Peter Sellers's deaths in April 1964 were by far the most adult experiences he had ever had, with the possible exception of facing hostile audiences as a stand-up comedian. Involuntary though coronaries are, they evidence more maturity than did Peter's two marriages, in which he often behaved like a child, or his forays into fatherhood, his love for his children being solipsistic and abstract. Dying changed him.

The doctors told him that he'd suffered no discernable mental deterioration despite the lack of oxygen to the brain when his heart kept stopping. Peter himself wasn't so sure. deterioration despite the lack of oxygen to the brain when his heart kept stopping. Peter himself wasn't so sure.

"He told me that he wasn't afraid of dying after that," David Lodge declares. "Obviously it did have something to do with his way of life, with his attitude. It did affect him. I'm not saying he was mental, but it mentally affected him."

Harry Secombe agreed: "Perhaps he realized his own mortality then and decided to make the most of life before it happened again. That could have been some of the reason behind his behavior afterward."

The Goons, of course, took a jocular approach to Peter's health crisis. Secombe claimed that "when he was getting better, Spike and I sent him a wire saying 'You swine! We had you heavily insured.'"

Peter and Britt necessarily had to cancel their appearance at the Oscars party Harold Mirisch planned to throw in their honor on April 13. In fact, Peter remained at Cedars of Lebanon for a solid month, only making his exit, in a wheelchair, on May 7. The crowd of reporters and photographers swarming around outside the hospital noted that he was wearing a yellow T-shirt, jeans, and a blue-denim jacket. He was also chewing gum. Peter said very little on his way to the waiting ambulance that took him back to the rented mansion, but he did toss off one good line: "When you come out of the hospital, you want to look as nonchalant as possible."

His recovery was quiet and uneventful over the next four weeks, and on June 3, he was ready for his first public appearance. With Britt at his side, he stuck his hands and shoes in wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Privately, he also ventured out to a Santa Monica apartment to pay a visit to an aging star he had long admired. He signed Stan Laurel's guest book "To Dear Stan-with my greatest admiration. Peter Sellers, June 1964."

On June 7, Peter and Britt ended their catastrophic trip to Hollywood and flew back to London; they were accompanied by a British physician who had flown to California specifically to be at Peter's side for the duration of his flight home.

A week and a half later, from the apparently safe distance of 5,500 miles, Peter casually mentioned to Alexander Walker of the Evening Standard Evening Standard that, in his opinion, the Hollywood studios "give you every creature comfort except the satisfaction of being able to get the best work out of yourself." that, in his opinion, the Hollywood studios "give you every creature comfort except the satisfaction of being able to get the best work out of yourself." He didn't like all the hangers-on who had crowded around the He didn't like all the hangers-on who had crowded around the Kiss Me, Stupid Kiss Me, Stupid soundstages, he said. He hadn't had a good time in L.A. soundstages, he said. He hadn't had a good time in L.A.

It was a mild interview, but it hit a nerve back in Hollywood. Billy Wilder, Dean Martin, Kim Novak, and Felicia Farr sent him a terse and testy wire: "Talk about unprofessional rat finks."

The following day, Peter announced that he had officially dropped out of Wilder's proposed Sherlock Holmes film. "I'm surprised they should be so sensitive," he commented. "I made my criticisms in public and in America and I only told the truth." He also defined the expression rat fink rat fink for the British: "someone who says something you don't like." for the British: "someone who says something you don't like."

He issued a statement in Variety Variety the following week-a full-page ad titled "Open Letter from Peter Sellers": "There appears to be a feeling getting around in Hollywood that I am an ungrateful limey or rat fink or whatever, who has been abusing everything Hollywood behind its back. I must take this opportunity to correct this impression categorically." Peter proceeded to thank the doctors and staff of Cedars of Lebanon, the Mirisch brothers, his friends at the Goldwyn Studios, and all the fans who sent him cards and letters. "I didn't go to Hollywood to be ill," he continued. "I went there to work, and found regrettably that the creative side in me couldn't accept the sort of conditions under which work had to be carried out.... The atmosphere is wrong for me." the following week-a full-page ad titled "Open Letter from Peter Sellers": "There appears to be a feeling getting around in Hollywood that I am an ungrateful limey or rat fink or whatever, who has been abusing everything Hollywood behind its back. I must take this opportunity to correct this impression categorically." Peter proceeded to thank the doctors and staff of Cedars of Lebanon, the Mirisch brothers, his friends at the Goldwyn Studios, and all the fans who sent him cards and letters. "I didn't go to Hollywood to be ill," he continued. "I went there to work, and found regrettably that the creative side in me couldn't accept the sort of conditions under which work had to be carried out.... The atmosphere is wrong for me."

Billy Wilder wasn't sympathetic. "Heart attack?" he once remarked about Peter. "You have to have a heart before you can have an attack."

Peter's convalescence in England was relatively serene. Mostly he and Britt stayed at Brookfield, but one weekend they were among the guests at Testbourne, the home of Jocelyn Stevens, the editor of Queen Queen magazine. Others included Evelyn de Rothschild and Peter's increasingly good friends Princess Margaret and her husband, Lord Snowdon. magazine. Others included Evelyn de Rothschild and Peter's increasingly good friends Princess Margaret and her husband, Lord Snowdon.

