Peter Ustinov

Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) was a two-time Academy Award-winning film actor, director, writer, journalist, and raconteur. He played Batiatus in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) and had also roles in films like Quo vadis? (1951), Topkapi (1964) and Death on the Nile (1978). Ustinov wrote and directed many acclaimed stage plays and staged operas such as 'The Magic Flute' and 'Don Giovanni'. The Brit became also a Swiss citizen in 1961.


German postcard by L.M. Kartenvertrieb, no. L.M.P. 01915. Photo: Wilhelm W. Reinke.


American still by MGM. Peter Ustinov as Emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951), shot at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, and based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz.


French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle, Mâcon, no. 004/8. Photo: Collection B. Courtel / D.R. Laurence Olivier and Peter Ustinov on the set of Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960). Caption: Contrast of eras between the clothing of Laurence Olivier and that of the director and actor Peter Ustinov.

Emigrated from Russia in the aftermath of the Communist Revolution

Peter Ustinov was born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinow in 1921 in Swiss Cottage, London. He was the son of Nadezhda Leontievna (née Benois) and Jona Freiherr von Ustinow. His father was of one-quarter Polish Jewish, one-half Russian, one-eighth Ethiopian, and one-eighth German descent, while his mother was of one-half Russian, one-quarter Italian, one-eighth French, and one-eighth German ancestry. Ustinov had ancestral connections to Russian nobility as well as to the Ethiopian Royal Family.

His father, also known as "Klop Ustinov", was a pilot in the German Air Force during World War I. In 1919, Jona Freiherr von Ustinow joined his mother and sister in St Petersburg, Russia, where he met his future wife, artist Nadia Benois, who worked for the Imperial Mariinsky Ballet and Opera House in St Petersburg. In 1920, in a modest and discreet ceremony at a Russian-German church in St Petersburg, Ustinov's father married Nadia.

In February 1921, when she was seven months pregnant with Peter, the couple emigrated from Russia in the aftermath of the Communist Revolution. Young Peter was brought up in a multilingual family. He was fluent in Russian, French, Italian and German, as well as English. He attended Westminster College (1934-1937), took the drama and acting class under Michel St Denis at the London Theatre Studio (1937-1939), and made his stage debut in 1938 at the Stage Theatre Club in Surrey.

He wrote his first play at the age of 19. In 1939, he made his London stage debut in a revue sketch, then had regular performances with the Aylesbury Repertory Company. The following year, he made his film debut in Hullo, Fame! (Andrew Buchanan, 1940) starring Jean Kent. From 1942 to 1946, Ustinov served with the British Army's Royal Sussex Regiment. As a private, he was 'batman' (a personal servant) for lieutenant-colonel David Niven, and the two became lifelong friends.

Peter Ustinov spent most of his service working with the Army Cinema Unit, where he was involved in making recruitment films, wrote plays and appeared in three films as an actor, including a small role as a priest in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1942). He also co-wrote and acted in The Way Ahead / The Immortal Battalion (Carol Reed, 1944), starring David Niven and Stanley Holloway.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 890. Photo: Pilgrim Pictures. Publicity still for Private Angelo (Michael Anderson, Peter Ustinov, 1949).


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. E 117. Photo: Snark International. Aldo Ray, Leo G. Carroll, Humphrey Bogart, and Peter Ustinov in We're No Angels (Michael Curtiz, 1955).

An autocratic, mentally ill and megalomaniac emperor

From the 1950s on, Peter Ustinov had a stellar film career as an actor, director, and writer. Producer Sam Zimbalist initially thought that the 30-year-old actor was too young to play Roman emperor Nero in the epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann, 1951), based on Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel. After a whole year of hesitation, Zimbalist received a telegraphic message from Ustinov that he would soon be too old for the role if they waited any longer, as Nero himself had already died at the age of 31.

Ustinov was then finally hired. His portrayal of the autocratic, mentally ill and megalomaniac emperor was honoured with a Golden Globe and nominated for an Oscar. Another screen acting gem is his role as the polyglot stable master in Max Ophüls's masterpiece Lola Montès (1955), starring Martine Carol. His other films include Beau Brummell (Curtis Bernhardt, 1954) and We Are No Angels (Michael Curtiz, 1955) with Humphrey Bogart.

In 1957, he played the leading role of Soviet secret agent Michel Kaminsky in Henri-Georges Clouzot's political thriller Spies at Work. He also wrote and directed theatre plays, in which he also acted. In 1958 he received two Tony Award nominations, for Best Actor (Dramatic) and Best Play Author, for 'Romanoff and Juliet', which parodied the East-West conflict. Ustinov later adapted the play for a 1961 film. In the late 1950s, he also made a comedy record, 'Mock Mozart' and 'Phoney Folk Lor'". He had been performing these as party pieces. Overdubbing allowed Ustinov to sing multiple parts. His producer was George Martin, the future producer of The Beatles.

