described as an "obsessive perfectionist", Sellers found in Blake Edwards a devoted director who could delicately underline and follow his comic rhythms. Edwards defined Sellers as a "mercurial clown" who could turn comedy into drama, and vice-versa, in an instant. He could also be cruel, as he demonstrated in his treatment of actress Jo Van Fleet on the set of I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), when she made a slight faux pas and offended him.

Sellers had casual friendships with two of the Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. 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.

Sellers was also a close friend of Princess Margaret. Another interesting trait was his love for 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, 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.

Marriages

Sellers was married four times:
  1. Actress Anne Howe (1951–1961). This marriage ended after she claimed he was having affairs with Wanda Jackson and Sophia Loren. The latter is disputed: Loren has maintained that Sellers had become obsessed with her, but she did not reciprocate his attempts.
  2. Swedish actress Britt Ekland (1964–1968). 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.
Peter Sellers 6 December 1977 appearance on The Muppet Show
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Peter Sellers 6 December 1977 appearance on The Muppet Show

Premature death and legacy

Sellers died in London from a heart attack just after midnight on July 24, 1980, at age 54. He was survived by his fourth wife, the English actress Lynne Frederick. He had already suffered a near-fatal heart attack (in 1964), at the age of 39. His heart was thoroughly damaged by the first heart attack which would dog him for the remainder of his life. Sellers also wore a pacemaker, which he had considerable problems with. At the time of his death, he was due to undergo heart surgery within that month. His body was cremated.

In his will, Sellers explicitly requested that Glenn Miller's song In The Mood be played for his funeral. The request is considered his last touch of humour: his friends knew he deeply hated the song.

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 movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), with Geoffrey Rush in the title role.

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

Filmography

First man on the cover of Playboy
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First man on the cover of Playboy

In some of above titles, Sellers appears only by his voice.

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)

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: 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.

Albums

Peter Sellers Hit Discography is as follows:

External links

The Goon Show
The Goons
Michael Bentine • Spike Milligan • Harry Secombe • Peter Sellers
Other Contributors
Ray Ellington • Max Geldray • Wallace Greenslade • Wally Stott
Radio & 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 and Standing Still Film
Characters
Major Bloodnok • Bluebottle • Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister • Eccles • Hercules Grytpype-Thynne • Count Jim Moriarty • Neddie Seagoon
General information
Cast members • Archiving • Episodes

 

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