The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

by Roger Lewis, Peter Sellers

(Applause Books). 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.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, History, Biography Memoir

530 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roger Lewis, as plugged in my review of Anthony Burgess, is my kind of biographer. Prone to enormous longueurs and digressions, dancing with his difficult subjects across tens of hundreds of pages, speculating and respeculating and ranting whenever appropriate, throwing in the odd inappropriate quotation from Johnson or Wilde, abandoning the albatross of subjectivity to near maniacal levels. I first saw Peter Sellers in the wonderful Being There, a moving satire where he plays the childlike Chance Gardener, a role bound up in Sellers’s blankness, his reputation as being a vessel for his parts. This film is a terrific accomplishment. The life of Sellers is a Dresden bombing in human form. Not a single second of Sellers on celluloid is worth the torrential lunacy that the corporeal presence of this shambolic individual created between the years 1925 and 1981. Pampered by a crazy mummy, Sellers grew up a petulant and ill-educated child and kicked and screamed his way through life, bringing pleasure to millions and enormous suffering and unhappiness to hundreds. Lewis’s bloated masterpiece is deliberately fractured (although he never does explain why he dropped his chronological structure), moving in a somewhat logical progression until Sellers’s stardom daze, where the logic and sanity hit several air conditioners filled with excrement. Perhaps this bio is nothing less than a highbrow Hollywood tell-all with Shakespeare quotes. If so, Lewis turns a rancid life into a supreme example of the biographer’s art. The subject, frankly, is unworthy of the biographer. Depressing and compelling.

[Ian Laird · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading Roger Lewis’s Introduction to his biography of Peter Sellers is disheartening.

The author condemns his subject as a vain, selfish man, devoid of a personality of his own, mean-spirited, always blaming others but never himself, shallow, prone to brief and expensive obsessions, cars and cameras in particular, uncomfortably close to his mother and generally a lousy human being.

All of this may be true, to a greater or lesser extent. This exhaustive and exhausting biography takes this line remorselessly throughout, but I wondered how it was that a man so apparently dislikeable could entertain me and countless adoring fans from the time of The Goons through to Being There, via The Ladykillers, Dr Strangelove and the Pink Panther Films. The only time I have fallen off a seat laughing in the cinema is watching Sellers in The Return of the Pink Panther, in the scene where Kato jumps out at him from the fridge.

There must be more to him than Roger Lewis makes out, I thought. Well, apparently there is not.

I grew up with The Goons, they were re-broadcast on the ABC for years after they actually finished. I loved the inspired anarchy and absurdity of the show and the way the three principals, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Sellers combined to tell their boisterous stories. They were clearly having the time of their lives. To remind myself what they were like, I listened just now to African Incident, originally broadcast in 1957, a lampoon of The Bridge on the River Kwai, where Sellers does an uncanny Alec Guinness as well as his usual voices. It is still fantastic six decades later. Sellers maintained this was the happiest period of his working life, but it still didn’t stop him from eventually disparaging Milligan. They were not so much soulmates as moved by a similar spirit, but Milligan rather more maturely.

The Return of the Pink Panther and the sequels (the ones he was still alive for) showed signs of the old magic and Sellers gift for accents remained unimpaired, but the tiredness is beginning to show. He did make me laugh though.

***

For a brief time in the nineties I had the good fortune to be friends with Mike Sellers, Peter’s nephew, who lived in Australia. We met playing tennis against each other. Our teams (two boys and two girls each) got on very well socially, so well in fact that our Annie and their Mike fell in love. So sadly, both were killed in July 1998, when the seaplane they were travelling in with family members crashed into a headland on the Hawkesbury River after engine failure. For the record Mike was affable, generous company and quite funny.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book when it was first published in the early 90s and I can remember coming across its flaws then, but I can also remember enjoying reading it - and the same has held true now.

Roger Lewis started off as a Sellers fan, but after researching this book decided that he hated the man - Sellers is referred to without as 'insane' and a 'monster'. (Lewis went through the same process with his Anthony Burgess biography. He really needs to stop writing about his heroes.) As such the book contains a lot of after the fact psycho-analysis and condemnation, but the author does make a claim towards the end that a biographer has no need to be objective. And that does make it a passionate read.

However it's not a straight forward read. I think if a kindly editor had taken out all the Shakespeare quotes and Henry James quotes and John Donne quotes the book would probably lose a hundred pages (and it is a rather plump 700+ pages.) The literary allusions add nothing and just show off Lewis's Oxbridge professor past.

