Peter Sellers Add to My Celebs Age 54 (passed away Jul. 24th, 1980) Birthday Sep. 8th, 1925 Born in Southsea, Hampshire, England, UK Height 5' 8"

Peter Sellers' Main TV Roles Show Character(s) And So To Bentley (UK) Various Rol… Eric Sykes Presents Peter Sellers (UK) Peter Sellers Sykes (UK) Tommy Grando This Is Tom Jones (UK) Peter Sellers A Show Called Fred (UK) Various Cha… Film Night (UK) Peter Sellers Heroes of Comedy (UK) Peter Sellers Son Of Fred (UK) Various Cha… The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (UK) Various Cha… The Telegoons (UK) Bluebottle Col. Bloodnok Henry Crun Hercules Gr… Yes, It's The Cathode-Ray Tube Show! (UK) Various Cha…

Main Movie Roles 1982 - Trail of the Pink Panther 1980 - The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu 1979 - The Prisoner of Zenda 1979 - Being There 1978 - Revenge of the Pink Panther 1976 - Murder by Death 1976 - The Pink Panther Strikes Again 1975 - The Return of the Pink Panther 1972 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 1970 - There's a Girl in My Soup 1970 - Hoffman 1969 - The Magic Christian 1968 - The Party 1968 - I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! 1964 - A Shot in the Dark 1964 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1963 - Heavens Above! 1963 - The Wrong Arm of the Law 1963 - The Pink Panther 1962 - Waltz of the Toreadors 1962 - The Road to Hong Kong 1962 - Lolita 1960 - The Millionairess 1959 - The Battle of the Sexes 1959 - The Mouse That Roared 1958 - tom thumb 1957 - The Smallest Show on Earth 1956 - The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn 1956 - The Ladykillers 1950 - The Black Rose

NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at IMDB


BIOGRAPHY:

Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born to a well-off English acting family in 1925. His mother and father worked in an acting company run by his grandmother. As a child, Sellers was spoiled, as his parents' first child had died at birth. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served during World War II. After the war he met Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, who would become his future workmates. After the war he set up a review in London, which was a combination of music (he played the drums) and impressions. Then, all of a sudden, he burst into prominence as the voices of numerous favorites on "The Goon Show" (1951-1960), making his debut in films in Penny Points to Paradise (1951) and Down Among the Z Men (1952), before making it big as one of the criminals in The Ladykillers (1955). These small but showy roles continued throughout the 1950s, but he got his first big break playing the dogmatic union man, Fred Kite, in I'm All Right Jack (1959). The film's success led to starring vehicles into the 1960s that showed off his extreme comic ability to its fullest, but after the relative failure of What's New Pussycat (1965), which was Woody Allen's first film, Sellers embarked on a rapid downfall to "Grade Z" movies in the 1970s, all of which he claimed to have made only because he needed the money. In 1972 he read the book "Being There" and decided to make it into a film. It took him seven years to finally bring it to the screen, but it earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination (he lost to Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of "Superdad" in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)). Being There (1979) proved to be somewhat of a last hurray for Sellers, as he died the following year. His last movie, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), completed just before his death, proved to be another flop. Director Blake Edwards' attempt at reviving the Pink Panther series after Sellers' death resulted in two panned 1980s comedies, the first of which, Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), deals with Inspector Clouseau's disappearance and was made from material cut from previous Pink Panther films and includes interviews with the original casts playing their original characters.


TRIVIA:

• Together with 'Nicolas Cage' (qv) (_Adaptation. (2002)_ (qv)) and 'Lee Marvin' (qv) (_Cat Ballou (1965)_ (qv)), Sellers is the only actor with an Oscar nomination for playing multiple characters in a film (in (_Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)_ (qv), he plays three characters, Group Captain (G/C) Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove). Marvin is the only one who actually won one for a double role.
• Served in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
• Appointed a CBE in 1966.
• Father, with Anne Howe, of 'Michael Sellers (I)' (qv) and 'Sarah Sellers' (qv).
• His performance as Chance the Gardener in _Being There (1979)_ (qv) is ranked #49 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
• Turned down the role of George Webber in 'Blake Edwards' (qv)' _10 (1979)_ (qv) ('George Segal (I)' (qv) was cast instead but eventually replaced by 'Dudley Moore' (qv)). Sellers made a cameo appearance but it wound up being cut out.
• His performance as Dr. Strangelove in _Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)_ (qv) is ranked #75 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
• At the time of his death, Sellers was set to play Inspector Clouseau again in "Romance of the Pink Panther". The script had been written by Sellers and 'Jim Moloney' (qv) and the film was to be directed by 'Clive Donner' (qv). Also in the pipeline were the leads in _Lovesick (1983)_ (qv) and _Unfaithfully Yours (1984)_ (qv). Both these roles were taken over by 'Dudley Moore' (qv).

Peter Sellers Photos

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