Peter Sellers

Richard Henry Sellers, better known as Peter Sellers (Southsea, Hampshire, September 8, 1925-London, July 24, 1980), was an actor and british comedian. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Born into a family of vaudeville performers—consisting of William "Bill" Sellers (1900-1962) and Agnes Doreen "Peg" Marks (1892-1967)—he began his career with the comedy troupe The Goons, whose series The Goon Show, on the BBC radio station, had a great influence on British society from 1951 to 1960.

After becoming a star in the UK during the 1950s, the actor rose to international fame in the following decade, when he became one of the most popular comedy faces on the big screen during the 1960s and 1970s.

His best-known roles include those in films such as Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964), both directed by Stanley Kubrick, The Party (in Spain, El guateque; in Latin America, The unforgettable party >), from 1968, and for the five films in the The Pink Panther series, directed by Blake Edwards, in which he played the role of Inspector Clouseau, which would later be turned into a cartoon. within the Pink Panther Show, as well as the 007 parody Casino Royale (1967 film) directed by various directors including John Huston.

Biography

Artistic career

He rose to fame in a BBC comedy series called The Goon Show. His ability to speak with different accents (for example, French, Indian, American, German, British, as well as regional accents), along with his talent for portraying a number of characters with comedic effect, contributed to his success as a television personality. radio and the big screen, which earned him national and international nominations and awards. Many of his characters became an entrenched public perception of his work.

Peter Sellers in his characterization of Dr. Strangelove

Sellers, who is recognized as a first-rate actor, gained international fame thanks to the British-American film series called The Pink Panther, directed by Blake Edwards and featuring some of the scenes of humor and funniest parties in the history of cinema. In total, he shot five films in the saga under the same director and with which he is generally most associated in his career, as the funny and bumbling French inspector of the Sûreté Jacques Clouseau.

His various characters in the classic Dr. Strangelove (1964) give a sample of his versatility under the hand of Stanley Kubrick, a film for which Sellers was nominated for the Oscars and the BAFTA Awards for best actor for the three different roles he played.

Kubrick had also previously directed him in Lolita (1962), a film version of the Vladimir Nabokov novel.

Of an enigmatic and inconspicuous figure in public, he himself often stated that he had no identity outside of the roles he played, but he left his own portrait, as he obsessively filmed their homes, their family, the people who knew him, all that he took as his right of luxury until the end of his life. This intimate film was kept hidden until long after his death in 1980.

Director Peter Hall observed that “Peter had the ability to completely identify with another person, and to get into them physically, mentally and emotionally. Where did that come from? I have no idea. Is it a curse? He usually is. I believe that in this profession it is not enough to have talent. You need to have talent to manage talent. And I think Peter didn't have that."

The film Being There, directed by Hal Ashby, was released in December 1979 as his penultimate work and is one of his most acclaimed performances. He earned him his second and final Oscar nomination for best actor, for his leading role as Chance.

His last film while he was alive, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, was completed just a few weeks before his death, and released posthumously a month later in August 1980. In this comedy once again he starred in two different characters and briefly, an additional one.

In 1982 a new sequel to the successful saga of the Pink Panther was released, entitled On the Trail of the Pink Panther, made with cuts from the previous films and unpublished material of the actor. However, it was a critical and box office failure.

Geoffrey Rush plays him in Stephen Hopkins' The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), which tells the life of the comedian.

Private life

Despite his comedic side, personally he was noted as unstable and prone to abuse of psychotropic substances. He even presented small depressions due to the failure of some films. Some believe that amyl nitrite abuse contributed to the heart attack he suffered in 1964.

He regularly consulted the astrologer Maurice Woodruff, who seemed to exert a great deal of influence on the actor. Be that as it may, his strong personality led him to argue with other actors and directors, including his friend Blake Edwards (director of The Pink Panther and The Party ). It was in this last film that the relationship between the two broke down, they stopped talking several times and she avoided working with him for seven years. His second wife, Swedish actress Britt Ekland, complained about Sellers' obsessive behavior and jealousy. Perhaps for this reason, the actor often blamed himself for the failure of his marriage. So much so that in an interview he admitted that "it is not easy to live with me."

Peter Sellers with Britt Ekland in 1964

His first wife was Anne Hayes (1951-1961), with whom he had children Michael and Sarah. In 1964 he married the Swedish actress Britt Ekland, with whom he had his daughter Victoria and from whom he separated four years later. Together they acted in Carol for Another Christmas (1964), After the Fox (1966) and The Bobo (1967).

In 1970, he married Australian model Miranda Quarry, from whom he separated in 1974, and who later became the Countess of Stockton. His fourth and last wife was the English actress Lynne Frederick, whom he married in 1977.

Death

At the age of 38, he was diagnosed with heart disease. In 1964, he suffered thirteen heart attacks in a few days, so Ray Walston replaced him on the set of Kiss Me, Silly. Since then, Sellers' health has never been the same.

In 1977, he had a pacemaker implanted and took a sabbatical to relax. But the actor soon changed his mind and wanted to continue shooting movies. On July 21, 1980, he collapsed in a room at London's luxurious Dorchester Hotel and slipped into a coma. Two days later, at the age of fifty-four, he died in a hospital in the British capital.

Interestingly, on July 30 (nine days later) of that same year, he was scheduled to undergo heart surgery in Los Angeles (California).