Furthermore the digressions and the abandonment of chronology about half way through means that it could send my head spinning by jumping from one incident to another. There is no gradual progression, what Lewis really wants to do is to prove again and again how much of a monster Sellers was (which - to be fair - he does sound) and he hammers that point out again and again.

I think that passion is what I like and what I don't like about the book. The condemnation of Sellers is so intense it at some points Lewis seems to be as mad as the man himself (he admits sending abusive responsives to people who wouldn't speak to him). The films most constantly referred to are Casino Royale and Ghosts In The Noonday Sun, which may show Sellers at his worst but are hardly the films you want to hear most about. Yes, he seems to have been crazy, but hitting the reader with that fact again and again can get tiresome.

But then the passion also makes it a compulsive read. Really and genuinely, this is a book that has taken over my last ten days - any spare moment I can get I've picked it up and continued reading. And for all its flaws, that is a recommendation.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved Peter Sellers since I was a kid and first saw the Pink Panther movies. When I was older I discovered Dr. Strangelove, The Mouse That Roared, Being There, The Party and I'm All Right Jack, just to name a few. This biography is incredibly extensive and attempts to reveal the man behind all the different faces and voices. The biography is only partially chronological and there are many digressions. While this style is often frustrating it is also incredibly revealing. Sellers was a megalomaniac - he was cruel, childlike but also an incredibly brilliant actor and performer. The book is dense and an incredibly interested study of a deeply flawed person. I would recommend watching Sellers' films before you read this book - especially his early British films as these are the titles most discussed in the book.

This book is also the inspiration for the film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. It was shown on HBO in the US but was released theatrically when I was living in the UK. It's a great film that manages to capture the tone and Lewis' analysis of Sellers' life without being as dense as the book. Geoffrey Rush is fantastic, and if the film had been released theatrically in the States he would have been a shoe-in for an Academy Award nod.

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of a (armchair) psychoanalysis than a standard biography.

Lewis absolutely eviscerates Peter Sellers, going so far as to compare him with the devil a few times and even calling him evil. Now, I'm a Peter Sellers fan and I hope that half of what Lewis says about Sellers isn't true, but you can't fault his meticulous research. He seems to have interviewed or at least found quotes from everyone that ever had anything to do with Sellers, including the news anchor that was going to (prematurely) report his death.

Why I love this book, though, is not the biography itself. As I said, it's more of a psychoanalysis and is not at all chronological or even a complete look at Sellers' life. What I love is Lewis' writing. Besides his hilarious and visceral hate for Sellers (did he steal his wife or deflower his daughter?), he writes like you are chatting with a gossipy old lady and it's great. He often goes off on tangents that have nothing to do with Sellers at all (why Kubrick is overrated, short looks at Alec Guinness and Sophia Lauren's lives, a discussion of the movie Harold and Maude); you couldn't get this much tea from your favorite gay hairdresser.

[Matt Lohr · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult to think of a biography with a style more appropriate to its subject than Roger Lewis's sprawling, discursive, non-linear take on the life and times of legendary comedian, actor, and apparently awful human being Peter Sellers. Lewis's book ranges far and wide over the life and career of Sellers, circling around wildly to hit several points over and over: Sellers was warped by his overly protective relationship with a mother who called him after an older brother who was stillborn; he bounced into characters with the greatest of ease because, as he claimed, he had no personality of his own; he filled the void in his life with meaningless sex and the heedless acquisition of material goods; he had a persistent inability to distinguish fantasy from reality (most vividly exemplified in his one-sided obsession with one-time co-star Sophia Loren). Lewis argues that by the last few years of his life and career, Sellers was quite literally insane, given to fits of paranoid schizophrenia and lost in his inability to tell his real life and self from the machinations of the characters who dominated him.

It's a fast and interesting enough read, but the show-offy, whee-look-at-me writing style sometimes evokes Sellers at his most straining and unnatural. Lewis also engages in several seemingly ad hominem attacks against individuals associated with Sellers; Goon Show compatriot Spike Milligan comes in for persistent low-level contempt, and his comments about fourth Sellers wife Lynne Frederick and daughter Victoria are borderline libelous in their intensity and hatred. (And if Sellers's mum were still alive, I think she'd object to her occasional characterization as a "pterodactyl"). But it's hard to deny the sweep and power of Lewis's narrative, and for Sellers completist, the book is pretty hard to dismiss.

This book was the basis for the acclaimed 2004 HBO film (which played theatrically in Europe), which won several awards for the great Geoffrey Rush in the title role. The film is entertaining, less self-indulgent than the book, and well worth your time.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Sellers was a very strange and sort of private man. Even people who knew him for years felt like they didn't really know him. A kind of depressing guy who can create into something else. One of my all time favorite actors who often didn't choose the best film roles - but when he did (The Party, Pink Panther movies, Ladykillers, and of course Lolita) he was beyond great.

