Goon, but never forgotten
Marion McMullen looks back on the life of comedy genius Peter Sellers who died 40 years ago
HE WAS the bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau dispatched to protect the priceless Pink Panther diamond from a notorious jewel thief, a Goon Show regular and a three-time Oscar nominee.
Revered comedy genius Peter Sellers was just 54 when he died in 1980 following a massive heart attack at the Dorchester Hotel in London on July 24. The Hampshireborn star had a talent for voices and characters, but claimed: “I’m a classic example of all humorists – only funny when I’m working.”
His early career saw him ruling the airwaves with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine in the ground-breaking BBC radio comedy The Goon Show.
Peter and Spike met at the Hackney Empire after the Second World Was Spike wrote in his autobiography Peace Work: “Peter was already foot in the door with the BBC and earning MONEY, but he spent, all his life he spent, all cars were on HP. Peg, his mother, would say, never pay the lot, HP – if you drop dead you’re in the clear.”
Born Richard Henry Sellers, Peter’s parents worked in an acting company run by his mother and one of his early movie roles saw him playing Harry, one of the gang of thieves, in British comedy classic The Ladykillers with Alec Guinness and his future Pink Panther co-star Herbert Lom.
Peter went on to play union leader Fred Kite in the 1959 film I’m All Right Jack and played three roles with three different accents in director Stanley Kubrick’s movie Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.
The international success of The Pink Panther led to Inspector Clouseau returning to solve crimes in several spin-off movies and director Blake Edwards described his leading man as “a walking storehouse of madness, a ham with an almost surrealist approach to the insanity of things”.
Elvis Presley loved Peter Sellers and the Pink Panther movies so much he always took the films with him when he was on tour. Peter also found himself moving in the same circles as Princess Margaret and The Beatles, while a young Prince Charles was also said to be a huge fan of The Goon Show.
But Peter’s personal relationships suffered as his success grew and the fourtimes married actor said himself: “If I can’t really find a way to live with myself, I can’t expect anyone else to live with me.”
His first marriage to Anne Hayes ended in divorce after he fell under the spell of Italian film star Sophia Loren while filming The Millionairess in 1960. They ended up having two UK chart hits – Goodness Gracious Me and Bangers And Mash. He later admitted: “I was never in love with any woman as deeply as I was with Sophia.” He married Swedish actress Britt Ekland after knowing her for just 10 days and police had to be called in to control the crowds during their wedding ceremony at Guildford register office. He went on to tie the knot with Miranda Quarry, the step-daughter of Lord Mancroft and his fourth and final wife was actress Lynne Frederick.
They appeared together in the movie The Prisoner Of Zenda and Peter said: “I’ve had three marriages end in disaster. Lynne knew the score when she married me.”
He found it difficult to watch himself in films. “I writhe when I see myself on the screen,” he admitted. “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 such an idiot. Some fat awkward thing dredged up from some third-rate drama company”.
Playing reclusive gardener Chance, in 1979 movie Being There, was his last major film role and saw him nominated for an Oscar for the third and last time. “Most actors want to play Othello, but all I’ve really wanted to play is Chance the gardener,” he said.
“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.”
Peter had plans to return to the role of Inspector Clouseau once more in Romance Of The Pink Panther, opposite Pamela Stephenson, but passed away before filming could begin.
A few weeks before he died he sent a poignant telegram to his old friend and fellow Goon, Spike Milligan simply saying: “Dear Spike. I am desperate to have some real fun again with you and Harry [Secombe].
Please can we get together and write some more Goon Shows? We could place them anywhere. I don’t want any money – I will work just for the sheer joy of being with you both again as we were. Love Peter.”