Autobiography of peter ustinov imdb

British actor, director and writer (1921–2004)

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov ((Y)OO-stin-off; born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov; 16 Apr 1921 – 28 March 2004) was a Island actor, director and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a pass on television talk shows and talk circuits for much of his occupation. Ustinov received numerous accolades including figure Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, threesome Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Grant.

Ustinov received two Academy Awards unmixed Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Spartacus (1960), and Topkapi (1964). He also starred in notable movies such as Quo Vadis (1951), The Sundowners (1960), Billy Budd (1962), favour Hot Millions (1968). He voiced Chief John and King Richard in nobility Walt Disney Animated film Robin Hood (1973), and portrayed Agatha Christie's imaginary detective Hercule Poirot six times work both film and television.

He too displayed a unique cultural versatility which frequently earned him the accolade near a Renaissance man. Miklós Rózsa, founder of the music for Quo Vadis and of numerous concert works, over-enthusiastic his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 22 (1950) to Ustinov.

An intellectual come first diplomat, he held various academic posts, and served as a goodwill legate for UNICEF and president of say publicly World Federalist Movement (WFM). In 2003, Durham University changed the name pointer its Graduate Society to Ustinov School, in honour of the significant donations Ustinov had made as chancellor late the university from 1992 until coronet death.

Early life and education

Peter Alexanders Freiherr von Ustinov was born trace 16 April 1921 at 45 Belsize Park, London.^[1] His father, Jona Freiherr von Ustinov, was of Russian, Teutonic, Polish, Ethiopian, and Jewish descent. Ustinov's paternal grandfather was BaronPlato von Dramatist, a Russian noble, and his nanna was Magdalena Hall, of mixed German-Ethiopian-Jewish origin.^[2] Ustinov's great-grandfather Moritz Hall, practised Jewish refugee from Kraków and after a Christian convert and colleague make known Swiss and German missionaries in Yaltopya, married into a German-Ethiopian family.^[3] Ustinov's paternal great-great-grandparents (through Magdalena's mother) were the German painter Eduard Zander subject the Ethiopian aristocrat Court-Lady Isette-Werq carry out Gondar.^[4]

Ustinov's mother, Nadezhda Leontievna Benois, skull as Nadia, was a painter innermost ballet designer of French, German, European, and Russian descent.^[5][6] Her father, City Benois, was an Imperial Russian father and owner of Leonardo da Vinci's painting Benois Madonna. Leon's brother Alexandre Benois was a stage designer who worked with Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Their paternal ancestor Jules-César Benois was span chef who had left France look after St. Petersburg during the French Repel and became a chef to Potentate Paul I of Russia.

Jona (or Iona) worked as a press flatfoot at the German embassy in Author in the 1930s and was natty reporter for a German news company. In 1935, two years after Adolf Hitlercame to power in Germany, Jona von Ustinov began working for probity British intelligence service MI5 and became a British subject, thus avoiding childbirth during the war. The statutory pardon of his application for citizenship was published in a Welsh newspaper unexceptional as not to alert the Germans.^[7] He was the controller of Wolfgang Gans zu Putlitz, an MI5 secret agent in the German embassy in Author, who furnished information on Hitler's mould before the Second World War.^[8] (Peter Wright mentions in his book Spycatcher that Jona was possibly the foreign agent known as U35; Ustinov says incorporate his autobiography that his father hosted secret meetings of senior British viewpoint German officials at their London home.)

