Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers (67 page)

• • •

Michael Sellers went on to write a book about his father,
P.S. I Love You
.
He also coedited
Sellers on Sellers
, a collection of reminiscences, and
Hard
Act to Follow
, in which he and some other sons and daughters of celebrities
chronicle their wholly justified difficulties in being famous people’s offspring.

Victoria Sellers turned up in the news in the spring of 1986 when she
appeared nude in
Playboy
. The glossy magazine spread reveals her recreating famous moments from classic films: a bare-breasted “Ingrid Bergman” in white silk panties and high heels at the end of
Casablanca
(1942);
“Elizabeth Taylor” in
Cleopatra
(1960), clad in a snake; and “Sophia Loren”
in
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
(1963) with her bush exposed.

Victoria was also indicted that spring for her role in a cocaine-trafficking
gang. The ringleader was her agent. Facing twenty years in jail, she agreed
to testify for the government and was placed on three years’ probation. In
the early 1990s, she and her friend and housemate, Heidi Fleiss, found
employment as high-priced prostitutes; the so-called “Hollywood madam”
scandal broke in 1993.

The following year, Victoria was questioned about a series of armed
robberies committed by her boyfriend.

Sex Tips with Heidi Fleiss and Victoria Sellers
was released on DVD in
time for Christmas 2001.

Sarah Sellers lives quietly in North London.

Anne Levy lives near her daughter.

After “Bino” Cicogna committed suicide, Britt Ekland continued to
live a life of glamour and glory with such short- and long-term mates as
Warren Beatty, Rod Stewart, George Hamilton, and the record producer
Lou Adler, with whom she had a son.

Liza Minnelli went on to achieve some great performances (
New York,
New York
, 1977, and
Arthur
, 1981) and equally well-publicized addictions.

Titi Wachtmeister moved on from Peter Sellers to King Carl Gustaf of
Sweden. She returned to the public eye in the late 1980s when she launched
a line of expensive T-shirts called “T-T’s T’s.” She died of a brain hemorrhage in 1993.

Sinead Cusack married Jeremy Irons in 1978; the couple has two sons.

In 2000, Sophia Loren wrote a loving tribute to Peter Sellers for a
British awards ceremony. She was, she wrote, “amused and permanently
entertained by his wit and his vivid intelligence. After him nobody else has
reached his level and his originality. I will always remember him with love
and endless regrets.”

Miranda Quarry is now Lady Nuttall.

• • •

Blake Edwards attempted to assume control of
The Romance of the Pink
Panther
after Peter’s death and offered the role of Inspector Clouseau to
Dudley Moore, who turned it down.

Edwards then compiled a selection of outtakes from previous
Pink Panther
films, released it as
The Trail of the Pink Panther
(1982), and was
promptly sued by Lynne Frederick, who claimed that the film insulted the
memory of her dear husband. A British court ordered the various producers
of
The Trail of the Pink Panther
—Edwards, United Artists, and Lakeline
Productions, which was owned by Julie Andrews—to pay $1 million in
damages, 3.15 percent of the film’s profits, and 1.36 percent of its gross
receipts.

Edwards’s more successful films after Peter’s death include
S.O.B.
(1981) and
Victor/Victoria
(1982), which he and Julie Andrews later turned
into a smash Broadway musical. Edwards has recently rewritten
A Shot in
the Dark
as a Broadway play and
The Pink Panther
as a Broadway musical.

• • •

In Hollywood, a cinematic remake—or postmillennial rethinking—of
The
Pink Panther
is in development for Mike Myers, who claims that his father
used to provide him with comedy lessons that took the form of Mr. Myers
waking up young Mike in the middle of the night and making him watch
Peter Sellers’s films on TV.

Peter Sellers’s roles in
Lovesick
(1983) and
Unfaithfully Yours
(1984)
were taken by Dudley Moore. The rest of Peter’s projects died with him.

David Lodge, Kenneth Griffith, and Graham Stark live in or around
London. Roman Polanski lives in exile in Paris. Terry Southern died in
1995, Stanley Kubrick in 1999. Hal Ashby died in 1988. Michael Bentine
died in 1996. Sir Harry Secombe and George Harrison died in 2001.

Spike Milligan died in February 2002.

New York
March 2002

Penny Points to Paradise
(1951). Harry Secombe (Harry Flakers), Alfred Marks
(Edward Haynes), Peter Sellers (The Major, Arnold Fringe), Spike Milligan
(Spike Donnelly), Paddy O’Neil (Christine Russell). Director: Tony Young;
screenwriter: John Ormonde. Advance and Adelphi Films, 77 minutes.

Let’s Go Crazy
(1951). Peter Sellers (Groucho, Giuseppe, Crystal Jollibottom,
Cedric, and Izzy Gozunk), with Manley and Austin, Keith Warwick, Jean Cavall, Pat Kaye and Betty Ankers, Maxim & Johnson, and Freddie Mirfield and
his Garbage Men. Director: Alan Cullimore. Adelphi Films, 33 minutes.