Their friendship had been sparked by Alec Guinness. "I was the one who... " Guinness said before changing his mind about the direction his sentence should take. "I spent the day with Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon's sister and her husband, with whom Margaret was staying. I said, 'You know, Mum, there's someone who you ought to meet-Peter Sellers.' She hadn't met him yet. I read in the papers about a month later that they had become very friendly. [Later] I went to call at Kensington Palace. I was returning some photographs to Lord Snowdon; Peter turned up after dinner."

In February, during the brief period of his engagement to Britt, Peter had managed to find time to introduce his fiancee to the princess and her husband, who himself had found time that week to conduct a photo shoot at Kensington Palace with Peter's braless bride-to-be. Now they could spend more than a few hours together, and, sociably, Peter organized a comedy routine and filmed it. Peter began the act by doing impersonations and, as Stevens later described them, "getting them deliberately wrong, so that we all groaned. Then, of course, he produced this perfect version of Margaret."

Footage of the escapade also reveals Margaret playing along with another of Peter's stunts-a tasteful version of something he, Spike, and Richard Lester might have thought up for Idiot's Weekly, Price 2d Idiot's Weekly, Price 2d. Standing in front of a makeshift theatrical curtain, Peter announces that for his next trick he is going to do an impression of Princess Margaret. He darts behind the curtain, and, after a pause, Margaret herself comes out and takes a bow. It was a relatively intimate goof between friends, one of whom happened to be royal-a good-natured amusement on a weekend afternoon.

In another bit, Snowdon, in trenchcoat and hat, played what turned out to be a cross-dressing gangster sidekick to a gun-wielding, eventually-mincing Peter. But it's "Riding Along on the Crest of a Wave" that best captures the spirit of Peter's royal friendships. There's the queen's sister in a stylish black dress, gamely hopping up and down and waving her arms over her head in a line of mock WWII soldier-chorines.

There's something poignant about this footage. As the British writer Alan Franks has observed, Peter's intense need to photograph, film, and tape record the day-to-day events of his life was essentially a tragic enterprise, "a device for fixing into place the otherwise transient moment. It was as though he was trying to inject some permanence into a life which he knew was condemned to flit from role to role, home to home, wife to wife." That this particular home movie starred Princess Margaret meant only that Peter had risen higher than he had ever dreamed. What hadn't changed was that Peter still tried, with his latest technological toys, to keep his evanescent soul from evaporating completely.

By that point, Britt was pregnant.

Not only had they started having sex while still in Los Angeles. They began immediately after his return from the hospital. An especially dogmatic home-care nurse had insisted on following doctor's orders by remaining at Peter's side constantly. Peter and Britt couldn't even go to bed together without Peter's nurse remaining in the room with them, so the only place the couple could have a bit of sexual privacy was under a blast of running water in the shower. They begged the doctor to tell the nurse to back off, and soon after she moved to a nearby bedroom at night, Britt found herself in what passed for a family way. remaining at Peter's side constantly. Peter and Britt couldn't even go to bed together without Peter's nurse remaining in the room with them, so the only place the couple could have a bit of sexual privacy was under a blast of running water in the shower. They begged the doctor to tell the nurse to back off, and soon after she moved to a nearby bedroom at night, Britt found herself in what passed for a family way.

They told very few people. But near the end of the summer, during a brief trip to Costa Brava, Britt took an unexpected call from a British gossip columnist, who asked her to confirm the rumor that she was carrying Peter's baby.

Britt's marriage with Peter was, like Anne's with Peter-and everyone's, for that matter-punctuated by moments of tension and argument. But despite witnessing her husband's irrational jealousy during their first weeks of matrimony, Britt once claimed not to have noticed anything truly out of the ordinary about his behavior until later that summer: "The first time I felt it was not normal was when Hugh Hefner called and said 'We have nude photographs of Britt, but we feel that you are such a wonderful photographer, so why don't you take some photographs of her?' I said, 'But Peter, I have never, ever ever posed for nude photographs.' Peter said, 'If Hugh Hefner says you have, you have.' There was nothing I could say or do." posed for nude photographs.' Peter said, 'If Hugh Hefner says you have, you have.' There was nothing I could say or do."

Ekland was even more shocked and hurt when Peter suggested during one of their escalating fights that she abort the fetus. Britt sought the help of Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman, who talked him out of it. With his quicksilver mood swings, he soon stopped mentioning abortion as a solution and began referring to an idea he claimed to have learned from Stanley Kubrick. There was an African tribe, Kubrick supposedly told Peter, a tribe that blended ancient ritual with modern Western medical practices and believed that the best and healthiest babies were produced only when a pregnant woman was strapped into a chair and placed in an oxygen tent. He suggested that Britt try it. According to Britt, only an increasing stream of calls from his agents and managers distracted him enough that he never forced her to go through with it.

Before his ill-fated trip to Los Angeles, Peter had formed a new production company with a filmmaker of great experience. John Bryan was a former art director (Anthony Asquith's Pygmalion Pygmalion, 1938, among others), and production designer (including David Lean's production designer (including David Lean's Great Expectations Great Expectations, 1946, for which he won an Oscar, and Becket Becket, 1964, with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton, for which he won a BAFTA award). Bryan was also a producer, two of whose better known films starred Alec Guinness: The Card The Card (1952) and (1952) and The Horse's Mouth The Horse's Mouth (1958). (1958).

