Sellers was a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats, the same exclusive theatrical fraternity founded by Leno in 1890.
His parents were Yorkshire-born William "Bill" Sellers (1900–1962) and Agnes Doreen "Peg" (née Marks, 1892–1967).
After a chance meeting with a North American Indian spirit guide in the 1950s, Sellers became convinced that the music hall comedian Dan Leno, who died in 1904, haunted him and guided his career and life-decisions.
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English film actor, comedian and singer.
English filmmakers the Boulting brothers described Sellers as "the greatest comic genius this country has produced since Charles Chaplin". == Biography == ===Early life (1925–1935)=== Sellers was born on 8 September 1925, in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth.
As an only child though, he spent much time alone. In 1935 the Sellers family moved to North London and settled in Muswell Hill.
Early in 1940, the family moved to the north Devon town of Ilfracombe, where Sellers's maternal uncle managed the Victoria Palace Theatre; Sellers got his first job at the theatre, aged fifteen, starting as a caretaker.
Sellers also performed comedy routines at these concerts, including impersonations of George Formby, with Sellers accompanying his own singing on ukulele. In September 1943, he joined the Royal Air Force, although it is unclear whether he volunteered or was conscripted; his mother unsuccessfully tried to have him deferred on medical grounds.
He also served in Germany and France after the war. According to David Lodge, who became friends with Sellers, he was "one of the best performers ever" on the drums and developed a fine ability to impersonate military officers during this period. === Early post-war career and The Goon Show (1946–1955) === In 1946, Sellers made his final show with ENSA starring in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris.
In March 1948 Sellers gained a six-week run at the Windmill Theatre in London, which predominantly staged revue acts: he provided the comedy turns in between the nude shows on offer. Sellers wrote to the BBC in 1948, and was subsequently auditioned.
As a result, he made his television debut on 18 March 1948 in New To You.
This led to his brief appearance on 1 July 1948 on ShowTime and subsequently to work on Ray's a Laugh with comedian Ted Ray.
In October 1948, Sellers was a regular radio performer, appearing in Starlight Hour, The Gang Show, Henry Hall's Guest Night and It's Fine To Be Young. By the end of 1948, the BBC Third Programme began to broadcast the comedy series Third Division, which starred, among others, Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Sellers.
The four comedians dubbed him KOGVOS (Keeper of Goons and Voice of Sanity) Grafton later edited some of the first Goon Shows. In 1949, Sellers started to date Anne Howe, an Australian actress who lived in London.
During the early 1950s, Sellers, along with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, took part in the successful radio series The Goon Show, which ended in 1960. Sellers began his film career during the 1950s.
He proposed to her in April 1950 and the couple were married in London on 15 September 1951; their son, Michael, was born on 2 April 1954, and their daughter, Sarah, followed in 1958.
Sellers's introduction to film work came in 1950, where he dubbed the voice of Alfonso Bedoya in The Black Rose.
After a chance meeting with a North American Indian spirit guide in the 1950s, Sellers became convinced that the music hall comedian Dan Leno, who died in 1904, haunted him and guided his career and life-decisions.
He proposed to her in April 1950 and the couple were married in London on 15 September 1951; their son, Michael, was born on 2 April 1954, and their daughter, Sarah, followed in 1958.
On 3 February 1951, he made a trial tape entitled The Goons, and sent it to the BBC producer Pat Dixon, who eventually accepted it. The first Goon Show was broadcast on 28 May 1951.
For Sellers, the BBC considers it had the effect of launching his career "on the road to stardom". In 1951 the Goons made their feature film debut in Penny Points to Paradise.
Sellers and Milligan then penned the script to Let's Go Crazy, the earliest film to showcase Sellers's ability to portray a series of different characters within the same film, and he made another appearance opposite his Goons co-stars in the 1952 flop, Down Among the Z Men.
He proposed to her in April 1950 and the couple were married in London on 15 September 1951; their son, Michael, was born on 2 April 1954, and their daughter, Sarah, followed in 1958.
In 1954, Sellers was cast opposite Sid James, Tony Hancock, Raymond Huntley, Donald Pleasence and Eric Sykes in the British Lion Film Corporation comedy production, Orders Are Orders.
He accepted a larger part in the 1955 Alexander Mackendrick-directed Ealing comedy The Ladykillers in which he starred opposite his idol Alec Guinness, in addition to Herbert Lom and Cecil Parker.
In 1957 film producer Michael Relph, impressed with Sellers's portrayal of an elderly character in Idiot Weekly, cast the 32-year-old actor as a 68-year-old projectionist in Basil Dearden's The Smallest Show on Earth, supporting Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna and Margaret Rutherford.
Later in 1957 Sellers portrayed a television star with a talent for disguises in Mario Zampi's offbeat black comedy The Naked Truth, opposite Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton and Dennis Price. Sellers's difficulties in getting his film career to take off, and increasing problems in his personal life, prompted him to seek periodic consultations with astrologer Maurice Woodruff, who held considerable sway over his later career.
He proposed to her in April 1950 and the couple were married in London on 15 September 1951; their son, Michael, was born on 2 April 1954, and their daughter, Sarah, followed in 1958.
In 1958 Sellers starred with David Tomlinson, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Lodge and Lionel Jeffries as a chief petty officer in Val Guest's Up the Creek.
The performance was a landmark in Sellers's career and became his first contact with the Hollywood film industry. Sellers released his first studio album in 1958 called The Best of Sellers; a collection of comic songs and sketches, including Balham, Gateway to the South, where he plays a variety of comic characters.
Originally intended as a private film, the eleven-minute short film The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film was screened at the 1959 Edinburgh and San Francisco film festivals.
