“There is no me. I do not exist. There used to be a me but I had it surgically removed.”
He was one of the most versatile actors of his time; a master comedian, a faultless mimic, and witty improviser. Today, nearly 70 years since his career began, Peter Sellers is still revered as one of the great entertainers of all time.
But underneath the copious personas which he produced for his roles was a deeply troubled and tormented man who struggled with depression, erratic behaviour, and the heart disease that would kill him in his mid 50s.
This is the story of how Sellers distanced himself from these problems, from his very identity, to become a cinematic icon.
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Sellers was born on September 8th, 1925 in the city of Portsmouth, England. Although his name was Richard Henry, he was called Peter throughout his life in honour of his elder brother, who was stillborn. Sellers’ parents, Bill and Peg, were both entertainers, and so the family was constantly touring. Sellers himself was only two days old when he made his stage debut while being carried by headline performer Dick Henderson.
These early years inspired mixed emotions in Sellers. He learnt stagecraft, but his father suggested that his talent (or lack thereof) would only be enough to allow him to become a road sweeper. In stark contrast, his mother encouraged and supported him wholeheartedly; many of Sellers peers would later comment on the intense relationship the two shared.
He studied dance primarily until the age of 10, when the family moved to North London and enrolled Sellers at St. Aloysius College, a Roman Catholic school, even though he was Jewish. He quickly proved to be one of the top students in the school, excelling specifically in artistic classes like drawing, despite his tendency to be lazy at times.
While at school, Sellers developed his improvisational skills alongside close friend Bryan Connon. He also practised imitating the radio hosts from the BBC. His schooling would end in 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, when the school was relocated further out of London while the Sellers family moved to Devon. Here, Sellers got his first job, working for his uncle at the Victoria Palace Theatre. Starting as a caretaker, he quickly rose to fill rolls such as assistant stage manager and lighting operator. He also worked backstage, allowing him the opportunity to study the performers. One of these was Derek Altman, who collaborated with Sellers on his first stage act, Altman and Sellers. The pair played ukeleles, sang, and told jokes.
In these budding days of his career, it was music that appealed to Sellers most. He began teaching himself drums, and eventually playing with jazz bands at the theatre.
What might have become a lifelong career in music came to pause in 1943, when at the age of 18, Sellers joined the Royal Air Force. It is unknown whether he volunteered or was conscripted, but Peg did attempt to have his service deferred on the basis of medical grounds. Sellers wanted to become a pilot, but due to poor eyesight could only perform ground staff duties. Finding these boring, he looked for something more appealing, and found it in the form of the RAF’s Gang Show entertainment troupe. The troupe toured the UK, India, Burma, and Ceylon during the war, and in Germany and France at its conclusion.
1946, and Sellers returned to England, where the ENSA was soon demobilised. Finding only sporadic work as a comedy performer and drummer, he would eventually make a call to BBC radio producer Roy Speer pretending to be a famous host named Kenneth Horne. When Speer realised the joke, he called Sellers a “cheeky young sod” before arranging an audition.
On July 1st, 1948, Sellers appeared on ShowTime, the program that would launch his career. Within a few months, he was performing regularly on a range of shows, and had become a national name. It was The Goon Show, the show he created in 1951 with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, and Michael Bentine that would be his most successful. It ran for ten seasons, and during its most popular period reached a national audience of seven million. In 1993, The Guardian called it “probably the most influential comedy show of all time”.
The Goons made their feature film debut in 1951’s Penny Points to Paradise, but it was not Sellers first role in the medium, having dubbed lines for Alfonso Bedoya in The Black Rose a year prior. In 1952, they produced Down Among the Z Men. Though it was a flop, it showcased Seller’s ability to perform as multiple characters within the same film with ease.
His breakout was 1954 comedy Orders are Orders, a film that led to roles in the likes of Academy Award nominated The Ladykillers and The Smallest Show on Earth. He also mimicked the voice of Winston Churchill for BAFTA winner The Man Who Never Was.
Sellers decided to star as an Indian doctor in romantic comedy The Millionairess when he heard he’d be performing alongside Sophia Loren. It was during this production that it became clear the extent to which Sellers was going to in order to inhabit a role…and how hard it was for him to escape it once filming ended. “…he’d play a role as an Indian doctor, and for the next six months, he’d be an Indian in his real life,” Roger Lewis told The Record in an interview.
He made his directorial debut the next year with Mr. Topaze, and starred in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita as a flamboyant playwright, but it was The Pink Panther that would bring Sellers the same success in film he’d found on the radio. Having run into director Blake Edwards by chance after leaving England following his father’s death, he agreed to five weeks work on location in Rome to perform in the role of Inspector Clouseau. Though he was not the star, it was his role that drew the most attention from critics and fans alike. “One of the most delicate studies in accident-proneness since the silents,” declared The Observer’s Penelope Gilliatt. He was nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA.
That same year, he worked with Kubrick again on what is perhaps his best internationally-recognised film – Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Sellers played an incredible four leading roles – US President Merkin Muffley, former Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove, RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, and Major T. J. ‘King’ Kong (Slim Pickens was later recast for Kong, due to Sellers succumbing to an injury). “Everywhere you turn there is some version of Peter Sellers holding the fate of the world in his hands,” joked Kubrick, explaining why he cast Sellers in so many key roles.
Over the next two decades, Sellers would appear in a range of films, including the first ever James Bond movie, Casino Royale, three Pink Panther sequels, and Being There, a dramedy which saw him win a Golden Globe and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
For all the success, Sellers personal life was in disrepair. He had been married and divorced four times, and estranged from most of his children, due to a flaring temper and, what many believe, was a desire to find a woman much like his own mother.
Health wise, things were just as bad. In 1964, Sellers suffered 13 heart attacks over a short period of days (eight of which occurred in just three hours), but instead of seeking advice from a doctor, he turned to an astrologist, and a North American Indian spirit guide, who helped convince him that he was being haunted by a comedian named Dan Leno, who had died 60 years prior.
Peter Sellers had another attack in 1977, then in 1980, which would be his last. During his funeral, In the Mood by Glenn Miller was played. Sellers hated the tune, everyone knew it; this was his final joke.
In the decades that have passed, few actors have showed the great ability of Sellers to disappear into his character. It was a way of escaping his reality, but it was more than that: it was the ability of a genius to so perfectly approach his craft to the point that there was no Peter Sellers on the screen. There was no man at all. There was only the art.