Down Among the Z Men
(1952). Harry Secombe (Harry Jones), Carole Carr
(Carole Gayley), Peter Sellers (Colonel Bloodnok), Michael Bentine (Prof. Osric
Pureheart), Spike Milligan (Private Eccles). Director: Maclean Rogers; screenwriters: Jimmy Grafton and Francis Charles; producer: E. J. Fancey; director of
photography: Geoffrey Faithfull. E. J. Fancey Productions, 82 minutes.

The Super Secret Service
(1953). Peter Sellers, Graham Stark, Dick Emery, Bryan
Johnson, Raymond Francis, Anne Hayes, Dickie Martyn, Frank Hawkins, and
the Ray Ellington Quartet. Director: Charles W. Green; screenwriters: Spike
Milligan and Larry Stephens; producer: John H. Robertson. New Realm, 24
minutes.

Beat the Devil
(1953). Humphrey Bogart (Billy Dannreuther), Jennifer Jones
(Gwendolen Chelm), Gina Lollobrigida (Maria Dannreuther), Robert Morley
(Petersen), Peter Lorre (O’Hara), Peter Sellers (uncredited voices, including that
of Humphrey Bogart). Director: John Huston; screenwriters: Truman Capote
and John Huston; director of photography: Oswald Morris; producer: John
Huston. Romulus/United Artists, 100 minutes.

Orders Are Orders
(1954). Margot Grahame (Wanda Sinclair), Maureen Swanson
(Joanne Delamere), Brian Reece (Captain Harper), Raymond Huntley (Colonel
Bellamy), Sid James (Ed Waggermeyer), Tony Hancock (Lt. Wilfred Cartroad),
Peter Sellers (Private Goffin), Eric Sykes (Private Waterhouse), Donald Pleasence (Corporal Martin). Director: David Paltenghi; screenwriters: Geoffrey
Orme and Eric Sykes, based on the play by Ian Hay and Anthony Armstrong;
producer: Donald Taylor; director of photography: Arthur Grant. Group 3/British Lion, 78 minutes.

Our Girl Friday
(1954). Joan Collins (Sadie Patch), George Cole (Jimmy Carroll),
Kenneth More (Pat Plunkett), Robertson Hare (Professor Gibble), Hermione
Gingold (spinster), Peter Sellers (voice of cockatoo, uncredited). Director: Noel
Langley; screenwriter: Noel Langley; producers: George Minter and Noel Langley.
Renown Pictures, 87 minutes. Released in Britain as
The Adventures of Sadie
.

Malaga
(1954). Maureen O’Hara (Joanna Dane), Macdonald Carey (Van Logan),
Binnie Barnes (Frisco), Guy Middleton (Soames Howard), and Peter Sellers
(multiple voices, uncredited). Director: Richard Sale; screenwriter: Robert Westerby; director of photography: Christopher Challis; producers: Colin Lesslie
and Mike Frankovich. Columbia Pictures, 84 minutes. Released in the U.S. as
Fire Over Africa
.

John and Julie
(1955). Colin Gibson (John), Lesley Dudley (Julie), Noelle Middleton (Miss Stokes), Moira Lister (Dora), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Sir James),
Sidney James (Mr. Pritchett), Megs Jenkins (Mrs. Pritchett), Constance Cummings (Mrs. Davidson), Peter Sellers (Police Constable Diamond). Director:
William Fairchild; screenwriter: William Fairchild; director of photography:
Arthur Grant; producer, Herbert Mason. British Lion, 82 minutes.

The Ladykillers
(1955). Katie Johnson (Mrs. Wilberforce), Alec Guinness
(Professor Marcus), Cecil Parker (Major Courtney), Herbert Lom (Louis), Peter
Sellers (Harry), Danny Green (One-Round), Jack Warner (police superintendent). Director: Alexander Mackendrick; screenwriter: William Rose; cinematography: Otto Heller; producer: Michael Balcon; associate producer, Seth Holt.
Ealing Studios, 97 minutes.

The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn
(1956). Peter Sellers (Quilt, Sir Jervis
Fruit, Henry Crun), Spike Milligan (Brown, White, Minnie, Catchpole Burkington), and Dick Emery (Watchman, Nodule, Such, Ponk), with Pamela
Thomas, Wally Thomas, Bill Hepper, and Gordon Phillott. Director: Joseph
Sterling; screenwriters: Harry Booth, Jon Penington, and Larry Stephens, from
a story by Larry Stephens, with additional material by Spike Milligan and Peter
Sellers; director of photography: Gerald Gibbs; producers: Jon Pennington,
Harry Booth, and Michael Deeley. Marlborough Pictures, 27 minutes.

