Simon, Neil.
Rewrites: A Memoir
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Sinclair, David.
Snowden: A Man for Our Times
. New York: Proteus Books,
1982.

Sineux, Michel. “Bye Bye Birdie-num-num.”
Positif
(February 1981): 47–51.

Southern, Nile. “Grossing Out.”
Mean
1, 5 (September–November 1999): 48.

Southern, Terry. “Strangelove Outtake: Notes from the War Room.”
Grand Street
(Summer 1994): 64–80.

Stamelman, Peter. “In the Lair of the Pink Panther—An Interview with Blake
Edwards.”
Millimeter
(January 1977): 20, 72.

Stark, Graham.
Remembering Peter Sellers
. London: Robson Books, 1990.

Steiger, Brad. “Peter Sellers Is a Medium.”
Fate
(January 1970): 44–48.

Stempel, Tom.
Screenwriter: The Life and Times of Nunnally Johnson
. New York:
A.S. Barnes & Co., Inc., 1980.

Stollar, Steve.
Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside the Groucho House
. Los Angeles:
General Publishing Group, 1996.

Street, Sarah.
British National Cinema
. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Summers, Sue. “Peter Was Always Cruellest to the People He Was Closest To.”
Mail on Sunday
(February 5, 1995): 24–29.

Sylvester, David, ed.
Moonraker, Strangelove and Other Celluloid Dreams: The Visionary Art of Ken Adam
. London: Serpentine Gallery, 1999.

Terry-Thomas, with Terry Dunn.
Terry-Thomas Tells Tales
. London: Robson
Books, 1990.

Thompson, Charles.
Bob Hope: Portrait of a Superstar
. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1981.

Thompson, Howard. “Pause for Reflection with Peter Sellers.”
New York Times
(October 25, 1964): sec. 2, 7.

Thomson, David. “The Rest Is Sellers.”
Film Comment
(September–October
1980): 30–32.

Tonkin, Boyd. “Mad or Bad?”
New Statesman and Society
(May 20, 1994): 40.

Took, Barry.
Comedy Greats
. Northamptonshire: Thorsons Publishing Group, 1989.

Torme, Mel.
It Wasn’t All Velvet
. New York: Penguin, 1988.

———.
My Singing Teachers
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Tornabene, Lyn. “Lunch Date with Peter Sellers.”
Cosmopolitan
(September 1962):
14.

Tynan, Kathleen.
The Life of Kenneth Tynan
. New York: William Morrow and
Co., Inc., 1987.

Tynan, Kenneth. “The Antic Arts: The Nondescript Genius.”
Holiday
(June
1961): 127–33.

———.
The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan
. John Larh, ed. New York: Bloomsbury,
2001.

Vickers, Hugo.
Cecil Beaton: The Authorized Biography
. London: Weidenfeld,
1993.

Von Dassanowsky, Robert. “Casino Royale at 33: The Postmodern Epic in Spite
of Itself,”
Bright Lights Film Journal
28 (April 2000). http://www.brightlights
fi lm.com/28/casinoroyale1.html

Waggoner, Walter H. “Arrival of Sellers.”
New York Times Magazine
(March 27,
1960).

Walker, Alexander.
Hollywood UK
. New York: Stein & Day, 1974.

———.
Peter Sellers: The Authorised Biography
. Oxford: Clio Press, 1991.

Wapshott, Nicholas.
Peter O’Toole: A Biography
. New York: Beaufort Books, 1983.

Weinberg, Gerhard.
A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II
. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Whicker, Alan.
Within Whicker’s World
. London: Elm Tree Books, 1982.

White, Carol, with Clifford Thurlow.
Carol Comes Home
. London: New English
Library, 1982.

Whitelaw, Billie.
Billie Whitelaw . . . Who He?
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.

Wiley, Mason, and Damien Bona.
Inside Oscar
. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.

Wilmut, Roger, and Jimmy Grafton.
The Goon Show Companion: A History and
Goonography
. London: Robson Books, 1976.

Wilmut, Roger.
Tony Hancock—“Artiste.”
London: Eyre Methuen Ltd., 1978.

Wilson, Pamela. “Dr. Strangelove.” (Book review).
New York Times Book Review
(December 15, 1996): 26–27.

Windeler, Robert.
Julie Andrews: A Life on Stage and Screen
. Secaucus, New Jersey:
Birch Lane Press, 1997.