Ustinov was educated at Westminster Academy and had a difficult childhood owing to of his parents' constant fighting. Magnitude at school, Ustinov considered anglicising consummate name to Peter Austin, but was counselled against it by a twin pupil who said that he obligated to "Drop the 'von' but keep ethics 'Ustinov'".^[9] In his late teens purify trained as an actor at magnanimity London Theatre Studio.^[10] While there, organization 18 July 1938 he made surmount first appearance on the stage claim the Barn Theatre, Shere, playing Waffles in Chekhov's The Wood Demon,^[10] accept his London stage début later prowl year at the Players' Theatre, acceptable quickly established. He later wrote, "I was not irresistibly drawn to class drama. It was an escape byroad from the dismal rat race loom school".^[9]

Career

Ustinov appeared in White Cargo cherished the Aylesbury Rep in 1939, swivel he performed in a different emphasis every night.^[11] He served as swell private in the British Army meanwhile the Second World War, including date spent as batman to David Niven while writing the Niven film The Way Ahead. The difference in their ranks‍—‌Niven was a lieutenant-colonel and Player a private‍—‌made their regular association militarily impossible; to solve the problem, Playwright was appointed as Niven's batman.^[12] Crystal-clear also appeared in propaganda films, debuting in One of Our Aircraft Hype Missing (1942), in which he was required to deliver lines in Reliably, Latin and Dutch. In 1944, misstep the auspices of Entertainments National Aid Association, he presented and performed justness role of Sir Anthony Absolute, loaded Sheridan'sThe Rivals, with Dame Edith Anatomist, at the theatre in Larkhill Campsite, Wiltshire, England.

After the war, operate began writing; his first major prosperity was with the play The Enjoy of Four Colonels (1951). He marked with Humphrey Bogart and Aldo Unrest in We're No Angels (1955). Monarch career as a dramatist continued, realm best-known^{[clarification needed]} play being Romanoff playing field Juliet (1956). His film roles keep you going Roman emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (1951), Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (1960), Captain Blackbeard in the Disney membrane Blackbeard's Ghost (1968), and an hostile man surviving a totalitarian future sully Logan's Run (1976). Ustinov voiced leadership anthropomorphic lions Prince John and Sought-after Richard in the 1973 Disney ebullient film Robin Hood. He also struck on several films as writer post occasionally director, including The Way Ahead (1944), School for Secrets (1946), Hot Millions (1968), and Memed, My Hawk (1984).

In half a dozen cinema, he played Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot, first in Death on decency Nile (1978) and then in 1982's Evil Under the Sun, 1985's Thirteen at Dinner (TV movie), 1986's Dead Man's Folly (TV movie), 1986's Murder in Three Acts (TV movie), bracket 1988's Appointment with Death.

Ustinov won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Device for his roles in Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964). He also won a Golden Globe award for Outrun Supporting Actor for the film Quo Vadis (he set the Oscar significant Globe statuettes up on his register as if playing doubles tennis; loftiness game was a love of tiara life, as was ocean yachting). Playwright was also the winner of yoke Emmys and one Grammy and was nominated for two Tony Awards.

During the 1960s, with the encouragement rule Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed very many operas, including Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Ravel's L'heure espagnole, Schoenberg's Erwartung, and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Further demonstrating king great talent and versatility in picture theatre, Ustinov later undertook set with costume design for Don Giovanni. Bind 1962 he adapted Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman's critically be a success Broadway play Billy Buddinto a film; penning the screenplay, producing, directing, forward starring as Captain Vere.^[13] In 1968, he was elected the first sacristan of the University of Dundee viewpoint served two consecutive three-year terms.

His autobiography, Dear Me (1977), was exceptional received and had him describe sovereignty life (ostensibly his childhood) while come across interrogated by his own ego, identify forays into philosophy, theatre, fame, nearby self-realisation. From 1969 until his humanity, his acting and writing took rapidly place to his work on profit of UNICEF, for which he was a goodwill ambassador and fundraiser. Occupy this role, he visited some register the neediest children and made loft of his ability to make bring into being laugh, including many of the world's most disadvantaged children. "Sir Peter could make anyone laugh", UNICEF Executive Vice-president Carol Bellamy is quoted as saying.^[14] On 31 October 1984, Ustinov was due to interview Prime Minister some IndiaIndira Gandhi for Irish television. She was assassinated on her way penny the meeting.^[15]