During the 1960s, Ustinov was awarded two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, one for his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960) and one for his role as Arthur Simon Simpson in the Heist film Topkapi (Jules Dassin, 1964) opposite Melina Mercouri. He received two more Oscar nominations as an actor and writer. In January 1963, the Mirisch Company sued him for damages after he pulled out at the 11th hour to play Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963), which was in production in Rome with his replacement, Peter Sellers. He acted in such films as The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, based on the novel by Graham Greene, and the comedy Hot Millions (Eric Till, 1968) with Maggie Smith, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, which he co-wrote with author Ira Wallach.

He also wrote and directed the brilliant Billy Budd (Peter Ustinov, 1962) in which he played the role of the captain himself opposite Terence Stamp. It was followed by Lady L (Peter Ustinov, 1965) with Sophia Loren and David Niven. During the 1960s, with the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed several operas, including Puccini's 'Gianni Schicchi', Ravel's 'L'heure espagnole', Schoenberg's 'Erwartung', and Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'. In the following decade, he acted in films like Logan's Run (Michael Anderson, 1976) starring Michael York. He played an old man surviving a totalitarian future. He was also the voice of Prince John in Disney's animated film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). He appeared in television plays and shows and won three Emmys: in 1958 for Omnibus: The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1967 for Barefoot in Athens and in 1970 for A Storm in Summer.


Romanian collectors card. Photo: Kirk Douglas and Peter Ustinov in Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).


British postcard in the Cinema series. French affiche for Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960).

Hercule Poirot

Peter Ustinov's career slowed down a bit in the 1970s, but he made a comeback as Hercule Poirot in the star-studded Death on the Nile (John Guillermin, 1978), based on Agatha Christie's novel. In the 1980s, Ustinov recreated Poirot in several subsequent television movies and theatrical films, including Evil Under the Sun (Guy Hamilton, 1982) and Appointment with Death (Michael Winner, 1988). Ustinov's performance, increasingly based on his own persona, enjoyed great popularity.

He also wrote and directed the British-Yugoslav drama Memed My Hawk (Peter Ustinov, 1984) with Herbert Lom. It is an adaptation of the 1955 Turkish novel 'Memed, My Hawk', the debut novel of Yaşar Kemal, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Memed, My Hawk was produced in Yugoslavia following the Turkish government's refusal of permission to film. Ustinov's cinema work in the 1990s includes his superb performance as Professor Gus Nikolais in the film drama Lorenzo's Oil (George Miller, 1992) opposite Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. This character was partially inspired by Hugo Wolfgang Moser, a research scientist who had been director of the Neurogenetics Research Center at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University.

Ustinov's expertise in dialectic and physical comedy made him a regular guest on talk shows. His witty and multidimensional humour was legendary, and he later published a collection of his jokes and quotations summarizing his wide popularity as a raconteur. He was also an internationally acclaimed TV journalist. In 1984, he unwittingly witnessed the assassination of India's prime minister Indira Gandhi. She was to be interviewed by Ustinov for his three-part BBC series Ustinov's People, but on the way she was murdered by her two bodyguards. Ustinov covered over 100,000 miles and visited more than 30 Russian cities during the making of his well-received BBC television series Russia (1986).

In his autobiographies, 'Dear Me' (1977) and 'My Russia' (1996), Ustinov revealed his observations on his life, career, and his multicultural and multi-ethnic background. He wrote and directed numerous stage plays, successfully presenting them in several countries. His drama, 'Photo Finish', was staged in New York, London and St. Petersburg, Russia, where Ustinov also directed the acclaimed production. The cosmopolitan multi-talent was a UNICEF Special Ambassador from 1968, Chairman of the World Federalist Movement from 1990 and founder of the Peter Ustinov Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions for Children and Young People in 1999. Ustinov served as Rector of Dundee University for six years. He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Royal Society of Arts in 1957 and was knighted in 1990.

From 1971 until he died in 2004, Peter Ustinov's permanent residence was a château in Bursins, Vaud, Switzerland. He died of heart failure in 2004, in a clinic in Genolier, also in Vaud. His funeral service was held at Geneva's historic Cathedral of St. Pierre, and he was laid to rest in the village cemetery of Bursins. Ustinov's first wife was Angela Lansbury's half-sister, Isolde Denham. They were married from 1940 to 1950 when the union ended in divorce. Ustinov and Denham had one child together, Tamara Ustinov. Ustinov and his second wife, Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier, had three children: two daughters (Andrea and Pavla Ustinov) and a son, Igor Ustinov. His third wife was French journalist Hélène du Lau d'Allemans, to whom he was married from 1972 until his death. Steve Shelokhonov at IMDb: "His epitaph may be gleaned from his comment, 'I am an international citizen conceived in Russia, born in England, working in Hollywood, living in Switzerland, and touring the World'."


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov in The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967).


French postcard in the series Le Monde merveilleux de Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 233. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).


British postcard by Gerimp Corp. Int.-Collection, no. PN 98.

Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.