In 1998, when Robin Williams won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, he dedicated his award to him.

Partial filmography

• 1951 - Penny Points to ParadiseTony Young.
• 1954 - Orders are OrdersDavid Paltenghi.
• 1955 - The quintet of deathAlexander Mackendrick.
• 1956 - The man who never existedRonald Neame.
• 1958 - The little giantGeorge Pal.
• 1959 - MinisterialJeffrey Dell and Roy Boulting.
• 1959 - A coup of graceJack Arnold.
• 1959 - I'm Alright, JackJohn Boulting.
• 1960 - The strange prison of HuntleighRobert Day.
• 1960 - The Battle of SexCharles Chrichton.
• 1960 - To the last breath (Never Let GoJohn Guillermin.
• 1961 - The millionaireAnthony Asquith.
• 1962 - Two frescoes in orbit (The Road to Hong Kong), Norman Panama (cameo).
• 1962 - LolitaStanley Kubrick.
• 1962 - The greatest womanJohn Guillermin.
• 1962 - The honored robbery guildCliff Owen.
• 1963 - The pink pantherBlake Edwards.
• 1964 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (nominated for Oscar) by Stanley Kubrick.
• 1964 - The irresistible Henry OrientGeorge Roy Hill.
• 1964 - A shot in the shadowsBlake Edwards.
• 1965 - How are you, Pussycat?Clive Donner.
• 1965 - The box of surprisesBryan Forbes.
• 1966 - After the fox trackSica Vittorio.
• 1966 - Alice in WonderlandJonathan Miller.
• 1967 - Casino RoyaleJohn Huston.
• 1967 - The BoboRobert Parrish.
• 1968 - The Party (The unforgettable partyBlake Edwards.
• 1968 - I Love You, Alice B. ToklasHy Averback.
• 1970 - The Magic ChristianJoseph McGrath.
• 1970 - HoffmanAlvin Rakoff.
• 1970 - There's a girl in my soup.Roy Boulting.
• 1972 - Until never, Doctor!Rod Amateau.
• 1973 - The optimistAnthony Simmons.
• 1975 - A corpse to the dessertsRobert Moore.
• 1975 - The return of the pink pantherBlake Edwards.
• 1976 - The pink panther strikes againBlake Edwards.
• 1978 - The Revenge of the Pink PantherBlake Edwards.
• 1979 - The Struggle Prince of ZendaRichard Quine.
• 1979 - Being There (Welcome, mister Chanceor From the Garden- Hal Ashby.
• 1980 - The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu.
• 1982 - After the Pink Panther track (realized with file assemblies in which the actor appeared).

Awards and nominations

Oscar Awards

San Sebastian International Film Festival

Technique

Vincent Canby of The New York Times said of the Pink Panther movies "I'm not sure why Mr. Sellers and Mr. Lom make such a hilarious team, though it may be because each one of them is a good comedic actor with a knack for portraying the kind of all-consuming epic self-absorption that makes the farce of slapstick initially acceptable—rather than alarming—and ultimately so funny." cinema Elvis Mitchell said that Sellers was one of the few geniuses of comedy who was able to really hide behind his characters, without giving the audience the feeling of what he was like in real life. A characteristic of the characterizations carried out by Sellers is that no matter how clumsy or idiotic they are, he made sure they always retained their dignity. Of his portrayal of Clouseau, Sellers said, "I set out to play Clouseau with great dignity because I think he thinks he's probably one." one of the best detectives in the world. The original script makes him look like a complete jerk. I thought a forgivable vanity would humanize it and make it moving."

Sellers biographer Ed Sikov notes that because of this preserved dignity, Sellers is "the master of playing men who have no idea how ridiculous they are." Social historian Sam Wasson points to the complexity of Sellers' performances in the Pink Panther films, which has the effect of alienating Clouseau from her environment. Wesson considers that "as a comedy "lower" and "high" rolled into one, it is the performative counterpoint to Edwardian Sophisticated Naturalism". This combination of "tall" and "short", exemplified by Clouseau's attempt to retain dignity after a fall, means that within the film Clouseau was " the sole representative of humanity". Film critic Dilys Powell also saw the inherent dignity in the roles, writing that Sellers had a "balance between character and absurdity". Richard Attenborough also thought that because of his likability, Sellers could "inject into his characterizations the frailty and substance of a human being."

Author Aaron Sultanik noted that in Sellers' early films, such as I'm All Right Jack, he displays "slick, technical performances [that] point to the mechanical nature of his comedic characterization which "reduces each of her characters to a series of clumsy, clumsy tics". Scholar Cynthia Baron observed that Sellers' outward characterizations led critics to doubt whether Sellers' work was "true" performance Critic Tom Milne saw a change throughout Sellers' career and thought that his "comic genius as a character actor was... stifled by his elevation to leading man" and his later films suffered as a result. Sultanik he agreed, commenting that Sellers' "exceptional vocal and physical technique" was underused during his US career.

Academics Maria Pramaggiore and Tom Wallis noted that Sellers fits the mold of a technical actor, displaying a mastery of physical characterization, such as accent or physical trait. Writer and playwright John Mortimer verified the process by himself when Sellers was about to start shooting Mortimer's The Dock Brief and couldn't decide how to play the character of the lawyer. 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 scruffy mustache". So important was the voice as a starting point for the development of the characters, that Sellers would walk around London with a reel recorder, recording voices to study at home.