by Ed Sikov
Then, “I do feel frail. Really, I feel faint,” he said, and before he got a chance to get back into bed, his face turned deep purple and then very pale, he closed his eyes, and he died.
• • •
“It’s hard to say this, but he died at the right time,” said Spike.
“Anything to avoid paying for the dinner,” said Harry.
• • •
To be pedantic about it, Peter’s clinical death was actually a more protracted process. He was rushed to Middlesex Hospital and hooked up to machines that kept him going for another thirty-six hours. Sue Evans called Michael, who was in London. Sarah was in Portugal. Victoria was in Sweden with her mother. They all had time to assemble at the hospital before the Widow Sellers arrived in dark glasses, fresh from the Western Hemisphere.
Peter’s body didn’t give up easily, but this time it had no choice. A little after midnight on July 24, it was over.
• • •
“Peter was a well-loved actor in Britain,” Burt Kwouk observes. “The day he died, it seemed that the whole country came to a stop. Everywhere you went, the fact that Peter had died seemed like an umbrella over everything.”
The headlines screamed, the newscasters intoned. And in a bit of irony both gruesome and cruel, thieves stole Lynne’s crocodile handbag and matching wallet—they were gifts from Peter, she said—while she was shopping for a black dress the next day.
• • •
Peter’s funeral was held at Golders Green on Saturday, July 26.
Anne was in Portugal with Ted Levy when Peter died. She didn’t return to London, she says, “because I knew it would be a circus.”
She was correct. The surge of fans, reporters, photographers, and morbid sightseers was magnificent in the pouring rain.
Britt made a discreet entrance in a blue Rolls Royce. Miranda, after placing a sympathy telephone call to Lynne (a call answered by Sue Evans) stayed away.
Peter’s aunties, Ve and Do, were there, along with Spike, Harry, Michael Bentine, his cousins Ray Marks and Peter Ray, Canon John Hester, Lord Snowdon, Brother Cornelius, Dennis Selinger, Graham Stark, David Lodge, and Baron Evelyn de Rothschild.
• • •
As one of the Ray cousins said of the funeral, the wives were crying and the Goons were laughing. This was especially the case after Canon Hester, at Michael’s suggestion, made an announcement at the end. Just before Peter’s body was wheeled away to the furnace room to be turned into ash, Canon Hester solemnly told the assembled mourners that Peter wanted them to listen to one last song.
And so it was that Peter Sellers exited the world, riding in swingtime into the flames, to the tune of Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.”
EPILOGUE
Ever drifting down the stream—
Lingering in the golden gleam—
Life, what is it but a dream?
A memorial service for Peter Sellers took place at St. Martin in the Fields on September 8, 1980. It would have been Peter’s fifty-fifth birthday.
In addition to Lynne, Michael, Sarah, Victoria, Spike, Harry, David Lodge, Graham Stark, and Michael Bentine, guests included Lord Snowdon, David Niven, Michael Caine, Sam Spiegel, Herbert Lom, and about 490 less famous people.
Snowdon recited the twenty-third Psalm. Harry sang “Bread of Heaven.” Niven offered the eulogy. “It was a joy and a privilege to have known him for so long,” Niven said. “Yet how many of us really did know Peter? After twenty-five years of friendship, I had to ask myself.” Niven noted with candor that some of Peter’s many obituaries described him as having been “difficult, ungracious, despotic, bitter, depressed, lonely, in a constant state of turmoil, vexatious, quarrelsome, and neurotic.” Niven acknowledged that, well, yes, Peter had been some of those things at least some of the time. But, he went on to say, “luckily he was not all these things all of the time, because if he had been, St. Martin’s and the surrounding fields would be empty this morning instead of full.”
According to the terms of Peter Sellers’s last will and testament, 50,000 Swiss francs was to go to the city of Gstaad, £5,000 to his lawyer Anthony Humphries, £5,000 to his accountant Douglas Quick, and $2,000 each to Michael, Sarah, and Victoria Sellers. The rest of Peter’s estate would proceed to Lynne Frederick.
Thanks to his tax lawyers and accountants, Peter’s British estate was virtually worthless. His foreign estate hovered in the neighborhood of $9.6 million.
On behalf of Michael, Sarah, and Victoria, Spike Milligan appealed personally to Lynne’s sense of decency, but since she had none, she had none of Spike’s appeal, so Peter’s children were forced to contest his will in court, where they eventually lost. Lynne’s point was simple: “Why can’t they leave his memory alone?”
Six months after Peter’s death, Lynne Frederick married David Frost. Then she divorced Frost and married a cardiologist. She got all the money.
