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Getting To Know: Peter Sellers
By Brighid Mooney
Who He Is:
Always more famous in England than in the States, British comedian Peter Sellers first gained notoriety in the BBC radio program The Goon Show along with fellow goons Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. Born into a showbiz family, Sellers was an accomplished drummer before turning to comedy, and served in the entertainment division of the RAF during World War II. Known for his powers of mimicry and his ability to imitate almost anyone to near perfection, Sellers became a huge movie star in the early 1960s and was the first male to appear on the cover of Playboy magazine in April of 1964. But his best known and most beloved creation was that of the bumbling French police inspector Jacques Clouseau in Blake Edwards' Pink Panther films. Sellers was also the first actor to be nominated for a single Academy Award for a film in which he played three different characters, for Dr. Strangelove. Brilliant and hilarious on screen, with both comedic and dramatic depth, Sellers led an infamously troubled and confused existence and died prematurely of a heart attack in 1980 at the age of just 54.
How To Spot Him:
Due to his ability to blend in and to become the characters he played, Peter Sellers can sometimes be difficult to spot. His on-screen portrayals often involved extravagant costumes, false noses, wigs, hats and all manner of other disguises. But as just himself, Peter Sellers was completely unassuming. Small in stature with dark hair, he often wore horn rim frames through the 60s. But no matter what character he had taken on, and through a myriad of costumes and disguises, the one constant by which he could usually be recognized was his eyes. Dark brown, sad and serious, but with a twinkle of mischief, they betrayed him always as distinctively Peter Sellers.
Vital Fact:
In 1964, at the height of his fame and when he was just 38 years old, Sellers suffered a series of severe heart attacks while filming Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid. He was clinically dead for several minutes before being revived by doctors, but he later confessed to his Being There co-star Shirley MacLaine that while he was dead he had an out-of-body experience in which he had started to ascend to heaven before being drawn back. The experience had a profound effect on him and he claimed that because of it he would never fear death again.
Not So Vital Fact:
Sellers was known to be incredibly superstitious and was absolutely terrified of the color purple, because it was, as he put it, "the color of death." While filming scenes for his movies, each set had to be thoroughly scoured for the offending color before his arrival. If purple was found anywhere in the vicinity, Sellers would refuse to appear on the set until it was removed.
Where To Start:
Lolita (1962) - "... that lovely, lyrical, lilting name."
Stanley Kubrick was a huge fan of Peter Sellers and basically gave him free reign in his role as the sinister and mysterious Clare Quilty. With plenty of room for improvisation, Sellers' Quilty is much more comic than Nabokov's original, but his bizarre, nervous rambling and disaffected air gave him an undeniably eerie edge, and Quilty is undoubtedly the role Sellers was born to play. With a mere 22 minutes of screen time in a movie over two and a half hours long, you'll only wish there was more of him to baffle and perplex you.
The Pink Panther (1963) - "What kind of candle is zis?"
Though it was actually filmed after its sequel, A Shot In the Dark, The Pink Panther is the first in what became a string of successful films based around Sellers' character of Inspector Clouseau. As the film that introduced audiences to the bumbling, accident-prone Clouseau, Sellers' role is actually relatively minor, and David Niven and Robert Wagner also take center stage.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - "You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"
After his turn as Quilty in Lolita, Kubrick was eager to get Sellers back on board in Dr. Strangelove. A classic, monumental film about human-caused apocalypse, Dr. Strangelove is probably Sellers' best-known non-Panther work. In it, Sellers plays not only the mysterious title character, but also President Merkin Muffley and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. Sellers reputedly first played the part of President Muffley with a bad cold, but Kubrick wasn't able to get a clean take without the cast and crew cracking up, and the idea had to be abandoned. Sellers was also in talks to play Major "King" Kong, who famously rides the bomb at the end of the movie, but was let out of that commitment when he conveniently hurt his leg prior to shooting.
A Shot In the Dark (1964) - "It's all part of life's rich pageant."
The first film in the Pink Panther series to focus solely on Jacques Clouseau is also the only film in the series not to mention the illustrious "pink panther" diamond in its title. This is the film in which the character of Clouseau is really allowed to develop and we see the first several of what would later become a mountain of disguises famously donned by the Inspector. A Shot In the Dark also introduces us to popular secondary characters like Commissioner Dreyfus, Clouseau's right hand man Hercule, and his indefatigable houseboy Cato.
Being There (1979) - "I like to watch."
Being There is the film that Sellers longed to make throughout the 70s and was finally able to get produced in 1979, just a year before his death. He plays the character of Chance, a gardener whose lack of personality allowed Sellers to identify with him personally. After Chance is forced to leave the only home he has ever known when his employer dies, his laconic banalities about gardening are mistaken for profound political commentary and he finds himself taken in by one of the president's ailing advisors. Being There's final scene is one of the most widely interpreted and meaningful endings in film, and Sellers' portrayal of Chance earned him a best actor Oscar nomination, though he lost to Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer.
A Celebration of Sellers [box set] - "You know she loves you. Yeah? Yeah, yeah ..."
