Comedian Peter Sellers Hid Disturbing Secrets

Comedian Peter Sellers Hid Disturbing Secrets

At the 1980 Golden Globes Peter Sellers walked away with the award for best comedy performance for his role in the satirical comedy drama being there as well as scoring an Oscar nomination for best actor the final accolades of a career that began when he was just two weeks old carried onto stage at the king’s theater in south sea Portsmouth the seaside resort where he was born his parents were variety performers constantly on tour sometimes leaving their only child for weeks at a time his childhood was dysfunctional but it only set the stage for what would be a life and career beset by mental illness tumultuous relationships and onset tantrums despite his mother’s domineering and Peter’s immense shyness the two had a very close relationship in fact it was a relationship later described as unhealthy for a grown man by seller’s friend Spike Milligan when you factor in that

Peter was named after his stillborn older brother maybe the mommy issues weren’t all that surprising after serving with the Royal Air Force in World War II sellers decided to pursue a career in jazz and to secure an audition with the BBC he called and pretended to be star radio host Kenneth horn to get their attention producer Roy spear was won over by the impression which led to sellers becoming a regular radio performer by the late 1940s sellers had been introduced to Harry seeum and Spike Milligan who he would go on to star with in the Goon show a legendary radio comedy program which ran for pretty much the entirety of the 50s its avant-garde surrealist humor would have far-reaching influence perhaps most notably on a group of Cambridge University students who would go on to form Monty Python by the time the goon show ended in 1960 Peter sellers had married Australian actress Anne how had two children and had begun a film career starring in titles like the lady killers with one of his idols Alec Guinness his shyness turned to insecurity that he would never make it in Hollywood and his behavior towards his family became neglectful if not cruel in 1960 he accepted a role in the millionaires telling the press that he did so because he would get to star alongside Sophia Loren his obvious ulterior motives culminating in sellers admitting to his wife that he had fallen in love with the Italian bombshell he even woke his young son in the middle of the night to ask whether he should get a divorce sounds like he should have been putting that question to a therapist instead of a half asleep six-year-old he would later declare that he never wanted to see his kids again after asking them which parent they loved more and not getting the answer he had hoped for the couple divorced in 1962 and while his personal

life was crumbling his career was about to skyrocket seller’s portrayal of inspector cluzo in the pink panther drew comparisons to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton and earned him nominations for a golden globe and a bafta the character was largely created by sellers himself and would become his most enduring and iconic role all roles in two Stanley Kubrick films Lolita and doctor strange love would cement seller’s Hollywood credentials doctor strange love in particular gave him an opportunity to display his acting range by playing three different roles something he was well used to from his radio comedy days sellers was full of respect for Kubrick something that couldn’t be said for other directors he worked with as his mental instability began to take hold he had previously turned to superstitions to help get his career off the ground visiting astrologer Morris Woodruff and believing his life was being guided by the ghost of a music hall comedian named Dan Leno who had died in 1904 by the height of his fame sellers had developed an even stranger aversion to two extremely innocuous things the colors green and purple he wouldn’t wear or even act opposite anyone wearing green and his publicists had to pre-screen any hotel room he would be staying in for anything purple lest they suffer a violent outburst sellers married his second wife Swedish actress Britt Eckland just 10 days after meeting her despite or maybe because of the 19-year age gap he quickly became jealous controlling and paranoid telling her what to wear insisting that she spend all of her free time in his company and while she was filming a movie in london even had a medic tell her she was too sick to continue working producers unceremoniously fired her from the film making her even more dependent on sellers no doubt distracted by his troubled

