Peter Sellers - Biography - IMDb Peter Sellers Biography Showing all 77 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (4) | Trade Mark (5) | Trivia (48) | Personal Quotes (14) | Salary (1) Overview (4) 5' 8½" (1.74 m) Mini Bio (1) 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 BBC radio program "The Goon Show" (1951-1960), and then 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. In 1962, Sellers was cast in the role of Clare Quilty in the Stanley Kubrick version of the film Lolita (1962) in which his performance as a mentally unbalanced TV writer with multiple personalities landed him another part in Kubrick's Dr.

Strangelove (1964) in which he played three roles which showed off his comic talent in play-acting in three different accents; British, American, and German. The year 1964 represented a peak in his career with four films in release, all of them well-received by critics and the public alike: "Dr. Strangelove," for which he was Oscar nominated, "The Pink Panther," in which he played his signature role of the bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau for the first time, its almost accidental sequel, "A Shot in the Dark," and "The World of Henry Orient." Sellers was on top of the world, but on the evening of April 5, 1964, he suffered a nearly fatal heart attack after taking amyl nitrites (also called 'poppers'; an early type of Viagara-halogen combination) while engaged in a sexual act with his second wife Britt Eckland. He has been working on Billy Wilder's "Kiss Me, Stupid" (1964). In a move Wilder later regretted, he replaced Sellers with Ray Walston rather than hold up production.

By October 1964, Sellers made a full recovery and was working again. The mid-1960s were noted for the popularity of all things British, from the Beatles music (who were presented with their Grammy for Best New Artist by Sellers) to the James Bond films, and the world turned to Sellers for comedy. "What's New Pussycat" (1965) was another big hit, but a combination of his ego and insecurity was making Sellers difficult to work with. When the James Bond spoof, "Casino Royale" (1967) ran over budget and was unable to recoup its costs despite an otherwise healthy box-office take, Sellers received some of the blame. He turned down an offer from United Artists for the title role in "Inspector Clouseau" (1968), but was angry when the production went ahead with Alan Arkin in his place. His difficult reputation and increasingly erratic behavior, combined with several less successful films, took a toll on his standing. By 1970, he had fallen out of favor.

He spent the early years of the new decade appearing in such lackluster B films as "Where Does It Hurt?" (1972) and turning up more frequently on television as a guest on "The Dean Martin Show" and a Glen Campbell TV special. Inspector Clouseau came to his rescue when Sir Lew Grade expressed an interest in a TV series based on the character. Clouseau's creator, writer-director Blake Edwards, whose career had also seen better days, convinced Grade to bankroll a feature instead, and "Return of the Pink Panther" (1975) was a major hit in the summer of "Jaws" and restored both men to prominence. Sellers would play Clouseau in two more successful sequels, "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1976) and "The Revenge of the Pink Panther" (1978), and Sellers would use his newly rediscovered clout to realize his dream of playing Chauncey Gardiner in a film adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's novel "Being There." Sellers had read the novel in 1972, but it took seven years for the film to reach the screen.

"Being There" (1979) earned Sellers his second Oscar nomination, but he lost to Dustin Hoffman of "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). Sellers struggled with depression and mental insecurities throughout his life. An enigmatic figure, he often claimed to have no identity outside the roles that he played. His behavior on and off the set and stage became more erratic and compulsive, and he continued to frequently clash with his directors and co-stars, especially in the mid-1970s when his physical and mental health, together with his continuing alcohol and drug problems, were at their worst. He never fully recovered from his 1964 heart attack because he refused to take traditional heart medication and instead consulted with 'psychic healers'. As a result, his heart condition continued to slowly deteriorate over the next 16 years. On March 20, 1977, Sellers barely survived another major heart attack and had a pacemaker surgically implanted to regulate his heartbeat which caused him further mental and physical discomfort. However, he refused to slow down his work schedule or consider heart surgery which might have expanded his life by several years.

On July 25, 1980, Sellers was scheduled to have a reunion dinner in London with his Goon Show partners, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. However, at around 12 noon on July 22, Sellers collapsed from a massive heart attack in his Dorchester Hotel room and fell into a coma. He died in a London hospital just after midnight on July 24, 1980 at age 54. He was survived by his fourth wife, Lynne Frederick, and three children: Michael, Sarah and Victoria. At the time of his death, he was scheduled to undergo an angiography in Los Angeles on July 30 to see if if he was eligible for heart surgery. His last movie, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), completed just a few months before his death, proved to be another box office 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. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Ashley G. Mackinnon Spouse (4) His ability to change his voice and appearance Often infused his comic characters with an undercurrent of deep melancholy Often worked with Blake Edwards and Stanley Kubrick . Often ad-libbed some of the most memorable lines his characters say in his films Trivia (48) Father, with actress Britt Ekland , of actress Victoria Sellers . Ranked #84 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] Born at 6:00am-BST Interred at Golders Green Crematorium, London, England, UK.