Calling their company Brookfield, Sellers and Bryan were quite active in terms of planning. Between March and October 1964, Brookfield announced five film projects that were in various stages of preproduction. First was The Borrowers The Borrowers, which was to be written by the screenwriter Jay Presson based on May Norton's children's book about a family of minuscule people who lived under the floorboards of somebody's country home. They announced this one in March, before Peter's heart attacks. In April, with Peter still in his hospital bed, Brookfield pledged to do a film version of Oliver! Oliver!, Lionel Bart's hit musical based on Oliver Twist Oliver Twist, with Peter as Fagin. Then came My Favorite Comrade My Favorite Comrade, written by Maurice Richlin; that, too, was announced with Peter still recuperating at Cedars of Lebanon. Next came Don Quixote Don Quixote, with Peter (both ironically and not) in the title role. In October Maggie May Maggie May was added to the roster; it was based on a West End play. was added to the roster; it was based on a West End play.

With characteristic enthusiasm and verve for work, Peter explained why he wanted to become a producer. "I love this medium so much," he said, "I thought it might be ideal if and when I begin to slip in popularity as an actor. And there's such a dearth of really good acting material-so much bad stuff. My hospitalization was a time of reflection for me."

As far as playing Fagin was concerned, Peter was acutely conscious of the material's inherent racism. What had been acceptable to Dickens and his readers in the late 1830s was no longer so in the mid-1960s, especially not to Jews. There had been some uproar when Alec Guinness played the role in David Lean's 1948 drama, the first production since the Holocaust; this time, the New York Times New York Times reported, it would be different: "From the start, [Sellers] said he would play Fagin simply as an old rogue. After all, he argued, he was part-Jewish himself and would not be a party to any hint of anti-Semitism." reported, it would be different: "From the start, [Sellers] said he would play Fagin simply as an old rogue. After all, he argued, he was part-Jewish himself and would not be a party to any hint of anti-Semitism."

But the question of how Peter would play Fagin in Oliver! Oliver! was permanently tabled because Sellers and Bryan weren't allowed to make the film. A legal dispute with a rival production company ended badly for Brookfield. As it turned out, Ron Moody played Fagin in was permanently tabled because Sellers and Bryan weren't allowed to make the film. A legal dispute with a rival production company ended badly for Brookfield. As it turned out, Ron Moody played Fagin in Oliver! Oliver! (1968), (1968), The Borrowers The Borrowers was eventually produced as a made-for-television movie in 1973, and was eventually produced as a made-for-television movie in 1973, and My Favorite Comrade My Favorite Comrade, Don Quixote Don Quixote, and Maggie May Maggie May were never made at all. were never made at all.

In late October, Peter went before the cameras for the first time since his last day on the set of Kiss Me, Stupid Kiss Me, Stupid. It was charity work. He agreed to spend four days in New York shooting a United Nationssponsored plea for world peace called Carol for Another Christmas Carol for Another Christmas (1965). The project did boast a prestige director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who made the brilliant comedy of theater ill-manners, (1965). The project did boast a prestige director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who made the brilliant comedy of theater ill-manners, All About Eve All About Eve (1950), among other fine films. But Peter agreed to appear in (1950), among other fine films. But Peter agreed to appear in Carol for Another Christmas Carol for Another Christmas, he told the press, because Adlai Stevenson had asked him personally. Also, he said, "After an illness like this, you wonder if you can work again." The possibility of brain damage nagged at him. He worried about whether he could even remember dialogue any more, so he thought he'd start back to work with something small.

They paid him $350, total, and chauffeured him each of the four days of filming from his suite at the Regency to the studio, which was actually a converted hangar at Long Island's Roosevelt Field. Peter's American fans were anxious to see him, and a number of them showed up clamoring at the gate. Newsweek Newsweek rather cruelly reported the excitement at the old airport: "'We want Pete! We want Pete!,' shrieked the gaggle of middle-aged, fruit-hatted females outside the studio fence. 'Come on out, Pete!,' they shouted, clutching at the wire like frenzied monkeys." rather cruelly reported the excitement at the old airport: "'We want Pete! We want Pete!,' shrieked the gaggle of middle-aged, fruit-hatted females outside the studio fence. 'Come on out, Pete!,' they shouted, clutching at the wire like frenzied monkeys."

Carol for Another Christmas was a relatively low-budget, made-for-television, postatomic holocaust parable with good intentions and a (mostly) reputable cast: Sterling Hayden, Eva Marie Saint, Ben Gazzara, Richard Harris, Peter Fonda, and Steve Lawrence (who played the Ghost of Christmas Past). The script was by was a relatively low-budget, made-for-television, postatomic holocaust parable with good intentions and a (mostly) reputable cast: Sterling Hayden, Eva Marie Saint, Ben Gazzara, Richard Harris, Peter Fonda, and Steve Lawrence (who played the Ghost of Christmas Past). The script was by The Twilight Zone The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, who provided even more arch irony than usual-so much so that it verged on clairvoyance. Peter played the head of a band of fanatical individualists. "The Individual Me's" have survived a devastating atomic bomb blast only to devote their lives to eliminating everyone else-except, of course, for the perfect Me, who would be allowed to live. Clad in a gaudy Wild West show outfit complete with a ten-gallon hat emblazoned with the word "Me" in sequins, Peter's charismatic character addresses his cult: "If we let them seep in here from down yonder and cross river-if we let these do-gooders, these bleeding hearts, propagate their insidious doctrine of involvement among us-then my dear friends, my beloved Me's" [dramatic pause] "we's in trouble." His eyes glistening with the thrill of control, the greatest Me continues: "We must carry our glorious philosophy through to its glorious culmination! So that in the end, with enterprise and determination, the world and everything in it will belong to one individual Me! And that will be the ultimate! The absolute ultimate!" trouble." His eyes glistening with the thrill of control, the greatest Me continues: "We must carry our glorious philosophy through to its glorious culmination! So that in the end, with enterprise and determination, the world and everything in it will belong to one individual Me! And that will be the ultimate! The absolute ultimate!"