relationship his notoriously prickly onset demeanor hit a new low when he started picking fights with director Billy Wilder on the set of kiss me stupid one night whilst with Eckland sellers inhaled amyl nitrates as a sexual stimulant and suffered a really quite impressive eight heart attacks in the space of three hours he recovered but had to withdraw from filming the director Billy Wilder had little sympathy for his difficult former lead the production of 1967’s casino royale a James Bond parody starring Hollywood heavyweights like Orson Welles and Ursula Andress was shambolic apart from six different directors a slew of writers and an escalating budget sellers was annoyed that the film had turned into a comedy and wanted to be in a serious bond film according to biographer Roger Lewis sellers kept rewriting the script to try to make his character more of a hero and less of a parody he was referred to as an amateur by Orson Welles and soon both actors refused to be in the same shot together sellers even punched Joseph McGrath one of the directors after McGrath complained about his behavior sellers eventually left the film before it was finished leaving him free to focus on destroying his marriage to Britt Eckland his next movie the bobo starred both sellers and Eckland which turned out to be every bit the disaster you’d expect after constant fighting sellers commanded the director to fire his wife and Eckland admitted at this point that their marriage was now an atrocious sham during the filming seller’s mother had a heart attack wrapped up in his own personal drama he didn’t visit her and she died days later something that he would never get over to add insult to injury Eckland divorced him shortly after the next years of seller’s life showcased a series of bad career decisions he had a string of flops and even worse romantic choices in 1970 with his midlife crisis still going strong the 47-year-old sellers tied the knot with 23-year-old model Miranda quarry by 1973 the marriage was failing of course and sellers

fell into a chaotic affair with Liza Minnelli after watching her perform the pair were so mad about each other they got engaged within three days of striking up a romance despite the fact that sellers was already married and Minnelli was engaged within a month their flame burned out as fast as it had ignited though sellers got divorced anyway probably for the best that one around this time confidants started to suggest that sellers was in the middle of a nervous breakdown when tv host Michael Parkinson invited sellers on his show the comedian felt insecure about going on without any character to hide behind so he dressed up as a gestapo officer before sitting down to the interview the mid-1970s saw sellers try to revive his slipping career he appeared in several more pink panther movies which did bring money accolades and renewed relevance but his onset tantrums got worse as sellers got older his women stayed the same age in 1977 he got married one last time to 23-year-old actress Lynn Frederick she was even less equipped to deal with seller’s outbursts than any of his previous relationships and according to biographer Roger Lewis she was treated worse than any of them in 1979 sellers got one last chance at a serious movie role when he starred in the extremely well-received comedy being there as the simple-minded gardener chance sellers poured his heart and soul into the role going method and staying well away from co-stars and journalists while filming it paid off and the part earned him a golden globe and an academy award nomination as always in the life of Peter sellers what went up had to come down soon after the movie came out and charmed critics sellers asked his 15-year-old daughter Victoria her own opinion of the film she answered that she loved it and added likely jokingly that he looked like a little fat old man

sellers snapped he threw his drink on Victoria and demanded she’d get the next plane home when seller’s eldest daughter Sarah condemned his actions he sent her a telegram that would end up being one of the last communications they had for years friends had been trying to get sellers to seek medical help particularly for issues with his heart but despite several other heart attacks sellers remained stubborn at one point he even collapsed on set in Dublin and then went to Cannes just two days later on July 22nd 1980 sellers had plans to meet with his goon buddies Spike Milligan and Harry seeum for a reunion dinner in London he would never make it that afternoon sellers had another heart attack at his hotel and died a couple of days later at the age of 54 as he was put to rest sellers had one final practical joke to play on his fellow goons insisting that Glenn Miller’s in the mood be played at the service a song they despised there was evidence to suggest that sellers growing tired of his marriage to Lynn Frederick was trying to cut her out of his will entirely but died before the paperwork was completed as a result his children received just 800 pounds each from his multi-million pound estate the rest went to his wife who refused to increase their inheritance Britt Eckland later said she believed sellers to be bipolar but he was fully opposed to seeking any kind of professional help there’s no doubt he was a difficult and enigmatic figure with a complicated view of himself when he appeared on the muppet show two years before his death he had declined to appear as himself instead trying on various costumes and accents when Kermit suggested he could just be himself he replied I could never be himself you see there is no me I do not exist there used to be a me but I had it surgically removed well at least he didn’t dress up like a Nazi if you enjoyed this video please give it a like and subscribe for more