Sellers, Spike Milligan , Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe performed on BBC Radio as "The Goon Show" in the early 1950s. Claimed to have had a near-death experience during a heart attack in 1964, in which he saw Heaven and he met an angel who told him that it was not his time to die yet. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1966 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama. First actor to be nominated for a single Academy award (best actor) for a film in which he potrayed three different characters in the same film: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Sellers was the first male to appear on the cover of Playboy Magazine, in April 1964 Was a vegetarian. Father, with Anne Howe, of Michael Sellers and Sarah Sellers .

His third wife, Miranda Quarry, is now "The Countess of Stockton." Turned down the role of George Webber in Blake Edwards ' 10 (1979) ( George Segal was cast instead but eventually replaced by Dudley Moore ). Sellers made a cameo appearance but it wound up being cut out. His "Goon Show" records, and other comedy recordings from the 1950s and early 1960s, were produced by George Martin , before he worked with The Beatles . He was voted the 41st Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine. Died at 12:26am - BST after being in a coma for more than 30 hours after suffering a massive heart attack. Mel Brooks considered him for - and he expressed interest in - the role of "Leo Bloom" in The Producers (1967), but nothing ever came of it, and the role eventually went to Gene Wilder . However, Sellers was instrumental in the success of the film.

After its release, he happened, almost by accident, to see a private screening of it and was so impressed that the next day he took out two full-page newspaper ads at his own expense proclaiming that it was one of the greatest comedies he had ever seen. This exposure helped promote the film at a critical time when it appeared that it was destined to sink without a trace. Is portrayed by Geoffrey Rush in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). At the time of his death, he was due to undergo an angiography in preparation for potential heart surgery in Los Angeles on July 30. One afternoon the doorbell rang in Sellers' London flat. As he was busy in his study, his wife Anne went to the door, where she was handed a telegram. The message: "Bring me a cup of coffee. Peter". Late one night, following a disappointing day wrestling with a troublesome scene in one of the Pink Panther films, director Blake Edwards was roused by a call from Sellers. "I just talked to God!" he exclaimed, "and he told me how to do it!" The next day Edwards humored Sellers - and the result was an unmitigated disaster.

"Peter," Edwards suggested, "next time you talk to God, tell him to stay out of show business!". Died a few days after filming a "Barclays Bank" commercial, which was never aired. His performance as Dr. Strangelove in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) is ranked #75 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. His performance as Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the "Pink Panther" franchise is ranked #67 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. His performance as Chance the Gardener in Being There (1979) is ranked #49 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 and the film was to be directed by Clive Donner . Pamela Stephenson was to have played the female lead.

Also in the pipeline were the leads in Lovesick (1983) and Unfaithfully Yours (1984). Both these roles were taken over by Dudley Moore . At the time of his death, he left the bulk of his estate - cash, cars, houses and art amounting to £4.5 million - to fourth wife Lynne Frederick . He left his son Michael and his daughter Sarah from his first marriage to actress Anne Howe only £800 each. "It was a calculated and considered act. Even his lawyers blushed when they told me," Michael said. Sellers had married Frederick, who was known primarily as David Frost 's girlfriend (and subsequently his wife after Sellers' death), in 1977. Reportedly Sellers was in the process of excluding her from his will in the time immediately preceding his death by heart attack in 1980. A drug addict and an alcoholic herself, Frederick died at age 39 and all income from Sellers' estate, including royalties from movie profit-sharing deals, was inherited by her daughter with third husband Barry Unger. Together with Nicolas Cage ( Adaptation.

(2002)) and Lee Marvin ( Cat Ballou (1965)), and José Ferrer ( Moulin Rouge (1952) 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), 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. Became friends with the group The Beatles , and visited them at Abbey Road Studios. Was given a tape of rough mixes from the "White Album", which was auctioned (and bootlegged) after his death. He was one of the favorite actors of Elvis Presley who always had Sellers' Pink Panther films with him on the airplane while he was on tour. Prince Charles had been a fan of Sellers since "The Goon Show".

In 1975, after he had seen The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) in Montreal, he wrote to Sellers that he'd laughed so hard he had wet the dress of the woman in the next seat. Before his death he spoke very highly of Robin Williams and Steve Martin , both considered that a great honor. Was an amateur photographer and camera nut for most of his life. Served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. His father was Protestant and his mother was Jewish. He attended St. Aloysius College, a Roman Catholic School. He was fitted with a pacemaker in 1977 for his failing heart. Claimed in a 1980 interview with Rolling Stone that he had fathered a son by a girlfriend while serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and abandoned them. Shirley MacLaine said of him, "Past lives leaking through and confusing him in this life.". In addition to dubbing Alfonso Bedoya in The Black Rose (1950), he also dubs the Chinese actor Ley On .