The heart attack survivor then breezed out of New York and returned to London, where, on October 29, he and Britt accompanied Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon to the Variety Club of Great Britain's Royal Gala performance, the beneficiary of which was the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The event was a circus, literally. As one of the highlights, a group of children had to lie very still on the ground while an elephant stepped over them. A few days later, Peter flew to Paris and began shooting his next feature film.

What's New Pussycat?'s opening credits are historic. In lurid, squiggly cartoon script, the typographic equivalent of sixties' paisley, they read: "Charles K. Feldman / presents / Peter Sellers / Peter O'Toole / Romy Schneider / Capucine / Paula Prentiss / and introducing Woody Allen."

What's New Pussycat? was the former television writer and diffident stand-up comic Allen's first appearance on film as well as being his first screenplay. Characteristically, it was all about sex and the mind. O'Toole plays Michael James, the disturbed editor of a fashion magazine. Michael considers himself to be sexually compulsive, so he seeks the aid of a Viennese psychiatrist, Dr. Fritz Fassbender-Peter Sellers in a Prince Valiant wig and maroon velvet suit. "My job is a lecher's dream," Michael confesses during their first session. Dr. Fassbender leans in very close, his interest more than piqued. Very soon he takes Michael's place on the couch and confides with a rutting tone, "I like thighs. Do you like thighs?" was the former television writer and diffident stand-up comic Allen's first appearance on film as well as being his first screenplay. Characteristically, it was all about sex and the mind. O'Toole plays Michael James, the disturbed editor of a fashion magazine. Michael considers himself to be sexually compulsive, so he seeks the aid of a Viennese psychiatrist, Dr. Fritz Fassbender-Peter Sellers in a Prince Valiant wig and maroon velvet suit. "My job is a lecher's dream," Michael confesses during their first session. Dr. Fassbender leans in very close, his interest more than piqued. Very soon he takes Michael's place on the couch and confides with a rutting tone, "I like thighs. Do you like thighs?"

Romy Schneider is Michael's long-suffering girlfriend; Capucine, Prentiss, and Allen are ancillary neurotics.

Sellers had been friendly with O'Toole for some years. "I introduced those two," says the actor Kenneth Griffith. "O'Toole wanted to meet Sellers, and he wanted to meet him right away. Peter was going to see a play at the Duchess Theater, I think, so he said 'Well, if it's today, it will have to be when I come out of the theater.'" Then, says Griffith, "a strange thing happened. The play ended, and all the people came out, and there was no Sellers. As I recall it, he was virtually hiding inside. There was great unease about meeting O'Toole. We went to a restaurant in Chelsea, which had just shut because it was rather late at night. They said, 'Oh, we just shut, Mr. Griffith.' I said, 'I've got a couple of friends outside-have a peek.' They opened up quick. It was a great evening. I remember Sellers helping with the cooking." unease about meeting O'Toole. We went to a restaurant in Chelsea, which had just shut because it was rather late at night. They said, 'Oh, we just shut, Mr. Griffith.' I said, 'I've got a couple of friends outside-have a peek.' They opened up quick. It was a great evening. I remember Sellers helping with the cooking."

"We were totally comfortable together," O'Toole once said of Peter. "Not cozy-it was far from cozy. It was sometimes downright edgy, but it was the sharp edginess of stimulation and exploration. I found myself completely eaten up by Pete's personality."

Sian Phillips, who was married to O'Toole at the time, recalls that Sellers's casting in What's New Pussycat? What's New Pussycat? was problematic from a financial standpoint, since his heart attacks had rendered him uninsurable. "O'Toole, out of the kindness of his heart, said, 'No, I must, must, was problematic from a financial standpoint, since his heart attacks had rendered him uninsurable. "O'Toole, out of the kindness of his heart, said, 'No, I must, must, must must have Peter Sellers.'" The result was that Charlie Feldman, the film's producer, essentially self-insured Peter by casting him without outside indemnification. Sian Phillips goes on: "Sellers insisted on top billing, and O'Toole said, 'Oh, give it to him.' I thought that was ungrateful, actually. I didn't think it was very chic." Feldman, on the other hand, told United Artists' Arthur Krim that "O'Toole had insisted on flipping a coin to decide whether he or Sellers should get first billing, [and] Sellers won the toss-up." Whatever the circumstances, Peter Sellers's name did come first. have Peter Sellers.'" The result was that Charlie Feldman, the film's producer, essentially self-insured Peter by casting him without outside indemnification. Sian Phillips goes on: "Sellers insisted on top billing, and O'Toole said, 'Oh, give it to him.' I thought that was ungrateful, actually. I didn't think it was very chic." Feldman, on the other hand, told United Artists' Arthur Krim that "O'Toole had insisted on flipping a coin to decide whether he or Sellers should get first billing, [and] Sellers won the toss-up." Whatever the circumstances, Peter Sellers's name did come first.

Peter's doctors, meanwhile, were insisting that he not go beyond a five-hour working day. To ease Peter's mind even further, Feldman had sent the film's young director, Clive Donner (who had directed The Caretaker The Caretaker, among other films) to meet with Peter the day before he was to leave for New York to shoot Carol for Another Christmas Carol for Another Christmas. Donner reassured the justifiably worried Peter that he wouldn't exceed Peter's relatively light schedule and that the production itself would be as relaxed as possible.