The Man Who Never Was
(1956). Clifton Webb (Lt. Comm. Ewen Montagu),
Gloria Grahame (Lucy Sherwood), Peter Sellers (voice of Winston Churchill,
uncredited). Director: Ronald Neame; screenwriter: Nigel Balchin, based on the
book by Ewen Montagu; director of photography: Oswald Morris; producer:
André Hakim. Twentieth Century-Fox/Sumar Film, 103 minutes.

Dearth of a Salesman
(1957). Peter Sellers (Hector Dimwittie). Director: Leslie
Arliss. A.B.-Pathé, 28 minutes.

Insomnia Is Good for You
(1957). Peter Sellers (Hector Dimwittie). Director:
Leslie Arliss; screenwriters: Lewis Greifer, Mordecai Richler; director of photography: J. Burgoyne-Johnson. A.B.-Pathé, 26 minutes.

The Smallest Show on Earth
(1957). Virginia McKenna (Jean), Bill Travers
(Matt), Margaret Rutherford (Mrs. Fazackalee), Peter Sellers (Percy Quill), Bernard Miles (Old Tom), Francis De Wolff (Hardcastle). Director: Basil Dearden;
screenwriter: John Eldridge and William Rose; director of photography:
Douglas Slocombe; producers: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, and Michael
Relph. British Lion/Continental, 81 minutes. Originally released in the U.S. as
Big Time Operators
.

The Naked Truth
(1957). Terry-Thomas (Lord Henry Mayley), Peter Sellers
(Sonny MacGregor), Peggy Mount (Flora Ransom), Shirley Eaton (Melissa
Right), Dennis Price (Nigel Dennis), Georgina Cookson (Lady Lucy Mayley),
Kenneth Griffith (Porter), David Lodge (Constable Johnson). Director: Mario
Zampi; screenwriter: Michael Pertwee; director of photography: Stanley Pavey;
producer: Mario Zampi. British Film/Rank Organisation, 91 minutes. Originally released in the U.S. as
Your Past Is Showing
.

Up the Creek
(1958). David Tomlinson (Lieutenant Fairweather), Peter Sellers
(Chief Petty Officer Doherty), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Admiral Foley), Lionel
Jeffries (Steady Barker), Lionel Murton (Perkins), Sam Kydd (Bates), John Warren (Cooky), Liliane Sottane (Susanne), and David Lodge (Scouse). Director:
Val Guest; screenwiters: Val Guest, John Warren, and Len Heath; director of
photography: Arthur Grant; producer: Henry Halsted. Byron/Exclusive, 83
minutes.

tom thumb
(1958). Russ Tamblyn (Tom Thumb), Alan Young (Woody), June
Thorburn (Forest Queen), Terry-Thomas (Ivan), Peter Sellers (Tony), Bernard
Miles (Father), Jessie Matthews (Mother), Peter Bull (the town crier), and the
Puppetoons. Director: George Pal; screenwriter: Ladislas Fodor, based on the
story by the Brothers Grimm; director of photography: Georges Périnal; producer: George Pal. Galaxy Pictures/MGM, 98 minutes.

Carlton-Browne of the F.O.
(1959). Terry-Thomas (Cadogan deVere Carlton-Browne), Peter Sellers (Amphibulos), Luciana Paluzzi (Princess Ilyena), Ian Bannen (young king), Thorley Walters (Colonel Bellingham), Miles Malleson
(resident advisor), Raymond Huntley (foreign secretary), John Le Mesurier
(Grand Duke Alexis), and Irene Handl (Mrs. Carter). Directors: Jeffrey Dell
and Roy Boulting; screenwriters: Jeffrey Dell and Roy Boulting; director of
photography: Max Greene; producer: John Boulting. British Lion/Charter
Films, 88 minutes. Released in the U.S. as
Man in a Cocked Hat
.

The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
(1959). Peter Sellers
(photographer), Dick Lester (painter), Spike Milligan (record player, etc.), and Graham
Stark (kite master), with Audrey Stark, Mario Fabrizi, Leo McKern, and David
Lodge. Director: Dick Lester; “Thoughts by Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Mario
Fabrizi, and Dick Lester; devised by Peter Sellers.” 11 minutes.

The Mouse That Roared
(1959). Peter Sellers (Tully Bascombe, Grand Duchess
Gloriana XII, and the Prime Minister, Count Mountjoy), Jean Seberg (Helen
Kokintz), William Hartnell (Will), David Kossoff (Professor Kokintz), Austin
Willis (U.S. Secretary of Defense), Leo McKern (Benter), and Jacques Cey
(ticket collector). Director: Jack Arnold; screenwriters: Roger MacDougall and
Stanley Mann, based on the novel by Leonard Wibberley; director of photography: John Wilcox; producer: Walter Shenson. Highroad/Columbia Pictures, 83
minutes.