It's hard to know what made him tick - yet you got the feeling that he was sort of a manic depressive type - but then who knows.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much more challenging than I expected. I'd only seen the popular (in America) Sellers comedies; I recommend seeing as many of his films as possible before reading it.

[russell barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst an undeniable slog to get through, Lewis' paen to Peter Sellers is fascinating, not least because he flat-out ignores the usual rules of biographical form and structure.

This is not a linear exploration of Sellers' life, rather it's a hugely, nerdily-detailed fevered fanboy unpacking of the things Lewis is obsessed by about the comedian, seemingly picked at random as Lewis makes mental connections.

This is in itself difficult Lewis presupposes you are also a cultist to the Church of Sellers, so spends most of the 1000+ pages theorising about a handful of films very few people have seen and digging into various theories about Sellers' psychology.

To add to the confusion, Lewis weaves in plenty of amusing digressions and quotations, not necessarily linked to the task in hand, random (and lengthy) footnotes and comedy sniping at other biographers throughout.

He's basically Comic Guy from The Simpsons, which puts the casual Sellars' fan who might only have heard of him via The Goons and The Pink Panther, at a huge disadvantage.

Weeks of reading later, I still only have a vague understanding of how Sellers rose to fame, and what was going when (and incredibly I've seen the film which was based on the book). I do however, now want to dig out some of the more esoteric films Lewis raves about so maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought?

[Maryam Mirahmadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest books I've ever read.

[George Ellingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The war and peace of biographies. Reading it felt like doing a doctorate on Peter Sellers. I’m glad I did though.

[Geoffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manic and sporadic. Much like the man Peter Sellers, but it's exhausting to read that way, and by the end I kind of hated it. Really interesting insight to a funny man who was more asshole than jokester in my opinion

[J Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers by Roger Lewis was as tedious this time as it was years ago when I first read it, minus the last bit where Lewis changed my perception of him, from perhaps too self-indulgent (much like Sellers) to being a vile little man trying desperately to be as important in some way, any way, as his doppelganger Sellers.

The body of the original book is inconsistent, not simply nonlinear. Some interesting analyses of the films but with too much ignorant personal ax-grinding by Lewis (I really couldn't care less how much you despise Kubrick and his films, you don't need to spend a couple pages in a Sellers biography on your (semi)literary masturbatory whining about his success and appreciation by those who know and make film for a living) and many troublesome anecdotes and stories from Sellers' personal life but again bogged down by his faulty understanding of pop psychology. But then there will be long stretches where Lewis actually thinks anyone cares what his personal opinions are, especially already having established he doesn't know enough about the concepts inaccurately applied to Sellers.

Sellers was definitely a troubled and toward the end of his life seriously disturbed person. A human being who didn't have an inflated, unjustifiably, opinion of himself could have written a biography that covered all of that, shown how those in his life were affected, provided some speculation about causes, yet maintained a degree of compassion for a fellow human being that went through all that. But this is not that biographer, this is a pathetic excuse for a biographer, heck, a pathetic excuse for a human being, who loves being such a donkey that he adds even more trash at the end to show that he still hasn't evolved, after all these years, into a true human being.

I will give a qualified recommendation because there is a lot of information about Peter Sellers here that will interest readers. You just have to extract it from the manure that is the author and his diarrhea of the mouth.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[C Beard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rarely give a book less than 3 stars but this one just about scraped in. True, it is an extremely detailed and extensively researched account of Sellers life and paints a vivid picture of a man who was both a mimic of almost incomparable genius and a brilliant actor (whether in comedic or dramatic roles) but who, in his personal and professional life, certainly became - to quote Herbert Lom - 'a monster'. The problem is that it is more of a personal indulgence than a true, cold look at Sellers and you become bogged down in a huge morass of opinion, speculation and analysis, not just about Sellers himself (which would be understandable)but many others - Stanley Kubrick and Blake Edwards spring to mind - and this means that the books 1,000 plus pages can easily become a chore. There's some pretty vicious stuff in there too - the reference to Terry Thomas 'dribble stained' letter (at a time when the actor was dying of Parkinson's disease) and the near allegation that Sellers was responsible for Virginia Maskell's suicide (when it is likely that she took her own life - 6 years after she acted with Sellers - due to a severe case of depression initially brought on by post natal depression) are particularly repulsive. If you like your biographies to run chronologically - as I do - suffice to say that Sellers major heart attack (which was life changing and took place in 1964) is not described until after page 900. Overall, then, I was left with a feeling of disappointment; what should have been an absolutely outstanding work was spoilt by the authors passion for the subject in question.