Shooting began on November 2. During the production, Peter and Britt stayed in a suite at the Plaza-Athenee. "I mustn't get into any arguments while filming," Peter told the columnist Roderick Mann. "It'll make me too nervous. I just have to shut up and walk away." But, he added, referring jocularly to his fellow filmmakers, "In six months' time I can tell them all what I think of them, the swine!"

He was still discussing matters of the spirit with Cannon John Hester and, at least from Hester's perspective, preparing to convert to Christianity. They met once a week at the Plaza-Athenee and talked about God. Ursula Andress, clad in leopardskin or cheetah, sometimes joined in. According to Hester, Peter was especially intrigued by the story of Jesus walking on water. They met once a week at the Plaza-Athenee and talked about God. Ursula Andress, clad in leopardskin or cheetah, sometimes joined in. According to Hester, Peter was especially intrigued by the story of Jesus walking on water.

Woody Allen remains a great admirer of Peter Sellers's talent: "Sellers goes to the deep core of what's funny," he said fairly recently. "His funniness was the funniness of genius. What he had to offer was clearly gold."

But Peter's genius came at price. Allen found the task of actually working with Peter to be strenuous. Peter O'Toole was no help, either. With What's New, Pussycat? What's New, Pussycat?, the first-time actor and screenwriter found himself rudely belittled by the great Dr. Strangelove and his good friend Lawrence of Arabia.

"Woody," Sian Phillips sighs. "They upset Woody Allen on the set-they were not nice to him. They used to rewrite the script every day, and Sellers was very supercilious with him. 'We are way beyond rehearsing, you know. I'll be in my dressing room.' There was a lot of pulling rank. Woody got so neurotic he wouldn't even come out of his bedroom."

"Met the cast in person today," Allen wrote in his diary, which he later published as publicity for the film. "Sellers and I eyed one another carefully. I think he senses in me a threat to his current position as cinema's leading funnyman. I tried to make him feel at ease and I think I succeeded. He seemed more preoccupied with his wife than with my ideas."

Sellers and O'Toole indeed began to tinker with Allen's script. Tinkering soon turned into wholesale reworking. "Scenes have been taken away from Woody and... reworked and repolished by Sellers and O'Toole," Charles Feldman reported on December 2. "I spent the last three days with Woody getting a new Bateau Mouche scene, then I spent endless time with Sellers getting him to approve it." In addition, Sellers thoroughly rewrote the scene in which Dr. Fassbender and Michael muse drunkenly in a lonely bar: MICHAEL: (drunk) I need help. (drunk) I need help.

FRITZ: (drunk) Don't mention dat verd to me-" (drunk) Don't mention dat verd to me-"help." Dat is vat I need-dat help help, oh God, how I need dat ting! (Confidingly:) You know I am in love vit a patient? (Broadcasting:) I am in love vit a patient! I am in love vit a patient! (Casually:) Ya got a minute? (Casually:) Ya got a minute?

Then Peter wrote-and Donner shot-three entirely new scenes that weren't in Allen's original script at all. This was no longer on the level of spontaneous improvisation.

"You'll like zis group analyzis," Dr. Fassbender tells Michael early in the film. "It's a real frrreak frrreak show! If it gets dull ve sing songs!" show! If it gets dull ve sing songs!"

Clive Donner, asked how Fassbender's character was developed, responded that "it evolved a little from discussions we had, but that was Peter's idea. He would keep coming up with ideas, and I'd say, 'Are you sure, Peter?' And he'd say, 'Don't worry, it'll be all right....' The character was trying to be young again-trying to be a mod to keep up with it all. It's a search for youth."

At Michael's first group session, Peter as Fassbender slaps his hands together and rubs them expectantly as the camera tracks back from a close-up. "And now, group! Whose e-mo-zhen'l problems shall we discuss today?" "Me! Me! Me! Mine! Me!" they all shriek. "I've been coming here ten months and we haven't discussed my problem once once yet," one woman complains, but Dr. Fassbender offers no apologies. "Well," he replies, bored and irritated, "perhaps if you'd be kind enough to tell us what your problem is then ve could all have a go at dis-gussing it or something." A little later, a chubby patient acts out physically by attacking Michael for no apparent reason. Dr. Fassbender, outraged, calls him a "great fat Moby Dick" and, launching into song-"Ven it's yet," one woman complains, but Dr. Fassbender offers no apologies. "Well," he replies, bored and irritated, "perhaps if you'd be kind enough to tell us what your problem is then ve could all have a go at dis-gussing it or something." A little later, a chubby patient acts out physically by attacking Michael for no apparent reason. Dr. Fassbender, outraged, calls him a "great fat Moby Dick" and, launching into song-"Ven it's spring time spring time in Vi- in Vi-en-na"-begins whipping him across the back with a bouquet of flowers.

Dr. Fassbender's lust-object patient, Renee (Capucine), paces the room while rattling off a lengthy speech, which ends, "You see, I can't help it. I'm a physical woman! I feel guilty about it, but I come from a family of acute nymphomaniacs. That includes my father and my two brothers." Dr. Fassbender (visibly aroused): "Vhy don't ve all take off our clothes, it's so modern...."