He also provided the voice of an off-screen Winston Churchill in The Man Who Never Was (1956), and at least two other briefly-heard voices in that film. An oft-repeated rumor suggests that he also dubbed a few lines for Humphrey Bogart in Beat the Devil (1953), but this is harder to confirm. He was best known for his portrayal of the hapless, accident-prone Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther movies. A final film in the franchise was to be called "Romance of the Pink Panther", but Sellers died before it could be made. He is the primary influence on Sacha Baron Cohen . An English Heritage blue plaque can be found at his place of birth on the corner of Southsea Terrace and Castle Road in Southsea. What was the family home is above a Chinese restaurant. Married Britt Ekland after knowing her for only 10 days. Author Jackie Collins based the character "Charlie Brick" on Sellers in her book "Sinners". He worked with Peter O'Toole , Woody Allen , Ursula Andress and Burt Bacharach on both What's New Pussycat (1965) and Casino Royale (1967).

Sellers was widely considered by industry professionals (particularly Blake Edwards ) to be mentally ill with no real personality of his own. He habitually assumed the personalities of the characters he portrayed, morphing into another one in a following role. People that knew him intermittently over years were baffled by his transformations. As an actor, Sellers could be brilliant with a strong script, but he often accepted sub-par projects and inferior roles which would wreck havoc in his personal life. Lived in Gstaad, Switzerland during the last six years of his life. He was a great friend of the British actor Jon Pertwee , who was also known for many comedy parts. Personal Quotes (14) If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am. There used to be a me behind the mask, but I had it surgically removed. To see me as a person on screen would be one of the dullest experiences you could ever wish to experience. I'm a classic example of all humorists - only funny when I'm working. Women are more difficult to handle than men. It's their minds. I writhe when I see myself on the screen.

I'm such a dreadfully clumsy hulking image. I say to myself, "Why doesn't he get off? Why doesn't he get off?" I mean, I look like such an idiot. Some fat awkward thing dredged up from some third-rate drama company. I must stop thinking about it, otherwise I shan't be able to go on working. [on Blake Edwards ' smash hit 10 (1979)] I turned down the lead role many, many times. I just didn't feel I was right for the part. I'm a very ambitious person. I don't believe by any means that I've even begun to do what's inside me. I have a burning sort of fire inside me to do certain things which I know I'm going to do. I'm going to defeat all these berks that are around me and I'm going to do it. I mean, I have a name of being very difficult, I'm not difficult at all, I just cannot take mediocrity, I just cannot take it on any level. You only know what happiness is once you're married. But then it's too late.

[on Goldie Hawn ] In the fullest possible meaning of the word, she is so nice. [on Sophia Loren ] I was never in love with any woman as deeply as I was with Sophia. [April 1969, interview in "Nova" magazine] When I look at myself I see a person who strangely lacks what I consider the ingredients for a personality. [on developing a role for the screen] I walk around, trying different accents, feeling my way to the character. I stare at my own image in the mirror every morning, waiting for the other fellow - the man I'm going to play - to emerge and stare back at me. I am waiting for the stranger to come into my life. When it happens, I have this flush of happiness. Most actors want to play "Othello", but all I've really wanted to play is Chance the Gardener. I feel what the character, the story is all about is not merely the triumph of a simple man, an illiterate. It's God's message again that the meek shall inherit the earth.

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Favorites CollectCollect this now for later debbie.rose.37 Winchester Cathederal: The chair that Mary Tudor used when she married Philip of Spain at The Cathedral in 1554. The Official Site of Peter Sellers biography Master impressionist Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers on September 8, 1925 in Southsea, Hampshire, England. His parents, Agnes (Peg) and Bill Sellers, called him Peter in memory of his stillborn older brother. Sellers' parents were vaudeville entertainers, and at two days old, Sellers was carried onto the stage at King's Theatre. He spent his childhood traveling the vaudeville circuit, where he gained a fondness for entertaining and a desire to succeed beyond the realm of vaudeville. As a youth, Sellers attended Miss Whitney's School of Dancing in Southsea and Madame Vacani's Dancing Classes in London before enrolling in St Aloysius' Boarding and Day School for Boys. In the early 1940s, Sellers played the drums with touring jazz bands and also learned to play the banjo and ukulele. Just after his 18th birthday, Sellers was drafted into the British Royal Air Force.

He became an official RAF concert entertainer, and between 1943 and 1946, Sellers spent his free time performing comedy sketches and playing the drums for the other servicemen. After returning home from the war, Sellers pursued a position with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). By 1948 he had taken part in a few moderately successful auditions, none of which had resulted in an invitation to join the BBC. Having grown impatient for stardom, Sellers chose to take matters into his own hands. The comic made a telephone call to Roy Speer, producer of the BBC radio program, "Show Time." Sellers posed as a popular radio star and recommended himself to Speer. The producer, impressed with Sellers' "acting," gave him a spot on the air. Following his initial appearances on "Show Time," Sellers became a sought-after radio personality. On the long-running BBC radio show, "Crazy People" (later called "The Goon Show"), Sellers established himself as a master impressionist. The show's zany collection of skits and Sellers' outrageous characters, including Major Bloodnok, Bluebottle and Henry Crun, have been recognized as the predecessors to Monty Python's Flying Circus.