Woodward, Ian.
Audrey Hepburn
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984.

Wyman, Bill, with Ray Coleman.
Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock ’n Roll Band
.
New York: DaCapo Press, 1997.

Yoakum, Jim, and Paul Cullum. “Inspecting Clouseau.”
Mean
1, 5 (September–November 1999): 48–49.

Yule, Andrew.
The Man Who “Framed” the Beatles: A Biography of Richard Lester
.
New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1994.

Zee, Donald.
Sophia
. New York: David McKay and Co., 1975.

Zetterling, Mai.
All Those Tomorrows
. New York: Grove Press, 1985.

Zinsser, William K. “A Young Man Riding High.”
Life
(June 20, 1960): 64–70.

Biographers put their hope and trust in hundreds of friends and strangers,
some of whom become friends, and who collectively turn the author’s wishful thoughts into a book.

It was an honor to interview such generous and articulate people as
Rod Amateau, Ian Carmichael, Hilda Parkin Durante, Peter Eyre, Kenneth
Geist, Max Geldray, Gail Gerber, Kenneth Griffith, John Guillermin, the
late Sir Alec Guinness, Gene Gutowski, the late John P. Hamilton, Anthony
Harvey, Burt Kwouk, David Lodge, Herbert Lom, Salem Ludwig, Malcolm
McDowell, Joseph McGrath, Dr. Jonathan Miller, Hans Moellinger, Angela Morley, Kathleen Parrish, the late Robert Parrish, Siân Phillips, Larry
Pizer, Roman Polanski, Alvin Rakoff, Clive Rees, the late Walter Shenson,
and Dame Maggie Smith. For reasons that will be obvious to anyone who
has followed the course of Peter Sellers’s reputation after his death, his
immediate family declined to speak to me about him; I think I understand
why, and I hope I have not hurt them further.

I drew quotations from Peter Sellers, Anne Levy, Michael Sellers, Victoria Sellers, Britt Ekland, and others from a variety of sources, most significantly Alexander Walker’s invaluable
Peter Sellers
; Michael Sellers’s
equally worthy
P.S. I Love You
; Graham Stark’s informative and funny
memoir,
Remembering Peter Sellers
; Peter Evans’s fine (and unduly criticized)
The Mask Behind the Mask: A Life of Peter Sellers
, and Britt Ekland’s
engrossing autobiography,
True Britt
. I drew additional quotations from
Peter Sellers and his friends and colleagues from three fine documentaries:
John Scheinfeld and David Leaf’s
The Unknown Peter Sellers
; the three-part
The Peter Sellers Story,
which was produced by Arena and aired on BBC2;
and
Sellers’ Best?: An Introduction to the Channel Four Season of Peter Sellers’
Films
, which aired on Channel Four. And I owe every person named in
this book’s admittedly lengthy bibliography my deepest gratitude.

Assistance, contacts, advice, factual corrections, interview transcriptions, and absolute kindness came my way from Mary Alexander, Nigel
Algar, Lance Aston, David Boxwell, Darla Bruno and her fabulous fan
website, Ron Caldwell, Aaron Clauset, Alice Crary, Paul Cullum and
Mean
magazine, Bruce Finlayson, Phil Geldray; Donna Gianarelli, Phoebe McReynolds, and the faculty of the Colorado College English Department;
Barry Goralnick, Adele Greene, Sally Harrison, Walter and Dianne Harrison; Gary Hill, Janice Roland, and the staff of Falco Ink; Costas Karakatsanis, Marshall Kean, Rick Kot, Charles Kreloff, Dick Ray, Tom Rhoads,
Ira Robbins, George Robinson, Pierre Salinger, Linda Sarro and the faculty
and staff of Haverford College; Draper Shreeve, Sandra Skuse, Joe Smith,
Ted Sorensen, Nile Southern, Peter Steinberg, Thom Taylor, Thomas S.
Wilson, Bill and Sandy Woncheck, and Jim Yoakum and the Graham
Chapman Archives.

Greg Meyer is the best, most thorough, and most responsible research
assistant any writer could have, let alone an egocentric and anxious biographer like me. I owe him more gratitude than I could possibly afford.
Adam Orman, Michael Kaniecki, and John Freed provided equally reliable
research assistance as well, but it’s easier for me to thank them because they
worked fewer hours.

