100 Years of Movie Posters: Peter Sellers

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers, CBE (1925-1980) was born 'Richard Henry Sellers' in Portsmouth, England, he was a British film actor, comedian and singer. He appeared in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, featured on a number of hit comic songs and became known to a world-wide audience through his many film characterisations among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series.

Sellers began as a film actor in the 1950s. Notable films demonstrating his artistic range include I'm All Right Jack (1959); Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964); What's New, Pussycat? (1965); Casino Royale (1967); The Party (1968); Being There (1979) and the five films of the highly successful Pink Panther series (1963–1978). Sellers's versatility enabled him to portray a wide range of comic characters using different accents and guises, and he would often assume multiple roles within the same film.

Sellers garnered much critical acclaim for his work; he was Oscar nominated twice for Best Actor for his performances in Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Being There (1979). In 1980 he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in Being There (1979), and also received four Golden Globe nominations for his roles in Lolita (1962), The Pink Panther (1963), Return of the Pink Panther (1975) and The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976).

Sellers was married four times, and had three children from his first two marriages. He died as a result of a heart attack in 1980, aged 54. Filmmakers the Boulting brothers described Sellers as "the greatest comic genius this country has produced since Charles Chaplin." (Wikipedia)