"The Goon Show" provided Sellers with a showcase for his improvisational skills as well as an outlet for life's frustrations. By the time "The Goon Show" was canceled in January 1960, Sellers had earned the exposure necessary to begin a career in film. After appearing in several British pictures, Sellers achieved success in the U.S. with "The Mouse That Roared" (1959). In 1960 he received international attention for his role in the film "The Millionairess," in which he co-starred with Sophia Loren. The incredibly versatile Sellers could slip in and out of characters with surprising speed. His genius was displayed through his depiction of multiple characters in "Mouse" as well as in several other films throughout his career. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), considered Sellers' best film, earned him his first Oscar nomination in 1965. In 1963, Sellers introduced the world to his best-known character, Inspector Clouseau, The Pink Panther's bumbling master of disguise.

There were four sequels to this successful comedic film: A Shot in the Dark (1964), The Return of the Pink Panther (1974), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). 1982's Trail of the Pink Panther is a posthumous collection of outtakes from the previous Panther films combined with new footage of other cast members. Sellers garnered his second Oscar nomination for the critically acclaimed film, Being There (1979), in which he played the child-like Chance, a gardener mistaken for an economic guru. Sellers' controlled performance was key to the success of this subtle comedy. The comedian's film career ended just before his death in 1980, with The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu. Though Sellers was a great success professionally, he did not fare as well in the personal realm. The son of an overprotective, controlling mother, Sellers often behaved like a child, throwing tantrums and demanding his wives' undivided attention. Sellers married four times, to Anne Howe (Sept. 15, 1951), Britt Ekland (Feb.

19, 1964), Miranda Quarry (Aug. 24, 1970) and Lynne Frederick (Feb. 18, 1977). He also sired three children: Michael (April 2, 1954), Sarah (Oct. 16, 1957) and Victoria (Jan. 20, 1965). Sellers' wives and children were forced to suffer the effects of living with an obsessive perfectionist whose attentions focused mainly on himself and his career. After appearing in over 60 films as well as on numerous radio and television shows throughout his career, Sellers died of a heart attack on July 24, 1980. Displaying his unending sense of humor, the comic said good-bye with one last joke. At Sellers' request, the song "In The Mood" was played at his funeral, a tune that he hated.

According to biographer Roger Lewis, Sellers had told his son Michael that the song was "wonderfully inappropriate - hence, wonderfully appropriate - for solemn occasions." Peter Sellers Dies at 54 | Interviews | Roger Ebert Peter Sellers Dies at 54 by Roger Ebert Tweet Peter Sellers is dead at 54, a victim of the heart disease that first struck him in 1964 and continued to haunt him during his most productive years as an international star. His death in London at 6:28 p.m. Chicago time Wednesday came after a massive heart attack. At his bedside were his fourth wife, Lynne Frederick ; his second wife, Britt Ekland , and their daughter Victoria, who is 15. But Mr. Sellers never regained consciousness after the attack that struck him Tuesday in his suite at London's Dorchester Hotel. "Mr. Sellers' death was entirely due to natural causes," a spokesman for Middlesex Hospital said. "His heart just faded away. His condition deteriorated very rapidly." An emergency team of 10 specialists was at his bedside when he died, but they were helpless. Mr.

Sellers was in London to work on the screenplay of "Romance of the Pink Panther," which was to have been his sixth film in the role of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, his most famous comic creation. He was still basking in the acclaim for his starring role in last year's " Being There ," which won him an Academy Award nomination. His latest film, " The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu ," opens in Chicago on Aug. 8. In it, as in so many of his films, Mr. Sellers plays six different roles. That was one of his trademarks after such early successes as "The Mouse That Roared" (1959), in which he played the entire population of the mythical Duchy of Grand Fenwick, and " Dr. Strangelove " (1964), in which he played three roles. His multiple roles were masks, Mr. Sellers liked to claim, describing himself as basically a character actor: "As far as I'm aware, I have no personality of my own whatsoever. I have no character to offer the public. When I look at myself I just see a person who strangely lacks what I consider to be the ingredients for a personality.

If you asked me to play myself, I wouldn't know what to do." But as the characters he played in more than 50 major movies, Mr. Sellers became one of the busiest and most popular movie stars of the 1960s and '70s. His widest audiences came for the Inspector Clouseau pictures, which began with " The Pink Panther " in 1963 and continued through "Revenge of the Pink Panther" in 1978. His best-known roles in more ambitious films were as in "I'm All Right, Jack" (1959), "Lolita" (1962), "Waltz of the Toreadors" (1964), "Dr.

Strangelove" (1964), " The Party " (1968) and "Being There." I remember him talking about the inspirations for some of his famous roles at a press conference at the Hawaiian premiere of "Revenge of the Pink Panther." Inspector Clouseau's famous accent, he recalled, wasn't there in the original "Pink Panther," but came later: "I developed it in 'A Shot in the Dark' [1964]. It came from this brilliant concierge in a hotel I used to stay at in Paris. He was a master of dealing with American tourists. He'd talk to them in a strange accent that wasn't French but sounded French to an English-speaker." In Stanley Kubrick 's "Dr. Strangelove," Mr. Sellers said, he created Strangelove's most famous characteristic - a mechanical hand with an automatic Nazi salute - during the process of filming. "The right hand was not originally supposed to be a Nazi hand," he said. "Then Stanley Kubrick put the black glove on my hand and suddenly we got this inspiration that Strangelove was schizo, split right down the middle, his left half American, his right half Nazi.

