The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) on Netflix
NR20042h 2mBiographyComedyDrama
Peter Sellers has a radio hit in 1950s London with The Goon Show but cannot get into films. Rejected at an audition, he returns as the old veteran the part needs.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.9/1015,976 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes69%
Trailer
Plot summary
Peter Sellers is a radio success on The Goon Show in 1950s London, but he cannot get into films. After a failed audition, his mother Peg urges him to turn the tables on the people who feed him. He goes back to the casting agent as the elderly World War I veteran the part calls for, and when she approves him he drops the disguise and takes the role. His performance in I'm All Right Jack brings a British Academy Award, and he starts to lose himself in the characters he creates.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film swept awards for its portrayal of Sellers, winning the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or TV Film with Geoffrey Rush taking Best Actor, plus nine Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Lead Actor for Rush.
- Director Stephen Hopkins deliberately set aside Roger Lewis's source biography and instead based his approach on Sellers' own 16mm home movies, which had surfaced in a 1995 BBC Arena documentary called The Peter Sellers Story.
- Madonna's production company Maverick bought the rights to Roger Lewis's Sellers biography in the mid-1990s, but the project stalled for years before writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely finally produced the script that got made.
- Blake Edwards, interviewed for the film's DVD, credited Geoffrey Rush with portraying Sellers' characters with uncanny similarity to the real Peter Sellers, and in 2004 claimed that it was the best acting he had ever seen Rush perform.
