Roger Lewis biography of the late Peter Sellers, another ex-Goon but better known for his many successful films with the Pink Panther series probably being the most popular, was first published in 1994. However this book became the basis for the eponymous film "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers", starring Geoffrey Rush, and has thus acquired a new lease of life.
I prefer to leave the conclusions to my reviews until the end, sadly Lewis does not have the same view. From the very first chapter this is a diatribe against someone who has been tried, judged and sentenced (in absentia) by someone who has made wads of money out of him i.e. "the biographer". I use the inverted commas advisedly as this is the most vile piece of character assassination I have ever come across.
Sellers had a chequered life and career. He came from humble beginnings and there was a music-hall background through his grandparents. During the war he perfected his amazing facility for vocal impersonations - he would, for example, stroll into an officers mess and enjoy the facilities by pretending to be some officer or other.
He made his big break on radio and in comedy turns in theatre (this was the fag-end of the music-hall tradition), and his minor fame undoubtedly helped the Goon show get off the ground; it was originally viewed as a Sellers vehicle. However, as the author never tires of pointing out, Sellers was unable to produce quality material of his own. He was an imitator not a creator.
After "The Goons" Sellers sought to carve out for himself a career in Hollywood and it has to be said he was very successful at this. The massive amounts he was earning did him as much harm as good. It led to a spendthrift, acquisitive attitude which shows him at his very worst.
Lewis attacks Sellers attitude towards women - which undoubtedly left a lot to be desired. Was there violence? The only evidence about this comes from Britt Ekland but the violence seems to be more threatened than carried out. Sellers was definitely a control freak, as was borne out by the many times (often unfairly) he got people sacked from movies.
There is little doubt that Sellers was a fantasist who believed his own inventions. The best example of this is probably the affair-that-never-was with Sophia Loren - his co-star in "The Millionairess" which led to their collaboration on the comic record "Goodness Gracious Me".
Sellers liked to buy expensive toys as well as cars and houses. This is evidence for Lewis that he never grew up, and it may well be there is a point here somewhere. Having worked on the stage as a pretty young boy perhaps he wanted to recover lost time. That he did not allow his children to play with them until he had finished is perhaps more reprehensible - if it's true of course.
There is a dig at Sellers' obsession with spiritualism - he would consult his dead mother regularly - and superstition. But then Ronald Reagan consulted his horoscope before taking important decisions as President of the United States; didn't seem to do him much harm!
Any insult Lewis can devise is flung into the mix. He ends up, as an example, speculating Sellers was a homosexual in love with his mother with no evidence to back up his allegation.
The book is overlong, at around 1,000 pages it looks impressive and scholarly, since much of it is taken up with Lewis' meandering. Additionally, and it would seem remarkably considering its length, the book is actually very poor on chronology about Sellers career, in particular his film career. It seems to be structured in chapters according to what aspect of the subject the biographer wishes to demean. This means we get little sense of how Sellers developed as an actor, which he undoubtedly did
And yet where is the discussion about Sellers talent? Why was he so popular? It is all very well to explain away his versatility in giving excellent performances in films as diverse as "Lolita" and "The Blockhouse" by accusing him of impersonation and so on but you can do that with any actor. The good often comes with the bad as a package. The fact he made so many bad movies as well can partly be ascribed to his character but you cannot exonerate the film studios from the garbage they often produce by simply blaming it on difficult actors.
Sellers had a solitary death. He was not the first and will not be the last actor to suffer this fate. He left nothing to his children but then the relationship between them appears to have been unusually distant. Still at least one of them did make money from old Dad by publishing a negative book about him after his death so he got his revenge for the will!
All in all I cannot recommend this book. Whilst Sellers has been criticised by others, notably his son, I believe a reader would wish to know the facts about his career and have an analysis of his work. If he was just the devil incarnate how does this explain his success? Why was he so popular? To examine the many flaws in his character is valid and expected in a biography, to simply harp on about them and consider every action according to these is simply tedious.
Lewis begins the biography by professing himself to have been a fan of Sellers movies. It was the research into this book that turned him against his idol. It would have been much better if he had been able to separate the man from the artist and give some recognition to the one whilst deploring the actions of the other. Let me speculate now. Did Lewis have some kind of imaginary relationship with Sellers when he watched the films? And did he then feel alienated when he found out what the "real" Sellers was like? Only someone who has loved to excess can develop such irrational hatred for someone whom he never met.
Fortunately for Lewis the dead cannot legally be libelled (at least in the United Kingdom). That is a fact. But boy can they be morally libelled! I wish I had given what this book cost me to charity instead.
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