But it is Liz (Paula Prentiss), the suicidal stripper, who takes it furthest. Profoundly unstable, she explains her "semi-virgin" status to Michael-"Here I'm a virgin, in America I'm not"-and suddenly announces, "I feel faint. Would you excuse me for a minute? I'm going into the bathroom to take an overdose of sleeping pills."

"I thought she was joking," Michael tells the doctor summoned to revive her. "It was all poems and 'Don't touch me'...."

After her second suicide attempt (sparked by Michael's having told her that no, he didn't love her), the physician responding to the call presents her with a commemorative watch: "Mademoiselle, the boys of the Emergency Suicide Board voted you this gold watch for unusual devotion."

With the strange and disturbing production of What's New Pussycat? What's New Pussycat? finally winding down just before Christmas and nobody having died, Charlie Feldman parceled out holiday gifts to the cast and principal crew-Hermes cigarette boxes all around. Peter had already received his own special present from Feldman two weeks earlier-a new red Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III. finally winding down just before Christmas and nobody having died, Charlie Feldman parceled out holiday gifts to the cast and principal crew-Hermes cigarette boxes all around. Peter had already received his own special present from Feldman two weeks earlier-a new red Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III.

Feldman had been growing worried about two things in particular: Peter was far exceeding his contractual obligations on What's New Pussycat? What's New Pussycat? by working longer hours than required and by substantially rewriting the script without additional compensation. He was also showing signs of depression. Feldman, telling United Artists that he had been anticipating problems and thought he'd found a way to circumvent them, voluntarily offered Sellers a new car to keep him happy. "His enthusiasm thereafter was incredible and he has worked like a dog since," Feldman reported. by working longer hours than required and by substantially rewriting the script without additional compensation. He was also showing signs of depression. Feldman, telling United Artists that he had been anticipating problems and thought he'd found a way to circumvent them, voluntarily offered Sellers a new car to keep him happy. "His enthusiasm thereafter was incredible and he has worked like a dog since," Feldman reported.

The Rolls was not Peter's first choice. He had originally suggested a new Ferrari Superfast. But they couldn't get one in time, so he settled on the cheaper Silver Cloud, which was available right away.

He had to have it.

"She looks just like her father!" Britt wrote to Charlie Feldman, thanking him for the congratulatory flowers he had sent to the proud parents of a baby girl. "As you can imagine, Peter and I are just thrilled with her!"

Victoria Sellers was born on January 20, 1965, at the Welbeck Street Clinic in London. Her parents had moved into the Dorchester after their return from Paris, specifically to be close to the clinic. "When my water went and I felt the first pangs," Britt reports, "Sellers whisked me from the hotel to the clinic in a flash. My suitcase was already packed."

Then Peter made his exit: "Unceremoniously he dumped me on the steps of the clinic and promptly disappeared without so much as taking one step inside the door." Whatever the cause of this, his second birthing abandonment-fear, revulsion, somebody's opening night at an exclusive club?-Peter once again proved unable to support his wife emotionally, particularly when she expected it. club?-Peter once again proved unable to support his wife emotionally, particularly when she expected it.

But in the morning, with his daughter safely born, Peter was "proud as punch." After scooping the tiny girl up in his arms, he was overcome by joy. "Thank God she is safely here," he said.

They were not destined to be a stay-at-home family, and swinging London in 1965 was not a stay-at-home kind of place. With Victoria only a few weeks old, Peter and Britt left her in the care of her nurse, where she was to remain through much of her childhood, and turned up at the Cool Elephant, a private nightclub, to hear a performance by Mel Torme. Princess Margaret joined them. The comedian Dudley Moore was there, too; he got up on stage at one point and played the piano for Mel. London being essentially a small town of hipsters, mods, models, international stars, and the Beatles, all of whom knew one another, it was not surprising that relationships were becoming notoriously intertwined. Also present at the Cool Elephant that night were David Frost and his girlfriend, who happened to be Peter's ex-girlfriend, Janette Scott, who happened later to marry Mel Torme.

The jet set was, in a word, flying. In April, Peter and Britt skipped over to Blue Harbor, Jamaica, where they visited Noel Coward. ("Peter Sellers and his wife came over to lunch the other day and were sweet," Coward wrote in his diary.) They were back in London in time for the queen's thirty-ninth birthday bash, hosted by Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace. The evening began with everyone-Elizabeth, Philip, Margaret, Snowdon, Peter, Michael Bentine, and Harry Secombe-attending a performance of Son of Oblomov Son of Oblomov, a West End comedy starring Spike Milligan. The actor Peter Eyre remembers that particular night all too well: "Basically, the play was Spike Milligan humiliating a lot of actors, of which I was the youngest. (It was a straight play, but it began to go wrong in rehearsals. They didn't know what to do, so they began adding gags.) On the Queen's birthday, the Royal Family all came to the theater. Princess Margaret and Snowdon brought Peter Sellers along, and he did a sort of double act from the stalls with Spike Milligan on the stage." The other performers, including Eyre, found themselves upstaged not only by the show's erratic star but by a member of the audience. Eyre resented it, though the audience itself seems to have been delighted. Still, Eyre may have a point: "I thought that Milligan was, like most comedians, totally selfish. Comedians want it to be just them and the audience. They don't want other people." point: "I thought that Milligan was, like most comedians, totally selfish. Comedians want it to be just them and the audience. They don't want other people."

Peter and Britt were traveling in a closed circle of celebrities and growing rather used to hanging out with the royals. One of Peter's young fans used to call him at the office. Hattie Stevenson remembers answering the phone and finding the teenage Prince Charles on the line: "You'd suddenly get the heir-apparent on the other end of the phone talking Bluebottle at you." Charles was a guest at Peter's estate, Brookfield, as well.

