The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a 2004 film about the life of English comedy actor Peter Sellers, based on Roger Lewis' book of the same name. It was directed by Stephen Hopkins and starred Geoffrey Rush as Sellers, Miriam Margolyes as his mother Peg Sellers, Emily Watson as his first wife Anne Howe, Charlize Theron as his second wife Britt Ekland, John Lithgow as Blake Edwards, Stephen Fry as Maurice Woodruff and Stanley Tucci as Stanley Kubrick. The film shows Peter Sellers as a complex and tormented genius, whose success as a film star concealed his difficult and relatively unhappy... private life. This "troubled life" is the primary focus of this biopic, which personalizes "one of the greatest comic actors in the history of the British cinema," and shows the many masks he wore and characters he played as an actor. The film makes clear that much of his success and identity were dependent initially on his domineering and doting mother. But eventually this success, first in radio and eventually in film, led to his succumbing to destructive mood swings and insecurity, and contributed to the deterioration of his marriages.
more