Darla's Peter Sellers Tribute Page
Actor Peter Sellers was born in North London on September 8, 1925 and made his first stage appearance at the age of 2 weeks, during one of his parents' music hall shows. With show-biz coursing through his veins it didn't take long for young Sellers to get his big break. It came in the form of BBC radio and he got it by impersonating two popular BBC stars and recommending himself to a BBC producer. Sellers confessed his deception and being impressed that Sellers had put one over on him, the producer granted him a spot on the air.
Soon, the impressionists' impressionist went on to star in a new BBC radio show Crazy People, which made its debut on May 28, 1951. The show's name changed and became known as the Goon Show on June 22, 1952. The show was a zany collection of skits that was a precursor to Monty Python's Flying Circus. Sellers's characters on the show included: Major Denis Bloodnok, Bluebottle, Hercules Grytpype Thynne, William "Mate" Cobblers and Henry Crun. Co-starring with Sellers were Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. The show ran until January 28, 1960 and was a showcase for Sellers's improvisational talents, but more importantly, the exposure opened the doors to his film career.
Sellers's first feature film was Penny Points to Paradise (1951) and after doing several British Pictures his first film to achieve success in America was The Mouse That Roared. Sellers could slip in and out of characters as easily as one slips out of a jacket and he displayed this talent well playing multiple characters in Mouse as well as several other films throughout his career including, Dr. Strangelove (or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb) (1964). Strangelove is considered by many to be Sellers's best film and for which, he received his first Oscar nomination.
1963 saw the release of another popular Sellers film, The Pink Panther. Yes, here the indomitable Inspector Clouseau was born. The Pink Panther series of films is the most successful comedic film series of all-time. This was the role for which Sellers was best known and loved. There were 4 sequels to the original, A Shot in the Dark, The Return of the Pink Panther, which resurrected Sellers's stagnating career in 1975, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Revenge of the Pink Panther and Trail of the Pink Panther. Sellers posthumous appearance in Trail was nothing more than outakes from the previous Panther films combined with new footage of other cast members. The two subsequent Panther films made without Sellers were so painfully unfunny that they aren't worth mentioning here.
Sellers garnered his second Oscar nomination for the critically acclaimed film, Being There (1979) in which he played the child-like Chance, a gardener mistaken for an economic guru. Sellers's controlled performance was key to the success of this subtle comedy. Sellers's last film, The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu (1980), was not one of his better films, but it was a fun diversion. Sadly, Sellers died on July 24, 1980, but the comic could not go out without playing one last joke. He had the song In The Mood played at his funeral, leaving his fellow Goons to fight back laughter - Sellers hated the song.
Did you know that:
- Sellers won the Britsh Academy Award for the film I'm Alright Jack defeating Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Peter Finch for the prize.
- Sellers dubbed some of Humphrey Bogart's lines in Beat the Devil as he was unavailable to do them in post-production
- In the film Malaga Sellers dubbed the voices of 14 of the cast members, both male and female and in one scene, 11 of his characters carry on a conversion together.
- Sellers was the voice of Winston Churchill in The Man Who Never Was and the parrot in Our Girl Friday.
- Sellers was awarded the title Commander of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in 1966.
- Singer/Songwriter/Goon Show fan Elton John purchased the original Goon Show scripts at a Christie's auction in March of 1981 paying 14,000 British pounds sterling for them.
Filmography - a complete list of features and shorts as well as my reviews of Sellers's films.
Discography - a complete list of Sellers's recorded material.
Television - a list of U.K. and U.S. TV appearances (probably not complete).
Sellers's TV Now listings - see what films are on cable for the current month.
Wanted - a list of Sellers films/recordings that I'm looking for.
Being There - discuss all things Sellers with other fans on this message board.
Java slide show containing some rare photos from my collection, narrated by yours truly. For the Java challenged,
click here to go to an alternate page. 
Awards bestowed upon this page.
Other Sellers Links:
The Goon Show Preservation Society Page
Lots of Goon Links
A Goon Show Information Page
Pink Panther Page
Pink Panther Fan Home Page - lots of links!
Being There Page - fine tribute to a great film, lots of pics and wavs!
pages.nyu.edu/~jms8142
Some links to UK sites I've found helpful in purchasing Sellers material and a currency converter link to help you convert just about any currency to your home currency:
The Interactive Music and Video Shop
Bookpages Online Bookstore
The Universal Currency Converter™
Sources
The information used to create these Sellers pages was gathered from the following sources:
Peter Sellers : The Mask Behind the Mask by Peter Evans - 1968.
Peter Sellers by Derek Sylvester - 1981 ISBN: 0 906071 577
Peter Sellers by Alexander Walker - 1981 ISBN: 0297 779656 (U.K.)
Remembering Peter Sellers by Graham Stark - 1990 ISBN: 086051 6342 (U.K.)
Peter Sellers: A Film History by Michael Starr - 1991 ISBN: 0-89950-512-0
A Celebration of Sellers (CD boxed set booklet) - 1993
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers by Roger Lewis - 1994, 1995 ISBN: 009 9747006 (U.K.)
Peter Sellers: A Celebration by Adrian Rigelsford - 1997 ISBN: 1 85227 623 1 (U.K.)
Pink Panther theme by Henry Mancini. Available on
This page is intended to be a tribute to Sellers as well as a resource page for fans and collectors. Info provided on these pages is done in the spirit of fair use.