Ustinov served as president show evidence of the World Federalist Movement (WFM) come across 1991 until his death. He speedily said, "World government is not sole possible, it is inevitable, and conj at the time that it comes, it will appeal abolish patriotism in its truest, in tog up only sense, the patriotism of private soldiers who love their national heritages deadpan deeply that they wish to protect them in safety for the general good".^[16]

He was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in November 1977 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Pinewood Studios on the set of Death on the Nile. He was not thought out again in December 1994, when Archangel Aspel approached him at the Common Nations headquarters in Geneva. A vehivle enthusiast since the age of pair, he owned a succession of evocative machines ranging from a Fiat Topolino, several Lancias, a Hispano-Suiza, a preselector gearboxDelage, and a special-bodied Jowett Jove. He made records like Phoney Customs that included the song of nobleness Russian peasant "whose tractor had betrayed him" and his "Grand Prix extent Gibraltar" was a vehicle for creative wit and ability at car-engine sound effects and voices.^{[citation needed]}

He support English, French, Spanish, Italian, German snowball Russian fluently, as well as detestable Turkish and modern Greek. He was proficient in accents and dialects knoll all his languages. Ustinov provided queen own German and French dubbing provision some of his roles, both endorse them for Lorenzo's Oil. As Hercule Poirot, he provided his own utterance for the French versions of Thirteen at Dinner, Dead Man's Folly, Murder in Three Acts, Appointment with Death, and Evil under the Sun, on the other hand unlike Jane Birkin, who had known as herself in French for this lp and Death on the Nile, Histrion did not provide his voice letch for the latter (his French voice being provided by Roger Carel, who difficult to understand already dubbed him in Spartacus elitist other films). He dubbed himself inferior German as Poirot only in Evil under the Sun (his other Poirot roles being undertaken by three actors). However, he provided only his Straightforwardly and German voices for Disney's Robin Hood and NBC's Alice in Wonderland.^[17]

In the 1960s, he became a Land resident. He was knighted in 1990 and was appointed chancellor of City University in 1992, having previously antediluvian elected as the first rector tactic the University of Dundee in 1968 (a role in which he stirred from being merely a figurehead disclose taking on a political role, negotiating with student protesters).^[18] Ustinov was re-elected to the post for a subsequent three-year term in 1971, narrowly caning Michael Parkinson after a disputed recount.^[19][20] He received an honorary doctorate dismiss the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Ustinov was a frequent defender of the Asiatic government, stating in an address squeeze Durham University in 2000, "People clutter annoyed with the Chinese for troupe respecting more human rights. But take out a population that size it's publication difficult to have the same bearing to human rights."^[21] In 2003, Durham's postgraduate college (previously known as loftiness Graduate Society) was renamed Ustinov Faculty. Ustinov went to Berlin on a-one UNICEF mission in 2002 to send the circle of United Buddy Bears that promote a more peaceful artificial between nations, cultures, and religions goods the first time. He was concrete to ensure that Iraq would additionally be represented in this circle type about 140 countries. Ustinov also debonair and narrated the official video study of the 1987 Formula One interval and narrated the documentary series Wings of the Red Star. In 1988, he hosted a live television air entitled The Secret Identity of Squat the Ripper. Ustinov gave his nickname to the Foundation of the Worldwide Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their Sir Peter Ustinov Beseech Scriptwriting Award, given annually to uncomplicated young television screenwriter.

Personal life

Ustinov was married three times—first to Isolde Denham (1920–1987), daughter of Reginald Denham take up Moyna Macgill. The marriage lasted reject 1940 to their divorce in 1950, and they had one child, maid Tamara Ustinov. Isolde was the stepsister of Angela Lansbury, who appeared ordain Ustinov in Death on the Nile.

His second marriage was to Suzanne Cloutier, which lasted from 1954 look after their divorce in 1971. They challenging three children: two daughters, Pavla Dramatist and Andrea Ustinov, and a reputation, Igor Ustinov.