“It all went up her nose,” Anne Levy once said with uncharacteristic spite, not to mention exaggeration. Anne was referring to the fact that Lynne developed severe addictions to drugs and alcohol and died in 1994 at the age of thirty-nine. Yes, there was a lot of cocaine in the later years of Lynne Frederick. But there was even more money.
Lynne’s mother, Iris, found the body. It was taken to the Los Angeles County Morgue, where it became Case Number 94-3840 and was tagged with a note reading, “history of alcohol and seizures.”
Then Iris got the money.
Iris Frederick lives in a lovely home in Cheviot Hills, California. She controls all access to Peter Sellers’s papers and personal effects, she has trademarked his name, and she is currently developing his property in the Seychelles as a high-end resort.
When Iris dies, Peter Sellers’s fortune will all go to a girl named Cassie, the daughter Lynne had with the cardiologist.
• • •
Michael Sellers went on to write a book about his father, P.S. I Love You. He also coedited Sellers on Sellers, a collection of reminiscences, and Hard Act to Follow, in which he and some other sons and daughters of celebrities chronicle their wholly justified difficulties in being famous people’s offspring.
Victoria Sellers turned up in the news in the spring of 1986 when she appeared nude in Playboy. The glossy magazine spread reveals her recreating famous moments from classic films: a bare-breasted “Ingrid Bergman” in white silk panties and high heels at the end of Casablanca (1942); “Elizabeth Taylor” in Cleopatra (1960), clad in a snake; and “Sophia Loren” in Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963) with her bush exposed.
Victoria was also indicted that spring for her role in a cocaine-trafficking gang. The ringleader was her agent. Facing twenty years in jail, she agreed to testify for the government and was placed on three years’ probation. In the early 1990s, she and her friend and housemate, Heidi Fleiss, found employment as high-priced prostitutes; the so-called “Hollywood madam” scandal broke in 1993.
The following year, Victoria was questioned about a series of armed robberies committed by her boyfriend.
Sex Tips with Heidi Fleiss and Victoria Sellers was released on DVD in time for Christmas 2001.
Sarah Sellers lives quietly in North London.
Anne Levy lives near her daughter.
After “Bino” Cicogna committed suicide, Britt Ekland continued to live a life of glamour and glory with such short- and long-term mates as Warren Beatty, Rod Stewart, George Hamilton, and the record producer Lou Adler, with whom she had a son.
Liza Minnelli went on to achieve some great performances (New York, New York, 1977, and Arthur, 1981) and equally well-publicized addictions.
Titi Wachtmeister moved on from Peter Sellers to King Carl Gustaf of Sweden. She returned to the public eye in the late 1980s when she launched a line of expensive T-shirts called “T-T’s T’s.” She died of a brain hemorrhage in 1993.
Sinead Cusack married Jeremy Irons in 1978; the couple has two sons.
In 2000, Sophia Loren wrote a loving tribute to Peter
Sellers for a British awards ceremony. She was, she wrote, “amused and permanently entertained by his wit and his vivid intelligence. After him nobody else has reached his level and his originality. I will always remember him with love and endless regrets.”
Miranda Quarry is now Lady Nuttall.
• • •
Blake Edwards attempted to assume control of The Romance of the Pink Panther after Peter’s death and offered the role of Inspector Clouseau to Dudley Moore, who turned it down.
Edwards then compiled a selection of outtakes from previous Pink Panther films, released it as The Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), and was promptly sued by Lynne Frederick, who claimed that the film insulted the memory of her dear husband. A British court ordered the various producers of The Trail of the Pink Panther—Edwards, United Artists, and Lakeline Productions, which was owned by Julie Andrews—to pay $1 million in damages, 3.15 percent of the film’s profits, and 1.36 percent of its gross receipts.
Edwards’s more successful films after Peter’s death include S.O.B. (1981) and Victor/Victoria (1982), which he and Julie Andrews later turned into a smash Broadway musical. Edwards has recently rewritten A Shot in the Dark as a Broadway play and The Pink Panther as a Broadway musical.
• • •
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. Pritchett), Megs Jenkins (Mrs. Pritchett), Constance Cummings (Mrs. Davidson), Peter Sellers (Police Constable Diamond). Director: William Fairchild; screenwriter: William Fairchild; director of photography: Arthur Grant; producer, Herbert Mason. British Lion, 82 minutes.
The Ladykillers (1955). Katie Johnson (Mrs. Wilberforce), Alec Guinness (Professor Marcus), Cecil Parker (Major Courtney), Herbert Lom (Louis), Peter Sellers (Harry), Danny Green (One-Round), Jack Warner (police superintendent). Director: Alexander Mackendrick; screenwriter: William Rose; cinematography: Otto Heller; producer: Michael Balcon; associate producer, Seth Holt. Ealing Studios, 97 minutes.