[Trevor Harvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review contains spoilers.

Lewis does not adopt the linear approach of his biographee's life but instead chooses to discuss Sellers' films in the context of his personality and attitudes.

This works well to begin with but, increasingly, as Seller's appalling behaviour is gone over, again and again it becomes wearing.

The bullying, the telephoning of people at 3am, the insistence on changing colours on a film set because he didn't like the colours green and purple. And yet, nobody tells him to f*** off.

Sellers was mad. Lewis regards him as a great actor. This reader isn't convinced. He was a superior mimic.

Lewis has forthright opinions. 'Ray's a Laugh' really is crap (p209). On the Buses is 'appalling', though his dislike of Stanley Kubrick's films is an ill-considered rant (p641-642). He is too ready to see the negative aspects of a film rather than its positive ones.

There's a lot of wandering down leafy byways. Lewis discusses the qualities of actors with whom Sellers works using this as a commentary on his own performances. Alec Guinness is a good example of this approach, but the pages on Martita Hunt descend into salacious gossip about her private life.

This is a sprawling 'loose baggy monster' of a biography. It is self indulgent, repetitive and could have done with severe editing.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

The biggest problem with this biography is how Lewis imposes his own opinions on the facts - repeatedly and at great length. His approach is toward the negative, emphasizing over and over how Sellers must've been mentally ill, insane, and so forth, how badly he treated people, etc. While this may be true, he also speculates whether Sellers was a homosexual (though he presents no proof other than comments from his late-in-life servant/companion Michael Jeffreys). Besides the mistakes in the facts - Lewis claims to have watched Sellers' movies, then erroneously records the action - this nearly 500 page tome is redundant, sorely lacking in accuracy, and oddly compiled. The last couple chapters, for instance, revert to Sellers' career in the 1960s, after Lewis has recounted the actor's death. The movie made based on this book, I can now see, suffers from Lewis' own desire to make this manuscript - including some foul language of his own inclusion (beyond quotations from sources) - more of an extended tabloid piece.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

This exhaustive and exhausting book entertains while it beats you over the head with the authorial voice. Lewis gives Sellers his due as a comic and an actor, is quick to praise his inventiveness and his legacy to screen acting. But he turns over many stones in an effort to show Sellers in all his awful glory, the vain, hectoring, loopy mimic who flitted between omens and psychics, nursing grudges along the way, alienating friends and repeating the same errors in judgment in picking projects and wives.

But the parade grows tiresome as Lewis brings things to a halt to analyze everything Sellers touches, making his foreshortened life stretch out, and bathing it all in his own analysis. The book is not so much a biography as a meditation, and the voice grows malicious in recounting Sellers' antics. At times it felt like the frustrated fan tearing down his idol for daring to be a human being. The story is enough on its own. Still, I can't imagine another book on the subject as thorough or as illuminating.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This exhaustive (and exhausting - I had to have a break half way through its 800 pages and read something else to give me the strength to carry on and read the rest of it) biography of a talented but pretty repulsive man is an enlightening, shocking and ultimately depressing story. That Sellers was a gifted mimic without contemporary equal, and that he was able to turn his not inconsiderable talent for developing characters from early days in variety to the mad success of the Goons, and to some extraordinary film performances is without question. But the human cost to himself, his family and friends, and those he worked with was enormous. He really was a thoroughly unlikeable man in just about every way. Roger Lewis has given the celebrity biography a thorough reinvention here, and deserves much credit for doing so, but Sellers comes across as so utterly foul, and the book in consequence so miserable, that I can’t bring myself to give the book any more than three stars.

[Robert Collette · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhausting read, much like dealing with the real life Peter Sellers, no doubt. I give the book a high rating just because the author left no stone, pebble, stick or leaf unturned, thou I could have done with a bit less psychoanalysis. Despite the author's efforts to have you believe the book's subject has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, (and I have to say I tend to agree) I still manage to feel some pity and sympathy for the the man who was so obviously insane and desperately needing of medical intervention. My love for his characters and works remains unchanged and I plan on reading more on his life in the future. Just as a side note, I usually read to my wife at night before bed from whatever book I happen to be reading and I'm sure she will be "thrilled" to hear some further adventures of "that douchebag Sellers" lol...