If you know what to look for when you see the movie, you could see some of the actors breaking up the first time my hand goes out of control . . ." If Mr. Sellers was correct in saying that he had no personality of his own to portray, then perhaps his performance in "Being There" was his most autobiographical. He played Chauncey, a strange, middle-aged man raised entirely in isolation, with television as his only source of information on how to behave. The character's utter simplicity and transparency led statesmen to imagine they had discovered great depths in him. It was a virtuoso performance, made all the more difficult because Mr. Sellers had to sustain a single note throughout the movie. Peter Sellers was born Sept. 8, 1925, in Southsea, England, the son of British vaudeville performers, and was literally raised in the wings. He appeared with his parents as a child, won a talent contest at 13, joined the Royal Air Force at 17 and worked as an entertainer.

In the 1950s he became famous as the star of England's radio "Goon Show," memories of which were recreated in Richard Lester's famous 1960 short subject, "The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film." He moved into British film comedies and was a star by the late 1950s. Mr. Sellers often described himself as a "hopeless romantic" who was constantly falling in love. He married for the first time in 1951, to Australian actress Anne Howe, and they had two children, Michael and Sarah Jane. But in 1960 that marriage broke up as Mr. Sellers fell in love with Sophia Loren while they were filming "The Millionairess" together. Loren turned down his proposal of marriage. In 1964, shortly after the triumphs as Inspector Clouseau, he married Swedish actress Britt Ekland after an 11-day courtship. Shortly afterward, he suffered his first major heart attack. His marriage to Ekland lasted until 1969 and produced his daughter, Victoria. In 1970, Mr. Sellers married Miranda Quarry, daughter of a British lord.

They were divorced in 1974. He and Liza Minnelli announced they would be married, but the romance cooled and he married actress Lynne Frederick in 1977. Mr. Sellers had his second major heart attack, and was fitted with a pacemaker in 1977. In May of this year, he collapsed in Dublin while making a commercial, but recovered to visit the Cannes Film Festival, where he looked unwell. Filmmaker Blake Edwards , who directed the Clouseau movies, said Wednesday, "One lived with the realization that Peter could go at any time. But he was a very courageous man who refused to let his heart problems interfere with his personal life." Mr. Sellers gave evidence of that during the 1978 "Pink Panther" press conference. A reporter asked if he would mind answering a personal question. "Of course not," Mr. Sellers said. "I understand you've had some heart attacks . . ." the reporter began, before Mr. Sellers interrupted him with gallows humor: "Yes, but I plan to give them up.

I'm down to two a day." New Peter Sellers letter on marriage to Britt Ekland - Telegraph Celebrity news New Peter Sellers letter on marriage to Britt Ekland A newly discovered letter written by Peter Sellers has shed new light on his troubled four-year marriage to the actress Britt Ekland who was 16 years his junior. Actress Britt Ekland and her husband Peter Sellers, October 1965 Photo: GETTY By Andrew Pierce 7:00AM BST 31 Jul 2009 The rambling three-page typed missive to Ekland, written only weeks after they wed in 1964, confirmed that the union was doomed from the outset because Sellers was consumed by an intense jealously of his beautiful young wife. Yet the script for the marriage could have come from one of the Hollywood studios where Sellers was one of the biggest stars. They met when he knocked on her door at the Dorchester Hotel and invited her to his VIP suite because he had seen her photograph in the newspapers. The next day he took her to Kensington Palace to meet Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. Ten days later they were married at a Guildford Register Office.

More than 1,000 people lined the streets outside to catch a glimpse of Sellers, 38, and Ekland, 22, who had newly signed up by 20th Century Fox. Only weeks later the doubts for Sellers began to surface in the letter which he began at 2.25am on March 15, 1964, at his home in Beverly Hills in California. It took 90 minutes to complete. He wrote of breaking out in "cold sweats" as he imagined her flirting with several actors from the film The Great Escape, which he had just watched for the first time. He wrote: "I have a dreadful fear at the back of my mind that you might leave me. I love you so desperately, and think you are so absolutely wonderful in every way, that I find it very difficult to understand why you married me. You who are just the most lovely thing in the whole world. What do you see in me? I'm not handsome. I'm not tall. I'm not special in any way." He described himself feeling "quite faint and ill and terrible and wretched and awful" as he imagined other actors wanting to sleep with his wife.

