The Life and Death of Peter Sellers Information

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a 2004 British/American film about the life of English comedy actor Peter Sellers, based on Roger Lewis's book of the same name. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins and starred Geoffrey Rush as Sellers, Miriam Margolyes as his mother Peg Sellers, Emily Watson as his first wife Anne Howe, Charlize Theron as his second wife Britt Ekland, John Lithgow as Blake Edwards, Stephen Fry as Maurice Woodruff and Stanley Tucci as Stanley Kubrick.

Synopsis

The film shows Peter Sellers as a complex and tormented genius, whose success as a film star concealed his difficult and relatively unhappy private life. This "troubled life" is the primary focus of this biopic, which personalizes "one of the greatest comic actors in the history of the British cinema," and shows the many masks he wore and characters he played as an actor.

The film makes clear that much of his success and identity were dependent initially on his domineering and doting mother. But eventually this success, first in radio and eventually in film, led to his succumbing to destructive mood swings and insecurity, and contributed to the deterioration of his marriages. Discovering his gift for comedy, his ego began to undermine his personal relationships with friends and co-workers. His personality became more turbulent. His own personality often merged with that of his film characters, and his self-learned skill as a "method actor" was used to mask his real self.

The role of Sellers was acted by Geoffrey Rush, "who approached the role with the enthusiasm of a hungry child in a candy store," notes a reviewer. Rush impersonates most of the important characters that Sellers played in his film career. Director Blake Edwards is played by John Lithgow, and the film exposes some of the behind-the-scenes personality conflicts between Sellers and Edwards, which contributed to their unhappy and tumultuous working relationship, despite the success of their films. In the interview for the film, included on the DVD, Edwards credited Rush with portraying Sellers' characters with uncanny similarity to the real Peter Sellers, and claimed, in 2004, that it was the best acting he'd ever seen Rush perform.

Some reviewers have stressed that in order to appreciate and understand much of the Sellers story and his iconic status, they should have seen some of his leading works, including his Pink Panther roles directed by Blake Edwards, and his roles in both Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and Hal Ashby's Being There. The latter film is considered by critics to be the "crowning triumph of Peter Sellers's remarkable career," and in a BBC interview in 1971, Sellers himself said that more than anything else, he wanted to play the role of Chance. Being There (which earned him an Oscar nomination) is shown to be the one film about which Sellers was truly passionate since it gave him an opportunity to display his skills as an actor, not just as a comedian (it is also suggested that he identified strongly with the main character).

Sellers is also shown aspiring to be a leading man in the James Bond satire Casino Royale which prompts ridicule from the film's crew.

Production

Actor Geoffrey Rush stated in interviews that the film was itself structured to be reminiscent of a Peter Sellers film. However, it was darker than Sellers' actual films since it depicted Sellers' troubled experiences in his life (including his tantrums and mental instability). This included at various times Rush (as Sellers) dressing up to play other characters in his life (several were ultimately edited out, but are included within the special features on the DVD). In these instances he broke the fourth wall to give a monologue to the audience.

Roger Lewis: "It was the melancholia of Sellers I was drawn to; all those shuffling little ghostly figures he used to play in Boulting brothers films, or Clouseau, with those soulful, mournful brown eyes. For all the success and the women, he is rather a lonely and melancholic figure. And that is what redeems him." Hollywood was immediately interested in adapting Lewis's biography - in the mid-1990s Madonna's company Maverick bought the rights, but the Sellers project did not get off the ground. Many different writers worked on the screenplay, among them Lee Hall; eventually the writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely came up with a script to tell the story. Director Stephen Hopkins ultimately distanced himself from Lewis's book, and said he was inspired by Sellers's 16mm home movies, which were featured in a 2002 BBC Arena documentary.

Cast

Many familiar faces have small roles in the film: Edward Tudor-Pole (former Tenpole Tudor lead singer and second presenter of The Crystal Maze) plays Spike Milligan and The League of Gentlemen's Steve Pemberton plays Harry Secombe. Mackenzie Crook of The Office also has a small role as a luxury automobile salesman and Richard Ayoade from The IT Crowd in a bit-part as a photographer. In The Trip, actor and comedian Rob Brydon plays a fictionalized version of himself and claims that he had a bit part in the film where he impersonated Dustin Hoffman giving his acceptance speech but was subsequently cut out. Ray Ellington was played by his son, Lance Ellington.

• Geoffrey Rush as Peter Sellers
• Charlize Theron as Britt Ekland
• Emily Watson as Anne Sellers
• John Lithgow as Blake Edwards
• Miriam Margolyes as Peg Sellers
• Peter Vaughan as Bill Sellers
• Sonia Aquino as Sophia Loren
• Stanley Tucci as Stanley Kubrick
• Stephen Fry as Maurice Woodruff
• Henry Goodman as Dennis Selinger
• Alison Steadman as the Casting Agent
• Emilia Fox as Lynne Frederick
• Nigel Havers as David Niven
• Heidi Klum as Ursula Andress
• Lucy Punch as a Stewardess
• Joseph Long as Carlo Ponti

Awards

The film won the 2005 Golden Globe award for Best Miniseries or Television Film and Rush was awarded the Globe's Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Primetime Emmy Awards

• 2005 " Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie - Geoffrey Rush (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special - Stephen Hopkins (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special - Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie - Peter Levy (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special - Veronica McAleer, Enzo Angileri and Ashley Johnson (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie, or Special - Wesley Wofford and Davy Jones (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or Movie - John Smith (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special - Tim Hands, Geoffrey G. Rubay, James Mather, Victoria Brazier, Zack Davis, Laura Lovejoy, Anna MacKenzie, Richard Ford, Felicity Cottrell, and Ruth Sullivan (Won)
• 2005 " Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special - Joe Pavlo, Barrie Hemsley, Paul Tuersley, Andrew MacLeod, Andy Fowler, Camille Cellucci, Mark Intravartolo, Robin Huffer, and Neil Culley (Won)