[Peter Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mammoth biography of a well loved comic actor but an evil mad monster to those who actually knew, married or worked with him.Such a work of detailed analysis and minute research that no one could possibly better.But today who,apart from we oldies,even know his name.The author spends a lot of time on the early movies which most people probably can’t find these days.It’s excessive length may put people off but I found it compelling as layer upon layer of Sellers was revealed and discussed. The book also goes down many byways which fill out the text and May be tedious to many eg his ancestors,the British music hall and variety scene,early post WWII radio but is valuable to popular historians.Truly a labour of love but exhausting to readers.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Peter Sellers through Tv and movies and then unearthed his radio work. With a man of so many faces as well as voices it's hard to pin down the actual person, hence my reading this book.

While the book doesn't have a chronological timeline as such, it still pulls together Mr Sellers life and paints a picture of a man with serious issues that could be extremely cruel but also kind in a childlike way.

I enjoyed the book and would happily recommend it to anyone with a wish to find out more about the incredibly talented Peter Sellers. But I would also recommend you watch a few Sellers movies and TV shows to get a flavour of the man.

[Rebecca I · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most complete and long biography I've read. Just a bit into it and I got something of an idea of how complicated and difficult it was to try to tell this story of a life. I wanted to hate Peter Sellers, but I couldn't. I feel some anger and some pity. I feel for all the people he has injured over the years. I understand that the complications of our lives are a result of generations of perceived or real hurts and perhaps genetics, and so much else.
I find I still want to watch the man in the midst of his life work and see the films over again. Once again I see that the line between genius and madness is so thin.

[Shaun Hand · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned after about 250 pages when the author made a wisecrack about Sellers' domestic abuse towards his first wife. It's a shame, as I was really interested to read this book, but I soon felt like I was wading through depressing treacle. I'm not one of those people who think that because Sellers was a funny actor it somehow mitigates his appalling bullying and abuse; it's just that the author's nonlinear, tangent-ridden approach didn't work for me. Most of the time I found myself thinking, "Where was the editor on this?!"

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything you can say about Peter Sellers is true. He was painfully shy and an arrogant bastard. Peter longed for family stability and cheated on all three of his wives. He was so crazy he left his first wife for Sophia Loren, thinking she, married to Carlo Ponti, was madly in love with him Spoiler: she wasn't. He came to loathe his Inspector Clouseau character but found out it was the only way to make money. Roger Lewis brings it all home in all the glorious and gory details of a genius who inspired everyone from the Beatles to Jim Carrey, and beyond.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Herculean-undertaking for Lewis, presenting one of the twentieth century's greatest comic minds as an intensely broken and cruel man. The reader is left little room to make up their own mind about Sellers, but Lewis' wealth of research is hard to argue with. The author's compulsive desire to scrutinise Sellers' performance in his every single film and television appearance is responsible for the book's heft.

[Dick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dazzling biography which really is warts and all. Lewis doesn't really like Sellers the person at all while admiring him a lot as an actor.

[Stephen Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this biography rambling and hard to follow at times.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good book. Probably the 5th book I've read about Sellers. This is by far the very best.

[James Atkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UPpQd...

Roger Lewis stated that he was attempting to write a biography about a guy writing a biography. What I think he was attempting was something like Glamorama, but ended up with boring descriptions of interviews, Dick Bentley cracking unfunny, offensive jokes and just a mess.
The book is not linear, meaning its about 500 pages overlong and topics are abandoned and resumed without any thought.
The negativity of sellers is, sometimes, justified, but raises more questions. Lewis seems to hate 90% of his films, begging the question why he wrote it (Michael Sellers, quoted frequently, disowned the book), he relentlessly twists things to suit himself (sellers talks about the cutting of the end of Dr Strangelove, Lewis goes 'he didn't care the average jo didn't get to see it, showing he thought only of himself-in fact, Stanley Kubrick cut it, so blame him), and takes interviews side when a more balanced approach was needed (Ray Bolting says it was sellers fault Soft beds, Hard Battles failed, nothing to do with his dreadful script I presume). You have to admire the wealth of research put in, but overall its a depressing read.
Try Mr Strangelove instead.

[Ivan Mulcahy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is Roger Lewis the funniest storyteller in Wales? Ok let's give him England too. Though this book about the comic genius is not played for laughs. Read the Lewis memoirs for cackles. Read this book for a convincing portrait of Sellers as a monster. Sellers has no rooted character or values or even nature - he's craved all the attention of everyone in the world. And even when we are all looking and laughing and applauding, Sellers is miserable and lost. He was a horror show to all around him says Lewis. The book became that biopic staring Geoffrey Rush. Not a great film. Not as good as the book. One guess the filmmakers were scared to show the audience what a shit was Sellers. Great read b