Trivia
Trivia about Peter sellers and more
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Early Life - General Trivia
Drafted at age 18, assigned to Royal Air Force entertainment unit (appeared in India, Ceylon, Burma)
1949 - 1956: Appeared on BBC radio’s “The Goon Show” with Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan
1951: Screen debut “Penny Points to Paradise”
1961: Directed, and acted in, “Mr Topaze”
1964: Suffered serious heart attack during filming of “Kiss Me, Stupid”
1980: Last film, “The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu”
1982: Feature film, “The Trail of the Pink Panther”, assembled from outtakes and previously edited-out footage from Sellers’s earlier films as Inspector Clouseau; extra scenes shot to connect material together
The Pink Panther Era
When the first Pink Panther movie was released almost 46 years ago, it spawned an industry — sequels (with and without Peter Sellers, who remains indelibly identified with the role of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau), tie-in products, and more than 200 cartoon shorts. Following is a list of useful (and also silly) bits of information about the Pink Panther series.
Peter Ustinov was originally cast as the clumsy Clouseau but backed out and Sellers came aboard. Despite being relatively unknown internationally, Peter Sellers was offered the part, and was paid 90,000 pounds. Voila!
“The Pink Panther” (1963), the first of the films, is named for a fictional diamond that has a discoloration resembling a springing panther.
Sellers modeled the character of Clouseau on the trademark of a box of matches which includes an image of Captain Matthew Webb, who in 1875 became the first person to swim the channel (his heroic mustache and proud stance are both mimicked). To lose weight, Sellers took dieting pills for a year.
In the bath scene with Capucine and Robert Wagner, an industrial strength foaming agent is used which burnt both of the stars’ skin. Wagner, who was completely immersed at one point, became blind for four weeks.
Originally, Sir Charles Lytton was supposed to be the main character.
Only one actor was billed over Sellers: David Niven as the jewel thief the Phantom in “The Pink Panther.”
The only actress to portray Madame Clouseau was Capucine, in “The Pink Panther.”
The sassy, animated Pink Panther, who romped through the opening and closing credits (accompanied by Henry Mancini’s now-familiar music), became a star in his own right. His first theatrical short, “The Pink Phink,” won an Oscar in 1964.
The second Panther film, “A Shot in the Dark,” released two months after “The Pink Panther,” wasn’t intended to be a Panther tale but turned into one when Mr. Edwards replaced the original director, revised the script and brought in Sellers.
After a falling-out between Sellers and Mr. Edwards, Alan Arkin starred in “Inspector Clouseau” (1968), which critics dubbed, as Clouseau would put it, a “beaumbe.”
In 1975, Mr. Edwards and Sellers reunited for “The Return of the Pink Panther”; then came “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” (1976) and “Revenge of the Pink Panther” (1978).
When he died in 1980 at age 55, Sellers was planning to do “The Romance of the Pink Panther,” which he was co-writing but wanted to make without Mr. Edwards.
In 1982, Mr. Edwards compiled outtakes of Sellers and others for “Trail of the Pink Panther.” In 1983, he introduced Ted Wass as an inept New York City police detective in “Curse of the Pink Panther.” Both were also beaumbes.
In the new series, Matt Frewer (”Max Headroom”) is the voice of the Panther, who has spoken on only rare occasions, including in the 1965 theatrical short “Sink Pink” when, a la Professor Higgins, he asked, “Why can’t man be more like animals?”
Photos: Peter Sellers — Ze first Clouseau. Alan Arkin — A Clouseau beaumbe. Ted Wass — Another beaumbe. (Movie Still Archives); Roberto Benigni — Ze latest. (David Appleby/M-G-M)