The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956). Peter Sellers (Quilt, Sir Jervis Fruit, Henry Crun), Spike Milligan (Brown, White, Minnie, Catchpole Burkington), and Dick Emery (Watchman, Nodule, Such, Ponk), with Pamela Thomas, Wally Thomas, Bill Hepper, and Gordon Phillott. Director: Joseph Sterling; screenwriters: Harry Booth, Jon Penington, and Larry Stephens, from a story by Larry Stephens, with additional material by Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers; director of photography: Gerald Gibbs; producers: Jon Pennington, Harry Booth, and Michael Deeley. Marlborough Pictures, 27 minutes.
The Man Who Never Was (1956). Clifton Webb (Lt. Comm. Ewen Montagu), Gloria Grahame (Lucy Sherwood), Peter Sellers (voice of Winston Churchill, uncredited). Director: Ronald Neame; screenwriter: Nigel Balchin, based on the book by Ewen Montagu; director of photography: Oswald Morris; producer: André Hakim. Twentieth Century-Fox/Sumar Film, 103 minutes.
Dearth of a Salesman (1957). Peter Sellers (Hector Dimwittie). Director: Leslie Arliss. A.B.-Pathé, 28 minutes.
Insomnia Is Good for You (1957). Peter Sellers (Hector Dimwittie). Director: Leslie Arliss; screenwriters: Lewis Greifer, Mordecai Richler; director of photography: J. Burgoyne-Johnson. A.B.-Pathé, 26 minutes.
The Smallest Show on Earth (1957). Virginia McKenna (Jean), Bill Travers (Matt), Margaret Rutherford (Mrs. Fazackalee), Peter Sellers (Percy Quill), Bernard Miles (Old Tom), Francis De Wolff (Hardcastle). Director: Basil Dearden; screenwriter: John Eldridge and William Rose; director of photography: Douglas Slocombe; producers: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, and Michael Relph. British Lion/Continental, 81 minutes. Originally released in the U.S. as Big Time Operators.
The Naked Truth (1957). Terry-Thomas (Lord Henry Mayley), Peter Sellers (Sonny MacGregor), Peggy Mount (Flora Ransom), Shirley Eaton (Melissa Right), Dennis Price (Nigel Dennis), Georgina Cookson (Lady Lucy Mayley), Kenneth Griffith (Porter), David Lodge (Constable Johnson). Director: Mario Zampi; screenwriter: Michael Pertwee; director of photography: Stanley Pavey; producer: Mario Zampi. British Film/Rank Organisation, 91 minutes. Originally released in the U.S. as Your Past Is Showing.
Up the Creek (1958). David Tomlinson (Lieutenant Fairweather), Peter Sellers (Chief Petty Officer Doherty), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Admiral Foley), Lionel Jeffries (Steady Barker), Lionel Mu
rton (Perkins), Sam Kydd (Bates), John Warren (Cooky), Liliane Sottane (Susanne), and David Lodge (Scouse). Director: Val Guest; screenwiters: Val Guest, John Warren, and Len Heath; director of photography: Arthur Grant; producer: Henry Halsted. Byron/Exclusive, 83 minutes.
tom thumb (1958). Russ Tamblyn (Tom Thumb), Alan Young (Woody), June Thorburn (Forest Queen), Terry-Thomas (Ivan), Peter Sellers (Tony), Bernard Miles (Father), Jessie Matthews (Mother), Peter Bull (the town crier), and the Puppetoons. Director: George Pal; screenwriter: Ladislas Fodor, based on the story by the Brothers Grimm; director of photography: Georges Périnal; producer: George Pal. Galaxy Pictures/MGM, 98 minutes.
Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959). Terry-Thomas (Cadogan deVere Carlton-Browne), Peter Sellers (Amphibulos), Luciana Paluzzi (Princess Ilyena), Ian Bannen (young king), Thorley Walters (Colonel Bellingham), Miles Malleson (resident advisor), Raymond Huntley (foreign secretary), John Le Mesurier (Grand Duke Alexis), and Irene Handl (Mrs. Carter). Directors: Jeffrey Dell and Roy Boulting; screenwriters: Jeffrey Dell and Roy Boulting; director of photography: Max Greene; producer: John Boulting. British Lion/Charter Films, 88 minutes. Released in the U.S. as Man in a Cocked Hat.
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959). Peter Sellers (photographer), Dick Lester (painter), Spike Milligan (record player, etc.), and Graham Stark (kite master), with Audrey Stark, Mario Fabrizi, Leo McKern, and David Lodge. Director: Dick Lester; “Thoughts by Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Mario Fabrizi, and Dick Lester; devised by Peter Sellers.” 11 minutes.