"Without any doubt I am a raving idiot and I ought to have my head examined." Clearly feeling insecure about his marriage, he questioned why such a “dishy bird” should be with him as he was not handsome or tall. He said: “You are very sexy. Very. I will get you in a super bikini next week. I bet you will look very dishy in it. You are a very very dishy bird. “I want to make love to you again so much. “Things in the front of my trousers are getting very hard when I talk to you like this. I could make violent love to you all night.” He composed the letter having watched a new Bridget Bardot film. "When I looked at B. Bardot on the screen she reminded me a lot of you. She was acting with a very handsome French actor and climbing in and out of bed with him. Suddenly it was no longer Miss Bardot, it was you! He was making love to my own Britt. And what's worse, she didn't mind. Even liked it. I was going through agony. Stupid of me to think like this... My darling would never think of doing such a thing. Now stop it Sellers.

You are going crazy." He then talked of how he wanted to have "violent" sex with his wife and signed it: "All my love, always, Peter,"' before he added 25 hand-drawn kisses underneath." The couple, who had one child, Victoria, divorced in 1968. Ekland, 66, in interviews, has revealed that Sellers had behaved badly towards her and their daughter. "No child should receive a letter from their father telling them not to consider him as such. Today I can see that he was a manic depressive, as so many great comedians are," she said. Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge auctioneers of Devizes, who is selling the letter next month, said: "It is a snapshot into the mind of a flawed genius. It just shows how insecure he was about himself and how he quickly let his jealous imagination run away with him." Sellers, who married twice more, died of a heart attack in 1980. Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland Relationship Details | ShagTree Photo Credits Britt Ekland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Relationships and family .

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24, 1970) and Lynne Frederick ..." - source Britt Ekland on nudity, Alzheimer's, and being 'abducted' by Peter Sellers - interview - Telegraph Film Britt Ekland on nudity, Alzheimer's, and being 'abducted' by Peter Sellers - interview Why did Britt Ekland marry Peter Sellers? Why did she hate making The Wicker Man? And why does she wish her mother had died sooner? She reveals all to Chrissy Iley. 'I did look younger and I always felt that was a problem': Britt Ekland in 1965 Photo: Rex 8:00AM BST 22 Sep 2013 Britt Ekland sweeps into the lobby of the London Hotel in West Hollywood. Her long platinum blonde hair swings as she walks. She is wearing a black chiffon top and black-and-gold skinny jeans. Her Chihuahua, Tequila, is perched in her handbag. She is wearing the darkest of glasses. When she removes them it becomes clear why: the white of her left eye is bright blood red, a startling contrast to the cornflower blue pupils.

Ekland says she has just poked her eye out with a pen while she was holding on to two phones. It looks shocking and painful but she shrugs it off. Compared to what she’s been through, this is nothing. Ekland has most famously survived a jealousy fuelled, destructive marriage to Peter Sellers – they married after they’d known each other for only 10 days. She was with Rod Stewart for eight years but he cheated on her so she cut him loose. She had her third child at 46 with her most recent husband, Stray Cat rocker Slim Jim Phantom. They broke up in 1992. Ekland became an in-demand sex symbol after starring as a Bond Girl in The Man with the Golden Gun (1973), something that surprised her as she had grown up a fat teenager in Sweden with no notion of her own considerable beauty. She is now 70 and lives mostly in Los Angeles, a town where everyone over 27 is invisible. The past few years have been hard going – everlasting pantomimes in Britain and a stint on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here . Most celebrities emerge from that experience and talk philosophically about its life-changing learning curve.

What did she get from it? “Nothing except a urinary tract infection,” she laughs heartily (it was a consequence of spending the night on a rain-soaked bed). We sit in a smart cabana by the pool, and Ekland begins telling me about a reality TV show she’s just finished filming – Swedish Hollywood Wives. “Very hard work,” she says. “When you’re an actress you have a script, a director, someone doing your make-up. Here you do everything yourself. “Make-up, costume, script – you decide what to do. You can never relax because the camera is always there. You’ve got a microphone glued to your body in between your breasts.” Her breasts! I’ve just seen rather a lot of those in the newly restored director’s cut of her 1973 film The Wicker Man. Dubbed “the Citizen Kane of horror movies”, it’s about an uptight policeman, Edward Woodward, who is manipulated by a pagan community on a Hebridean island. Ekland’s character engages in a lot of pagan-style naked dancing: “And yes, those were my breasts,” Ekland clarifies.

Related Articles 'Rod wore my underwear on stage' Britt Ekland speaks out about her relationships 18 Feb 2013 They were gigantic, I say. “Yes they were very very impressive. I think that’s why I got the Bond film. I can’t verify this because Cubby [Broccoli] is now dead but it must have been. I was pregnant with my son. My son who is now going to have a baby.” The baby, Cassius, was born shortly after we met. He has three grandmothers: Ekland, its mother’s mother, and Paige Hannah, current wife of record producer Lou Adler, with whom Ekland had her son. “All three of us went to a grandmother and wine class to learn how to become grandmothers,” she says excitedly. “It was a two-hour class. Everything you know already except today you don’t hold a baby like this” – she does rocking motion – “you hold it like this, like a football.” She demonstrates an American footballer. “Apparently that will stop them crying immediately. I think it would stop me too.” It can’t have been easy growing old in public, a photograph every time you went out without make-up or your face looked saggy.