For making their extraordinary knowledge available, let alone their facilities, I thank Sandra Archer, Barbara Hall, and the other librarians and
staff at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick
Library; the librarians and staff of American Film Institute’s Louis B. Mayer
Library; the special collections librarians at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles; the New York Public
Library; the librarians and film archivists at the British Film Institute; the
librarians at the Theatre Museum in London; Fred Zentner and Dejan
Zamurovic at the Cinema Bookshop in London; and, as always, Ron Mandelbaum and the guys at Photofest in New York.

Any contest for the title “World’s Greatest Peter Sellers Fan” must
result in a tie between Maxine Ventham and Dimitris Verionis. Both of
these marvelous and appreciative people provided access to rare materials
and important contacts. They gave me support and solid friendship when
I needed it most, not to mention critical observations about their favorite
performer. Maxine and Dimitris are devoted to the life and work of Peter
Sellers, and they each helped me to understand him much better than I
could have on my own. There may be observations in this book that will
upset those with whom they put me in contact. I can only say that I never
meant this book to be mean.

I trusted my friends Christopher Bram and Matthew Mirapaul enough
to let them read my first draft. They gently steered me away from my worst
impulses; they suggested improvements kindly; and they told me they
thought the book was funny, which is what I hope Peter Sellers himself
would have appreciated. It was Chris who kicked me out of my writer’s
block by suggesting that I write Peter’s life story as a sympathetic black
comedy; Matthew suggested the title.

I love my agent, Edward Hibbert, as well I should, since I owe him
my career. What could be better than to have a brilliant actor as your agent?
Fans of
Frasier
know Edward as Gil Chesterton, the British food critic; I,
however, am most fond of his stage performances as Lady Bracknell in
The
Importance of Being Earnest
and Frederick Fellowes in the Broadway smash
Noises Off
. Edward’s associates at Donadio and Olson—Neil Olson, Ira
Silverberg, and Jesse Dorris—are kind enough to advise me, take my phone
calls when Edward is out of town or in rehearsal, and hold my hand as
often as I beg them to do so.

This book’s genesis occurred in the offices of Hyperion when Jennifer
Barth, the editor of my earlier biography on Billy Wilder, and Alison Lowenstein, her assistant, were discussing ideas for my next book. They, not I,
came up with Peter Sellers, and I think they made a very good decision.

Peternelle van Arsdale edited this book with a fine eye and a sharp
pencil, two things every author needs. She’s the greatest, and I’m forever
in her debt. Thanks to Natalie Kaire, this book sailed smoothly through its
transition from manuscript to print, and I am thrilled with the way it
turned out. Thanks also to Donna M. Ellis, senior production editor; Laura
Starrett, copy editor; and Phil Rose, art director.

My parents, Irving and Betty Sikov; my partner, Bruce Schackman;
and all of my extended family make me appreciate, each day, how lucky I
am in every way—not least of which is that none of us are famous.

Mr. Strangelove

The first American biography of one of film’s greatest comedians, MR. STRANGELOVE is the story of a screamingly funny, desperately unhappy soul—a man who thought he was empty. Sellers, who could mimic anyone and don any mask at will, was privately convinced that his personality had no core—that there was no personal substance under the put-on characters he so readily and hilariously assumed. ”The Goon Show“ made him famous; ”I Love You, Alice B. Toklas“ and ”What’s New, Pussycat?“ turned him into a 60s flower-power icon that still resonates today. And yet Sellers, whose blistering improvisations could ruin takes by sending the casts and crews of his films into peals of uncontrollable laughter while the camera was running—remained confused and lonely, difficult to work with, volatile one minute and hopelessly lethargic the next.

In this exhaustively researched book based on tons of interviews, Dudley Moore, John Cleese, Christopher Plummer, Goldie Hawn, Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren and many others recount colorful stories of working with this comic genius. From his adolescence in Catholic school (Sellers was Jewish), through his joining up with the Royal Air force, and his catapulting to fame due at least in part to one of the most fiercely driven stage mothers in the history of performing arts, MR. STRANGELOVE traces the development of Seller’s unique humor. Perhaps most valuable to his rabid fans are the in-depth behind-the-scenes accounts of his work with Stanley Kubrick, Blake Edwards, and Billy Wilder, among others. And endlessly fascinating are the women Sellers chose to fall in love with, marry and divorce.