Andrew Norman - The Real Peter Sellers

The Real Peter Sellers

By the Same Author

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A Candid Biography of a Comic Genius

Andrew Norman

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

White Owl

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Andrew Norman 2021

ISBN 978 1 52678 683 8

eISBN 978 1 52678 684 5

The right of Andrew Norman to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Andrew Norman was born in Newbury, Berkshire in 1943. Having been educated at Thornhill High School, Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Midsomer Norton Grammar School, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, he qualified in medicine at the Radcliffe Infirmary. He has two children, Bridget and Thomas, by his first wife.

From 1972 to 1983, Andrew worked as a general practitioner in Poole, Dorset, before a spinal injury cut short his medical career. He is now an established writer whose published works include biographies of Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Thomas Hardy, T.E. Lawrence, Adolf Hitler, Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton, Beatrix Potter, Marilyn Monroe, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Andrew married his second wife Rachel in 2005.

Authors website: www.andrew-norman.co.uk

I would like to thank Darin Ball, Peter Bass, Barry King, Ivor McNeill, Robert Norcliffe, and Bill Parnell. I am especially grateful to my beloved wife Rachel.

I happened to mention to an acquaintance of mine as we were having a coffee together in our favourite caf in Poole (situated on the south coast of England) that I was considering writing a biography of Peter Sellers. He leaned back in his chair, smiled, and declared, He was a very complex character.

This was Bill Parnell, picture editor and sound editor (now retired), who had worked on no less than ninety-four films as a freelance. This was at London, Shepperton, MGM, Associated British Pictures, and Pinewood Studios, under for example US directors John Huston and Alfred Zinnemann and British directors Lewis Gilbert and John Irvin. These films included Aliens (1986) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). Significantly, however, Bill had worked on The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu (1980), which is where he first met Peter Sellers. (This was to be Sellers final film.)

Much of what I had read about Sellers was confirmed by Bill. For example, He could mimic any accent. Also, said Bill, He often responded to telephone calls, including those from across the Atlantic, by mimicking the accent of the caller.

When the film The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu , in which Sellers plays the part of the eponymous doctor, was almost completed, said Bill, Sellers approached him and told him that he thought there was something wrong with his performance, but could not pinpoint what it was. Whereupon Bill said that, in his opinion, Sellers needed to speed up. Old people may talk with a quavering voice, he said, but they do not usually speak slowly. Sellers took this on board and at his insistence, and at great expense, parts of the film were re-shot!

When, one day, a lady arrived at the studios wearing a purple coat, said Bill, Sellers screamed at her to get out! He was superstitious of the colours green and purple. This was after he met a medium who told him to avoid those colours as they would be very unlucky for him.

Medium: a person claiming to be able to communicate between the dead and the living.

On one occasion, Bill admired some photographs which Sellers, a keen amateur photographer, had taken himself. Whereupon, Sellers offered him his Swedish Hasselblad camera, which in those days was priced at about 7,000, not including the lenses. Bill refused the offer, not wishing to take advantage of Sellers typical generosity.

When Sellers arrived at the studio each morning, said Bill, You never knew who was coming: it all depended on his mood. When he could not get his own way, he would flare up, have a tantrum, rush away and then come back a few minutes later having calmed down.

Sellers was only at ease with those he knew he could trust, said Bill. Also, unlike with many actors and directors, he did not interfere in the film-editing process. Whereas he normally resented criticism, when he was with his own people i.e. people such as the Goons, he felt that they were exactly on the same wavelength. They would tease him unmercifully, taking the mickey by saying things like, What car did you come in today, Peter?