Mr. Strangelove_ A Biography of Peter Sellers - Ed Sikov [215]
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In Hollywood, a cinematic remake—or postmillennial rethinking—of The Pink Panther is in development for Mike Myers, who claims that his father used to provide him with comedy lessons that took the form of Mr. Myers waking up young Mike in the middle of the night and making him watch Peter Sellers’s films on TV.
Peter Sellers’s roles in Lovesick (1983) and Unfaithfully Yours (1984) were taken by Dudley Moore. The rest of Peter’s projects died with him.
David Lodge, Kenneth Griffith, and Graham Stark live in or around London. Roman Polanski lives in exile in Paris. Terry Southern died in 1995, Stanley Kubrick in 1999. Hal Ashby died in 1988. Michael Bentine died in 1996. Sir Harry Secombe and George Harrison died in 2001.
Spike Milligan died in February 2002.
New York
March 2002
FILMOGRAPHY
Penny Points to Paradise (1951). Harry Secombe (Harry Flakers), Alfred Marks (Edward Haynes), Peter Sellers (The Major, Arnold Fringe), Spike Milligan (Spike Donnelly), Paddy O’Neil (Christine Russell). Director: Tony Young; screenwriter: John Ormonde. Advance and Adelphi Films, 77 minutes.
Let’s Go Crazy (1951). Peter Sellers (Groucho, Giuseppe, Crystal Jollibottom, Cedric, and Izzy Gozunk), with Manley and Austin, Keith Warwick, Jean Cavall, Pat Kaye and Betty Ankers, Maxim & Johnson, and Freddie Mirfield and his Garbage Men. Director: Alan Cullimore. Adelphi Films, 33 minutes.
Down Among the Z Men (1952). Harry Secombe (Harry Jones), Carole Carr (Carole Gayley), Peter Sellers (Colonel Bloodnok), Michael Bentine (Prof. Osric Pureheart), Spike Milligan (Private Eccles). Director: Maclean Rogers; screenwriters: Jimmy Grafton and Francis Charles; producer: E. J. Fancey; director of photography: Geoffrey Faithfull. E. J. Fancey Productions, 82 minutes.
The Super Secret Service (1953). Peter Sellers, Graham Stark, Dick Emery, Bryan Johnson, Raymond Francis, Anne Hayes, Dickie Martyn, Frank Hawkins, and the Ray Ellington Quartet. Director: Charles W. Green; screenwriters: Spike Milligan and Larry Stephens; producer: John H. Robertson. New Realm, 24 minutes.
Beat the Devil (1953). Humphrey Bogart (Billy Dannreuther), Jennifer Jones (Gwendolen Chelm), Gina Lollobrigida (Maria Dannreuther), Robert Morley (Petersen), Peter Lorre (O’Hara), Peter Sellers (uncredited voices, including that of Humphrey Bogart). Director: John Huston; screenwriters: Truman Capote and John Huston; director of photography: Oswald Morris; producer: John Huston. Romulus/United Artists, 100 minutes.
Orders Are Orders (1954). Margot Grahame (Wanda Sinclair), Maureen Swanson (Joanne Delamere), Brian Reece (Captain Harper), Raymond Huntley (Colonel Bellamy), Sid James (Ed Waggermeyer), Tony Hancock (Lt. Wilfred Cartroad), Peter Sellers (Private Goffin), Eric Sykes (Private Waterhouse), Donald Pleasence (Corporal Martin). Director: David Paltenghi; screenwriters: Geoffrey Orme and Eric Sykes, based on the play by Ian Hay and Anthony Armstrong; producer: Donald Taylor; director of photography: Arthur Grant. Group 3/British Lion, 78 minutes.
Our Girl Friday (1954). Joan Collins (Sadie Patch), George Cole (Jimmy Carroll), Kenneth More (Pat Plunkett), Robertson Hare (Professor Gibble), Hermione Gingold (spinster), Peter Sellers (voice of cockatoo, uncredited). Director: Noel Langley; screenwriter: Noel Langley; producers: George Minter and Noel Langley. Renown Pictures, 87 minutes. Released in Britain as The Adventures of Sadie.
Malaga (1954). Maureen O’Hara (Joanna Dane), Macdonald Carey (Van Logan), Binnie Barnes (Frisco), Guy Middleton (Soames Howard), and Peter Sellers (multiple voices, uncredited). Director: Richard Sale; screenwriter: Robert Westerby; director of photography: Christopher Challis; producers: Colin Lesslie and Mike Frankovich. Columbia Pictures, 84 minutes. Released in the U.S. as Fire Over Africa.
John and Julie (1955). Colin Gibson (John), Lesley Dudley (Julie), Noelle Middleton (Miss Stokes), Moira Lister (Dora), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Sir James), Sidney James (Mr.