Ekland stays fit with Pilates (apparently Tequila does it too) and by running backwards, which she swears burns 20 per cent more calories than running forwards. 'Naked is not my favourite thing': Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man (Rex/Moviestore) She’s never been entirely comfortable with the way she looks, and for The Wicker Man’s copious bottom shots a body double was used. “I’ve never liked my bottom,” she says. “So it was another bottom that was out there freezing on the moors. It was really freezing doing that naked dancing.” It was reportedly so cold the cast had to suck on ice cubes to stop their breath from showing. “I went down to London on my day off because my skirts weren’t fitting me properly so I thought I should have a pregnancy test. It turned out I was four months pregnant when I was swanning about in The Wicker Man and when I came back from the doctor they had hired a stunt bottom. I had no idea they would do that, I just stipulated I would not do naked from behind.

“Naked, in any case, it’s not my favourite thing but you’ve got to give a little bit,” she says with a sly grin. It’s hard not to conjure up the image of her breasts knocking against the wall where Edward Woodward is in his pyjamas in the other room. “He was totally uninterested,” she says. He did look hot and bothered. “I think that was acting. Christopher Lee and he were both very closed, dour people. I can get along with anyone, with a snail, but these people I could not reach. I hated being on the movie because I was pregnant and it was hard and because Robin Hardy didn’t like me. He wanted Ingrid Pitt to have my role. Because she was having an affair with both the producer of the film and the head of the distribution company. “I remember when we were out there on the moors in our long flowing gowns and she was running like we all had to, but she was running in this brand new Cartier watch. She wouldn’t take it off. I would have to say, ‘Ingrid, pull down your sleeve so they can’t see your watch.’ I certainly didn’t want to re-shoot on the moors.

It was a tough shoot and I didn’t do anything to promote it because I was heavily pregnant, and then the film disappeared, but then it came back and I don’t feel it ever went away.” Ekland was 30 when she played the role of Willow but she looked much younger than that with her giant blue eyes, cherubic face and long blonde hair. “I did look younger and I always felt that was a problem. When we’re young we want to look old and sophisticated. At 16 I started smoking to seem older but that didn’t help.” When Ekland was 20 she met Peter Sellers, and married him within two weeks. She still has no idea why. “I never wanted to marry. I thought that marriage was a lousy institution and women had a really tough deal.” Then why do it? “I was very young and he swept me off my feet. He gave me a puppy for God’s sake. What was he thinking? And what was I thinking? You can’t bring up a dog before you’ve brought up yourself. “It was a terrible thing to do. It’s like giving someone a Teddy Bear that also happens to be alive. And he gave me a dog when I was staying at the Dorchester.

But the thing that worries me most now is I can’t remember what happened to that puppy. It was a little dachshund. I can’t just have left it at the Dorchester when I moved out but I don’t know where it is. I didn’t know anyone in England, not a single sausage, because I’d just come from Sweden. My big worry today is what happened to that little dachshund.” Perhaps she didn’t have time to think about the puppy because of the speed at which their relationship hurtled along. Married in February, pregnant by April (with her daughter Victoria). “I told all my children: don’t do what I did. Meet someone, travel with them, go on holiday, have fun, party. Don’t fall in love and have a baby. So they didn’t. My son is 40 having his first baby. He took the advice very seriously. And Victoria is not going to have any children now. She’s too old, but she didn’t want any. My youngest is 25 and much too young to think about it.” Where she was naive, Sellers was compulsive and jealous beyond all reason.

He would be watching a movie with Brigitte Bardot in it doing a love scene and suddenly he would imagine it was Britt in bed with another man. Britt, Brigitte, blonde, almost the same. Does she think he was madly in love or just mad? 'I shouldn't have married': Britt Ekland and Peter Sellers, in 1964 (Rex) “I think today we would say he was bipolar, although that word is bandied about so often. He had mental problems and he should have been on therapy. If I’d met him today I would know so much more, but I didn’t. I had no experience of that sort of life but I learnt very quickly.” Ekland had been discovered by a talent scout for 20th Century Fox and signed to a seven-picture deal. “I was working in London with Richard Attenborough and he [Sellers] was working in LA on a movie.

It was Easter 1964, March, and he said, ‘Why don’t you take one day off and come over.’ I asked and they said no and he said, ‘I will fix everything, just take your passport.’ He had a car pick me up at the studio telling me I’d be back on Monday so I left with my handbag and I never went back. Fox sued me and put me on suspension for two years so I couldn’t work and then I lost my contract. He made sure I stayed with him. He hadn’t fixed anything for me; he just made sure I didn’t go back. “You see things on the news all the time about people being abducted. It felt like that.” Sellers was 17 years her senior and she had lived a very sheltered existence. Really, though? How could she have been that naive? “I know, I know… Of course I shouldn’t have married. I should have waited and continued my career.” Even now she has no explanation for her part in this madness, but she proffers, “I didn’t marry Lou Adler or Rod Stewart. I’ve only been married to Peter Sellers and Slim Jim Phantom. We are good friends. I really love him.