And the royals reciprocated. Peter and Britt were invited to Windsor Castle to go pheasant shooting, an occasion that provided Peter with the opportunity to outfit himself with a new 1,200 Purdy 12-bore shotgun and a fine hunting costume topped by a deerstalker. With practice, Peter wasn't a bad shot. It was thrilling to watch birds drop out of the sky at his instigation, and the congratulations of Princes Philip and Charles didn't hurt either. Peter and Britt also enjoyed teatime with Elizabeth II. The queen arranged the cups and saucers; Britt discussed Sweden; Phillip, Peter, Margaret, Tony, Charles, Princess Anne, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent put their two pence in. After tea was finished, they all played charades.

They were hanging out with the Beatles, too. George Harrison became a particularly good friend to Peter over the next few years; they shared an interest in Eastern religions. At first, Peter's fame was such that even the Fab Four were daunted by him. "We met him at numerous parties and different things," Harrison later said, "but at that time we were more in awe of him because of our childhoods and the Goons. We just loved the Goons. It was the greatest thing we'd ever heard. I remember thinking that we'd met all these film stars and presidents and kings and queens.... But there were very few people who really impressed me." Peter Sellers was one who did.

When the Beatles won two Grammy awards that year-Best New Artist(s) and Best Vocal Performance by a Group (for "A Hard Day's Night")-it was Peter who presented it to them in a videotaped sequence. John, Paul, George, and Ringo could not attend the proceedings in person because they were in London filming Help, Help, 1965, with Richard Lester. 1965, with Richard Lester.

After Sellers gave the Beatles their awards, John Lennon responded Goonishly by launching into a speech in nonsense French; the others followed suit, and the whole thing ended up slipping into "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." followed suit, and the whole thing ended up slipping into "It's a Long Way to Tipperary."

Although Peter had filmed his scenes in Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove two years earlier, the film was still very much in the news in the spring of 1965. It had been Columbia's biggest hit of 1964, pulling in the then-sizable sum of $5 million in the United States alone. Now it was up for four Oscars, all in top categories: Best Actor (Peter), Best Director (Kubrick), Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Kubrick, Southern, and George), and Best Picture. two years earlier, the film was still very much in the news in the spring of 1965. It had been Columbia's biggest hit of 1964, pulling in the then-sizable sum of $5 million in the United States alone. Now it was up for four Oscars, all in top categories: Best Actor (Peter), Best Director (Kubrick), Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Kubrick, Southern, and George), and Best Picture.

It lost all four.

My Fair Lady was named Best Picture, was named Best Picture, Becket Becket Best Screenplay, George Cukor Best Director (for Best Screenplay, George Cukor Best Director (for My Fair Lady My Fair Lady), and Rex Harrison Best Actor (also for My Fair Lady My Fair Lady).

Dr. Strangelove fared better at the BAFTA gala, where it won the BAFTA Film Award, the award for Best British Film, and the award for Best Film from Any Source. fared better at the BAFTA gala, where it won the BAFTA Film Award, the award for Best British Film, and the award for Best Film from Any Source.

Peter, however, lost again in the category of Best Actor-to none other than Richard Attenborough for Guns at Batasi Guns at Batasi.

FIFTEEN.

A script by Neil Simon, direction by Vittorio De Sica, a flamboyant and multi-personality role for himself, sunny Italian locations filmed in Technicolor, and even a featured part for Britt. Peter's next film project looked promising. After all of Brookfield's fits and starts, script by Neil Simon, direction by Vittorio De Sica, a flamboyant and multi-personality role for himself, sunny Italian locations filmed in Technicolor, and even a featured part for Britt. Peter's next film project looked promising. After all of Brookfield's fits and starts, After the Fox After the Fox (1966), a heist spoof, would be Brookfield's first actual production. (1966), a heist spoof, would be Brookfield's first actual production.

Given her glamour, Britt Ekland was continually offered film roles, but Peter, in a mix of professional expertise and jealousy, tended to talk her out of them. One nixed project, for example, was to star Dean Martin. "Do you really want Dean Martin breathing bourbon fumes all over you?" he asked his wife. Britt's role in the De Sica film had one distinct advantage: Peter was the star of the film and would therefore have to be there all the time.

Peter had met Neil Simon the previous August, and, soon thereafter, Simon showed him the first forty pages of his first screenplay. According to John Bryan, Peter "flipped over it," saying it was "the best screen material submitted to him in years." Peter's enthusiasm grew when Simon suggested a director: De Sica, whose groundbreaking Bicycle Thieves Bicycle Thieves (1948) was one of the cornerstones of Italian neorealism. (The union of a preeminent Italian neorealist and a hot American comedy playwright was not quite as idiotic as it may seem. De Sica had long since moved away from lyrical, black-and-white urban dramas to slick, candy-colored, international moneymakers like (1948) was one of the cornerstones of Italian neorealism. (The union of a preeminent Italian neorealist and a hot American comedy playwright was not quite as idiotic as it may seem. De Sica had long since moved away from lyrical, black-and-white urban dramas to slick, candy-colored, international moneymakers like Marriage Italian Style Marriage Italian Style, 1964.) Sellers got along well enough with Simon and invited him at one point to Brookfield for a script conference. After the meeting concluded, Simon was surprised to find that Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon, Harry Secombe, and Eric Sykes had been invited to join them for dinner and an improvised Goon Show Goon Show routine. Simon's relationship with Sellers was friendly enough, but there were tinges of tension. Simon reports that on routine. Simon's relationship with Sellers was friendly enough, but there were tinges of tension. Simon reports that on another occasion he, Peter, and Britt were sharing a limousine in London when they passed the West End theater at which Simon's latest hit stage comedy, another occasion he, Peter, and Britt were sharing a limousine in London when they passed the West End theater at which Simon's latest hit stage comedy, The Odd Couple The Odd Couple, was running. Britt mildly suggested to Peter that they see the show sometime, whereupon Peter turned hotly to Simon and demanded to know "what the hell's going on between you two?"

