PETER (RICHARD HENRY) SELLERS. Born in Southsea, Hampshire, England, 8 September 1925. Attended St Aloysius College, London. Married: 1) Anne Howe, 1951 (divorced 1964); children: Michael and Sarah; 2) Britt Ekland, 1964 (divorced 1969); child: Victoria; 3) Miranda Quarry, 1970 (divorced 1974); 4) Lynne Frederick, 1977. Served in Royal Air Force, 1943-46. Began career in revue at the age of five; worked as drummer in dance band; entertainment director of holiday camp, 1946-47; vaudeville comedian, first at the Windmill Theatre, London, 1948, then on vaudeville circuit, 1949-56; made film debut, 1951; performer, The Goon Show and other radio programmes, 1948-59; achieved international stardom in Pink Panther film series. Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1966. Recipient: British Academy Best British Actor Award, 1959; San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award for Best Fiction Short, 1960; San Sebastian Award for Best British Actor, 1962; Teheran Film Festival Best Actor Award, 1973; Evening News Best Actor of the Year Award, 1975. Died in London, 24 July 1980.

 

TELEVISION SERIES (selection)

1956 The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d
1956 A Show Called Fred
1956 Son of Fred
1957 Yes, It's the Cathode Ray Tube Show
1963 The Best of Fred (compilation)

FILMS

Penny Points to Paradise, 1951; London Entertains, 1951; Let's Go Crazy, 1951; Down Among the Z Men, 1952; Super Secret Service, 1953; Orders Are Orders, 1954; John and Julie, 1955; The Ladykillers, 1955; The Case of the Mukkinese Battlehorn, 1955; The Man Who Never Was, 1955; The Smallest Show on Earth, 1957; Death of a Salesman, 1957; Cold Comfort, 1957; Insomnia is Good for You, 1957; The Naked Truth, 1958; Up the Creek, 1958; Tom Thumb, 1958; Carlton-Browne of the F.O., 1958; The Mouse That Roared, 1959; I'm All Right, Jack, 1959; Battle of the Sexes, 1960; Two-Way Stretch, 1960; The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film, 1960 (also producer); Never Let Go, 1961; The Millionairess, 1961; The Road to Hong Kong, 1961; Mister Topaze, 1961 (also director); Only Two Can Play, 1962; Waltz of the Toreadors, 1962; Lolita, 1962; The Dock Brief, 1963; Heavens Above, 1963; The Wrong Arm of the Law, 1963; The Pink Panther, 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; The Wrong Box, 1966; After the Fox, 1966; Casino Royale, 1967; The Bobo, 1967; Woman Times Seven, 1967; The Party, 1968; I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, 1968; The Magic Christian, 1969; Hoffman, 1970; There's a Girl in My Soup, 1970; A Day at the Beach, 1970; Simon, Simon, 1970; Where Does it Hurt?, 1972; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1972; The Blockhouse, 1973; The Optimist, 1973; Soft Beds and Hard Battles, 1973; Ghost in the Noonday, 1974; The Great McGonagall, 1974; The Return of the Pink Panther, 1974; Murder by Death, 1976; The Pink Panther Strikes Again, 1976; Revenge of the Pink Panther, 1978; Being There, 1979; The Prisoner of Zenda, 1979; The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu, 1980; The Trail of the Pink Panther, 1982.

RADIO

Show Time, 1948; Ray's a Laugh, 1949; The Goon Show, 1951.

RECORDINGS (selection)

I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas; The Ying Tong Song; Any Old Iron; A Hard Day's Night; Goodness Gracious Me; Bangers and Mash; The Best of Sellers; Songs for Swingin' Sellers.

STAGE

Brouhaha, 1958.

PUBLICATIONS (selection)

The Book of the Goons, with Spike Milligan. London: Robson, 1974.

While the late actor Peter Sellers is primarily known for his roles in film comedies such as the Pink Panther series, he first became a British celebrity as a member of the cast of The Goon Show, a satirical BBC radio series. Originally aired in 1951, the show teamed Sellers with fellow comedians Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. The show was a shocking departure for listeners accustomed to urbane humor from the BBC--the Goons combined a zany blend of odd characters in sketches that poked fun at every aspect of English society. Sellers used mimicry skills honed as a stand-up comedian in London strip-tease bars to create a number of distinctive characters with equally memorable names: Grytpype Thynne, Bluebottle, Willum Cobblers, and Major Bloodnok. The show acquired a cult following with BBC audiences around the world, and helped launch Sellers' film career.

Goon Show influences can be traced to equally-eccentric British television progeny such as Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Benny Hill Show. The Goons, led by Sellers, created a distinctive media genre that combined Kafkaesque humor with hilariously stereotypical English characters. This new genre paved the way for the Pythons and others to follow in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1979, Peter Sellers appeared in Hal Ashby's production of Being There, a film version of Jerzy Kosinski's satirical novel on the cultural influence of television. In the film Sellers played Chauncey Gardiner, a none-too-bright gardener who is forcibly thrust into the outside world after the death of his benefactor. Sheltered in his employer's home, Chauncey's world-view was entirely shaped by the television shows he watched on sets scattered throughout the house. After being cast from this TV-defined Eden, Chauncey and his child-like innocence are challenged by the harsh realities of the outside world at every turn. In one memorable scene, he is menaced by members of an inner-city street gang as he urgently presses a TV remote control to make them "go away." In another scene, Sellers kisses a passionate female character played by Shirley MacLaine as he mimiced a televised love scene that he was watching over her shoulder.

Being There reflected Kosinski's jaundiced view of the influence of television on modern culture, and the tendency to confuse actual events with their symbolic media representations. In Kosinski's sardonic world the innocent jabberings of a moronic child-man are mistaken as profound wisdom--at the end of the film Chauncey is feted as a presidential candidate.

This story resonated with Peter Sellers at first reading and he pursued Kosinski for seven years for the film rights. During the making of the motion picture, Sellers became Chauncey Gardiner--so much so that friends became alarmed at his 24-hour-a-day transformation. The result was one of Sellers' funniest and most-poignant screen roles. He was an innocent man cast adrift in a world full of duplicitous people and contrived mediated images. And the film, like Kosinski's novel, is one of the most trenchant indictments of the role of television in society yet mounted in fictional form. The film was a fitting end to a career built on Sellers' own unique mimicry skills. He contrived a number of quirky illusory personas--a diverse world that included such memorable characters as Grytpype Thynne, Jacques Clouseau, and Chauncey Gardiner.

-Peter B. Seel