That’s the thing with love. You might be hurt but ultimately if they are good people a friendship stays. Jim was never unfaithful, Lou was, and at the time I thought that was unforgivable. Now I think there are worse things. “Rod was unfaithful and he didn’t get another chance. I told him because I was very much in love with him that if he was unfaithful that would be the end of our relationship and it was. He couldn’t help himself, it was like a kid in a candy store.” I also read that Warren Beatty was her boyfriend at one point. “No, it was just an intense shag session and that was it.” Was he good in bed? “At the time I thought he was. I was young and I thought it was very exciting, someone you had a crush on, a movie star who turned out to be real. It was a great fantasy but it wasn’t real life. I’m not sure if I really discovered my sexual self till my thirties. But I’m not really sure as even that was such a long time ago. I don’t have any lovers now. I don’t know if I could put up with lovers.

'He didn't get another chance': Britt Ekland with Rod Stewart, in 1975 (Rex) “In the old days bachelors were men who had the best of everything. They had girlfriends. They ate and drank and skied and went to the south of France and drove beautiful cars. They were set in their ways, they weren’t gay, they just didn’t want to get married. And that’s where I am today. I am like an old-fashioned bachelor.” When she was that girl in The Wicker Man, dancing so carefree and without self-consciousness, how did she envisage her future? “I never thought I’d live beyond 40 because I thought 40 was very old. I never expected my life to go this far. When I was young I thought I would be engaged, have the ring, get married, and then have a wedding ring, everything proper. That’s not how it happened.” Perhaps that was because she fell for crazy actors and rock stars? “I do love music and my life would be worthless unless I had music in it. Lou was a record producer, Rod a singer, and Jim the drummer. It was just a coincidence. I didn’t go for them on purpose.

All I knew is that I didn’t want to get involved with another actor again. They are much too vain and self-absorbed and I never did get involved with another one. “I wouldn’t want a man who is fighting in the morning for the mirror. All the men in my life were very much men. Not necessarily macho, but secure in their place as a man. And I have always been the fluffy blonde who didn’t want to be fluffy. I look at pictures on the internet. I find these incredible pictures of me that I’ve never seen. Some I have a vague memory of. I never thought I looked any good at the time.” In 1996, she auctioned most of her memorabilia and effects. She sold everything. “I separated from Jim and my house in London was so full I couldn’t move for art nouveau. I sold everything. Then I became minimalistic,” she says. Ekland sold Gucci handbags given to her by Sellers, crocodile shoes from Dior, silver Art Nouveau picture frames, and a snakeskin full-length coat made especially for her by Ossie Clark .

“He lived around the corner from me in London and one day asked if he could borrow the coat because he wanted to use it in a show, so it never made it to the auction. I was out one night when Ossie brought the coat back and that was the night he was killed. Very, very sad. So that coat went in the sale as well.” Ekland’s mother suffered from Alzheimer’s (she is now an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society), and she says the one thing she fears in life is getting an illness that she “can’t control”. 'I never expected my life to go this far': Ekland earlier this year (Scanpix Sweden) “My mum got it in her fifties and was 78 when she died,” she says, still angry. “That makes no sense. The rest of her was incredibly healthy. If that happened to me I would will myself dead. I would say I want to die, I want to die, and He upstairs would have to listen to me because my mum’s illness was too horrible for words. There are things you can do – like take them out all winter so they catch pneumonia then do nothing – but we didn’t do that.

It would be horrifying if my kids kept me alive like we kept my mum alive.” Her daughter, Victoria Sellers, seems to have emerged from a troubled existence. She was linked with the Hollywood madame Heidi Fleiss, and they made a video together – Sex Tips with Heidi Fleiss and Victoria Sellers. Victoria also had a couple of short stints in prison, one for receiving stolen goods and the second for being in possession of amphetamines. Now, thanks to a cocktail-making course paid for by her mother, she works as a bartender. “She is in a nice restaurant Monday to Friday,” says Ekland. “She wears a white shirt, black tie, black waistcoat and black pants. None of that,” she gestures fluttering her fingers which translates as low-cut skimpy attire. “Her life is very together. She also designs jewellery but she couldn’t support herself doing just that. She works back to back and does outside catering weekends and sometimes she works as my assistant in the show [Swedish Hollywood Wives]. She is a loving and very special person. She has always helped me. If she has a day off I say get this and this.

I pay her because I know what it’s like not being paid.” What else does Ekland have coming up? “I’m going to star in the biggest production in my life. The role of grandmother. No panto for me this year.” Instead she’ll be at home with her family, decorating the tree. “I want to be there holding the baby,” she says, “loving and old-fashioned.” The Wicker Man: The Final Cut is released on September 27

Question: Who did Peter Sellers marry in 1964?
Answer: Britt Eklund