This CD box set may seem expensive, but the price is actually nominal if you consider all that it contains. Four of Sellers' EMI albums -- The Best of Sellers, Songs For Swingin' Sellers, Peter and Sophia and Sellers Market -- are included in the set, as well as multiple bonus tracks from 50s and 60s singles, cuts from obscure anthologies, unissued outtakes, soundtracks and appearances with the Hollies and Steeleye Span. A Celebration of Sellers is a great and thorough introduction to the musical and comedy recordings of Peter Sellers.
Where To Go From There:
The Goon Show: BBC Radio Collection - There are several of these collections featuring Peter Sellers on The Goon Show available on Amazon including The Goon Show: "You Can't Get the Wood, You Know!" and The Goon Show: It's All in the Mind You Know, bringing the groundbreaking, absurd and ridiculous antics of the Goons out of 1950s radio to modern day listeners. A great introduction for those who missed the Goons the first time around.
The Ladykillers (1955) - The Ladykillers was Sellers' first big film and he starred alongside none other than the legendary Alec Guinness. Sellers played tough guy Harry Robinson in this darkest of dark black comedies. It is a hilarious testament to the utter bleakness from which the British can mine great humor as well as Sellers' ability to hold his own against cinema's greats,
The Mouse That Roared (1959) - Something of a British precursor to Sellers' performances in Dr. Strangelove, The Mouse That Roared also has Sellers playing three different main characters (and a handful of uncredited extra roles), including an astounding performance as the Grand Dutchess Gloriana, in a film that also centered on a man-made device capable of destroying much of the world.
Casino Royale (1967) - Technically, this is a terrible movie. With five different directors and multiple rewrites, Casino Royale is uneven and mostly nonsensical, and Sellers' Evelyn Tremble/James Bond disappears near the end of the movie without explanation (the reason being that he was fired/quit before the movie finished filming). Nonetheless, Casino Royale features an all-star cast, cinematography that screams of 1960s psychedelia, and is just generally a lot of fun. Not only that, but Sellers proves himself as capable a James Bond as Sean Connery or Roger Moore ever were.
Hoffman (1970) - One of Sellers' most overlooked and underrated, Hoffman is a vast departure from the comic roles Sellers was most known for. The laughs in this film are few and far between, and instead the movie focuses on the more dramatic fare of relationships, desire and love. Featuring an uncharacteristically low-key, chilling and misogynistic performance by Sellers, Hoffman is both moving and disturbing, if somewhat implausible.
The Blockhouse (1973) - The Blockhouse is one of Sellers' most rarely seen but most highly rated performances, with Sellers playing Rouquet in a true story about six men trapped in an underground bunker for six years at the end of World War II. A serious psychological drama unfolds as each of the six men reacts to the terror and the desperation of their situation. The Blockhouse is not just an amazing film, but also proof of the great dramatic breadth of which Sellers was capable.
Peter Sellers appeared in over 50 films during his lifetime, so it would be impossible to list all of the ones that are worth seeing. But at some point, you may find it worth your while to check out I'm All Right, Jack, The Party, The Magic Christian, After the Fox, The World of Henry Orient and What's New, Pussycat? as well as those listed above.
What To Avoid:
The Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) - As brilliant as the first two Pink Panther films were, later installments proved to be more tedious and Sellers' performances less nuanced as he descended into a farcical version of the original Clouseau, his accent especially growing increasingly exaggerated. The third Pink Panther movie was made over 10 years after A Shot In the Dark, and Revenge, the fifth in the series, was obviously made solely to cash in on the Pink Panther franchise. This was Peter Sellers' final "official" appearance as his most famous character.
The Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) - If The Revenge of the Pink Panther was bad, 1982's The Trail of the Pink Panther was horrible, hideous, obscene, though the blame can hardly be laid on Sellers, who was already dead when it was made. His scenes in the movie are pieced together from outtakes and unused scenes from The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Sellers' third wife filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the makers of the film, claiming it insulted his memory, a case which she understandably won.
The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) - This film certainly has some laughs and there are things within it to enjoy, but as Peter Sellers' movies go it falls far short of his better efforts. While it is a sad addition to a string of unsuccessful movies shortly before his death, if you watch it without expectation, you may find something to like about it, if only for Sellers' performance alone.
Everything Else You Need To Know:
Mr. Strangelove by Ed Sikov - A sympathetic but unapologetic and exhaustive biography of the man in question, Mr. Strangelove covers everything from Sellers' unusual upbringing, domineering mother, forays into radio and film, heart troubles, obsessions, idiosyncrasies, romantic dramas and personal faults and foibles with a close eye on the brilliance, tragedy and psychological instability that was Peter Sellers. A great tool for understanding a man so troubled and complex, but not for the faint of heart.
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) - When this film came out on HBO last year it garnered both rave reviews for Geoffrey Rush's uncanny portrayal of Peter Sellers, but also criticism for its somewhat brutal treatment of its subject. Focusing on the period of his life and career from his days in The Goon Show through the making of the Oscar nominated Being There, the film is based on Roger Lewis' controversial book of the same name. Though much of it is based on indisputable fact, most of the controversy over both the book and the movie centers on the feeling that they focus solely on the negative and speculate widely in the matter of Sellers' mental health. It is a profoundly disturbing film for those who like Peter Sellers.
www.petersellers.com - Peter Sellers' official website includes a brief biography, a collection of photographs, quotes, and contact information for business inquiries.
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