In 1959 Sellers released his second album, Songs For Swinging Sellers, which—like his first record—reached number three in the UK Albums Chart.
During the early 1950s, Sellers, along with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, took part in the successful radio series The Goon Show, which ended in 1960. Sellers began his film career during the 1950s.
Sellers appeared in The Goons until the last programme of the ten-series run, broadcast on 28 January 1960.
Before the release of that film, the Boultings, along with Sellers and Thomas in the cast, started filming I'm All Right Jack, which became the highest grossing film at the British box office in 1960.
Sellers's last film of the fifties was The Battle of the Sexes; a comedy directed by Charles Crichton. === The Millionairess, Lolita, The Pink Panther and divorce (1960–1963) === In 1960 Sellers portrayed an Indian doctor, Dr Ahmed el Kabir, in Anthony Asquith's romantic comedy The Millionairess, a film based on a George Bernard Shaw play of the same name.
Nobody does." Roger Lewis observed that Sellers immersed himself completely in the characters he enacted during productions, that "He'd play a role as an Indian doctor, and for the next six months, he'd be an Indian in his real [daily] life." The film inspired the George Martin-produced novelty hit single "Goodness Gracious Me", with Sellers and Loren, which reached number four in the UK Singles Chart in November 1960.
That year he also appeared in Never Let Go (1960) playing a straight villain part. In 1961 Sellers made his directorial debut with Mr.
He was nominated for the Best British Actor award at the 16th British Academy Film Awards for his role as John Lewis, a frustrated Welsh librarian whose affections swing between the glamorous Liz (Mai Zetterling) and his long-suffering wife Jean (Virginia Maskell). In 1962 Sellers played a retired British army general in John Guillermin's Waltz of the Toreadors, based on the play of the same name.
Stanley Kubrick asked Sellers to play the role of Clare Quilty in the 1962 film Lolita, opposite James Mason and Shelley Winters.
Towards the end of 1962, Sellers appeared in The Dock Brief, a legal satire directed by James Hill and co-starring Richard Attenborough. Sellers's behaviour towards his family worsened in 1962; according to his son Michael, Sellers asked him and his sister Sarah "who we love more, our mother or him.
At the end of 1962, his marriage to Anne broke down.
In 1963, Sellers starred as gang leader "Pearly Gates" in Cliff Owen's The Wrong Arm of the Law, followed by his portrayal of a vicar in Heavens Above! After his father's death in October 1962, Sellers decided to leave England and was approached by director Blake Edwards who offered him the role of Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther, after Peter Ustinov had backed out of the film.
In 1963, Sellers starred as gang leader "Pearly Gates" in Cliff Owen's The Wrong Arm of the Law, followed by his portrayal of a vicar in Heavens Above! After his father's death in October 1962, Sellers decided to leave England and was approached by director Blake Edwards who offered him the role of Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther, after Peter Ustinov had backed out of the film.
Strangelove, health problems, a second marriage and Casino Royale (1964–1969) === In 1963, Stanley Kubrick cast Sellers to appear in Dr.
For his performance in all three roles, Sellers was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor at the 37th Academy Awards, and the Best British Actor award at the 18th British Academy Film Awards. Between November 1963 and February 1964, Sellers began filming A Shot in the Dark, an adaptation of a French play, L'Idiote by Marcel Achard.
Although the Clouseau character was in the script, Sellers created the personality, devising the costume, accent, make-up, moustache and trench coat. The Pink Panther was released in the UK in January 1964 and received a mixed reception from the critics, although Penelope Gilliatt, writing in The Observer, remarked that Sellers had a "flawless sense of mistiming" in a performance that was "one of the most delicate studies in accident-proneness since the silents".
For his performance in all three roles, Sellers was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor at the 37th Academy Awards, and the Best British Actor award at the 18th British Academy Film Awards. Between November 1963 and February 1964, Sellers began filming A Shot in the Dark, an adaptation of a French play, L'Idiote by Marcel Achard.
Upon its release in late June 1964, Bosley Crowther noted the "joyously free and facile way" in which Sellers had developed his comedy technique. Towards the end of filming, in early February 1964, Sellers met Britt Ekland, a Swedish actress who had arrived in London to film Guns at Batasi.
On 19 February 1964, just ten days after their first meeting, the couple married.
On the night of 5 April 1964, prior to having sex with Ekland, Sellers inhaled amyl nitrites (poppers) as a sexual stimulant in his search for "the ultimate orgasm", and suffered a series of eight heart attacks over the course of three hours as a result.
Wilder was unsympathetic about the heart attacks, saying that "you have to have a heart before you can have an attack". After some time recovering, Sellers returned to filming in October 1964, playing King of the Individualists alongside Ekland in A Carol for Another Christmas, a feature-length United Nations special broadcast in the United States on the ABC channel on 28 December 1964.
Feldman insured him at a cost of $360,000 ($ in dollars). On 20 January 1965, Sellers and Ekland announced the birth of a daughter, Victoria.
Upon its release in September 1967, The Bobo was poorly received. Sellers's first film appearance of 1968 was a reunion with Blake Edwards for the fish-out-of-water comedy The Party, in which he starred alongside Claudine Longet and Denny Miller.
The divorce was finalised on 18 December 1968, and Sellers's friend Spike Milligan sent Ekland a congratulatory telegram.
Upon its release in September 1967, The Bobo was poorly received. Sellers's first film appearance of 1968 was a reunion with Blake Edwards for the fish-out-of-water comedy The Party, in which he starred alongside Claudine Longet and Denny Miller.
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English film actor, comedian and singer.
In 1980 he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in Being There, and was previously nominated three times in the same category.
He died from a heart attack, aged 54, in 1980.
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