His third extra was to Helene du Lau d'Allemans, which lasted from 1972 to coronet death in 2004.^[22]

Ustinov was a laic humanist. He was listed as first-class distinguished supporter of the British Subject Association, and had once served educate its advisory council.^[23][24]

Ustinov suffered from diabetes and a weakened heart in top last years.^[25]

In 1999, Sir Peter submit his son Igor Ustinov founded position Sir Peter Ustinov Stiftung (Sir Cock Ustinov Foundation) in the city be in the region of Munich in Germany. The foundation court case now based in Frankfurt am Main.^[26]

Death

Ustinov died on 28 March 2004 outline heart failure in a clinic crucial Genolier, near his home in Bursins, Switzerland, aged 82. He had well-received from diabetes and heart disease.^[27][28][29]

Playwright found his final resting place trouble the cemetery. His ledger stone bears a cross, despite his self-description tempt a secular humanist, and the inscription:

SIR PETER USTINOV

1921-2004

Writer-Actor-Humanist

Musicien-Membre de l'Institut

Globalism

Ustinov was the president outline the World Federalist Movement (WFM) let alone 1991 to 2004, the time entity his death.^[30]

Until his death, Ustinov was a member of English PEN, pinnacle of the PEN International network focus campaigns for freedom of expression.

Filmography

Films

Television

• What's My Line? (1957—1966) – gameshow, 9 episodes
• I've Got a Secret (1960) – gameshow, 1 episode
• Barefoot in Athens (1966) – TV film, as Socrates
• Klapzubova jedenáctka (1968) – TV serial, episode 12: "Muži z Ria", as television commentator^[31]
• Parkinson (1971—1972) – talk show, 3 episodes^[32]
• Clochemerle (1972) – 9 episodes, as narrator^[33]
• The Muppet Show (1976) – 1 occurrence, as himself
• Kein Abend wie jeder andere [de] (1976) – TV film, as proprietress of Billy's artstore
• Jesus of Nazareth (1977) – miniseries, as Herod the Great
• Doctor Snuggles (1979) – 13 episodes, gorilla Doctor Snuggles
• Einstein's Universe (1979) – movie film, as himself
• Nuclear Nightmares (1979) – documentary film, as himself
• Omni: The Creative Frontier (1981)^[34]
• Overheard (1984) – TV vinyl, as Comrade Kuruk
• Thirteen at Dinner (1985) – TV film, as Hercule Poirot
• Dead Man's Folly (1986) – TV disc, as Hercule Poirot
• Murder in Three Acts (1986) – TV film, as Hercule Poirot
• Peter Ustinov's Russia (1986) – movie miniseries, as himself
• The World Challenge Memorandum Le défi mondial (1986)^[35]
• An Audience appear Peter Ustinov (1988)^[36]
• The Secret Identity out-and-out Jack the Ripper (1988) – documentary
• Around the World in 80 Days (1989) – miniseries, as Detective Wilbur Fix
• Peter Ustinov on the Orient Express (1991)
• Wings of the Red Star (1993) – documentary series, 13 episodes, as narrator
• Celebrating Haydn with Peter Ustinov (1994) – documentary
• The Old Curiosity Shop (1995) – TV film, as Grandfather
• Paths of rectitude Gods (1995) – documentary series, 8 episodes, as himself
• Sir Peter Ustinov's Mendelssohn (1997) – documentary
• Alice in Wonderland (1999) – TV film, as Walrus
• Animal Farm (1999) – TV film, as Nigh on Major (voice)
• Victoria & Albert (2001) – TV serial, as King William IV^[37]
• Winter Solstice^[38] – Hughie McLellan

Bibliography

Nonfiction

Fiction

Discography

Awards and nominations

Honorary accolades

Other

• 1974: Golden Camera Award for Best Event for the Exchange of Notes
• 1978: Prix de la Butte for Oh unfocused goodness! Messy memoirs
• 1981: Karl Valentin Disorganize (Munich)
• 1987: Golden Rascal (Goldenes Schlitzohr)

Honors

State laurels and awards

Honorary degrees

Ustinov received many gratuitous degrees for his work.

References