The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

by RogerLewis (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $17.90

  Roger Lewis, in his no-holds-barred biography, exposes a Peter Sellers the world little knows. Recognized as the greatest British comic since Charlie Chaplin, Sellers was the grand master of fifty-five films - from Dr. Strangelove, to Being There and the Pink Panther hits. But shadowing his phenomenal career was a history of increasingly bizarre behavior involving psychotic violence, compulsive promiscuity, drug abuse and humiliating self-destructive obsessions with people including Princess Margaret, Sophia Loren, Liza Minnelli and each of his four wives (Ann Hayes, Britt Ekland, Miranda Quarry and Lynne Frederick). He alternately showered his wives and children with gifts and then threatened to kill them. Sellers' fluidity as an actor made for a terrifying madness that grew like a slow metastasizing cancer throughout his adult life. The story of Peter Sellers concludes with his premature death at the age of 54, sick at heart and alone in those sunless hotel rooms, so recoiled from intimacy that no one really knew him anymore.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1994

  $4.24

  Peter Sellers has been acknowledged as one of the screen's greatest actors and one of the best publicized stars. This book looks at the life of Sellers by working from interviews with his family, wives, girlfriends and co-stars. Roger Lewis tells the story of this only son of a Jewish mother and father who began his career by working backstage at his uncle's theatre in Ilfracombe. Conscripted into the airforce, he began performing in Ralph Reader's gang shows. Then after the war he met Harry Seacombe and Spike Milligan and together they created the Goon Show. Sellers made a total of 55 films including Ladykillers , I'm Alright Jack , Dr Strangelove , There's a Girl in my Bed , the Pink Panther films and Being There . Roger Lewis looks for the truth about the man and the performer, sees what secrets emerge from his films, and examines the extent of Seller's insanity and the effect it had on his work.