After the Fox is a farce about an Italian thief, a master of disguises named Aldo (Peter), who breaks out of prison to protect the morals of his loose sixteen-year-old sister, Gina (Britt). "It will be quite a challenge playing my husband's sister in the picture," Britt said at the time. "I hope I won't find it too strange." Simon's purposely farcical story requires Aldo to assume the guise of an Italian film director, Federico Fabrizi, who purports to film the actual smuggling of purloined gold bricks into Italy. Fabrizi then proceeds to cast a pompous, long-past-his-prime Hollywood star (Victor Mature) in the ersatz film along with Aldo's sister, whom he rechristens Gina Romantica. is a farce about an Italian thief, a master of disguises named Aldo (Peter), who breaks out of prison to protect the morals of his loose sixteen-year-old sister, Gina (Britt). "It will be quite a challenge playing my husband's sister in the picture," Britt said at the time. "I hope I won't find it too strange." Simon's purposely farcical story requires Aldo to assume the guise of an Italian film director, Federico Fabrizi, who purports to film the actual smuggling of purloined gold bricks into Italy. Fabrizi then proceeds to cast a pompous, long-past-his-prime Hollywood star (Victor Mature) in the ersatz film along with Aldo's sister, whom he rechristens Gina Romantica.

Filming began in June on the island of Ischia, where Peter and Britt lodged at the Hotel Isobel Regina. For their residence in Rome, where the production moved at the end of July, they rented an elegant villa on the Appian Way, which Peter, true to form, had outfitted with multitudinous gadgets. They included his-and-hers walkie-talkies so that he could stay in touch with his wife when she was in a different part of the house.

With Peter assuming the role of de facto executive producer as well as star, his tendency to second guess his directors became even more detrimental than usual, since De Sica had to contend not only with a demanding star but a demanding financier as well, all wrapped up in the same moody man. De Sica's own attitude didn't help; he started telling friends and associates how much he detested Simon's screenplay. He didn't think too highly of Peter's performance, either.

The feeling was mutual; Peter grew equally disenchanted with De Sica. "He thinks in Italian, I think in English," Peter complained to Bert Mortimer. According to Hattie Stevenson, there was an even more intimate and painful problem: Peter "wasn't happy with Britt's performance at all, and so therefore that made home life very difficult."

At first, Peter took his frustrations out only on the film's unit publicist; in a typically roundabout way, Peter had him fired. But to spare Peter his characteristic spasm of remorse, he was told that the publicist had simply gone away on his own accord. characteristic spasm of remorse, he was told that the publicist had simply gone away on his own accord.

It was then that the color purple became not just a problem but one of the biggest and most long-lasting terrors of Peter's life. A script girl showed up one day in a purple outfit. Naturally she had no idea that this fashion decision would send Vittorio De Sica into an uncontrollable arm-waving frenzy. "It's the color of death!" De Sica revealed to Peter, who, suggestible and superstitious as ever, was haunted by purple for the rest of his life.

On at least one occasion Peter attributed the superstition to Sophia Loren, though he credited De Sica much more often. But no matter who planted the notion that purple could kill, Peter latched onto the belief fiercely. The mere hint of purple became a consistent trigger to Peter's easily erupting temper. In later years, publicists would scour Peter's proposed hotel rooms in search of the color of death; if they found it, the room would be changed. For Peter Sellers, the color ruined everything it touched. Purple was to life itself as Fred had been to Rembrandt.

Filming in Rome one day in early September, Britt was playing a scene with Victor Mature. Peter had stayed home that morning, but he just couldn't help himself but appear at Cinecitta later that day and, with the camera rolling and De Sica miming the expression he wanted from his leading actress, Peter came creeping up to his wife's side, so close that he was barely out of camera range, and whispered, "Play it as though you were dreaming dreaming of being beautiful!" De Sica took this usurpation in stride. To placate his star, who was also his boss, De Sica asked him to serve as Mature's stand-in for some close-ups of Britt that were taken later that day. But Sellers was growing even more irritated by De Sica-his English was too bad, his obvious distaste for the material too debilitating, and De Sica was simply the most obvious target for Peter's ire. of being beautiful!" De Sica took this usurpation in stride. To placate his star, who was also his boss, De Sica asked him to serve as Mature's stand-in for some close-ups of Britt that were taken later that day. But Sellers was growing even more irritated by De Sica-his English was too bad, his obvious distaste for the material too debilitating, and De Sica was simply the most obvious target for Peter's ire.

So he told John Bryan to get rid of him. Bryan resisted on financial as well as artistic grounds. Then, bizarrely, Peter demanded that British sausages be flown in for the cast and crew, De Sica objected, and Peter responded by telephoning his friend Joseph McGrath in England and asking him to take over the direction of the film. McGrath refused. De Sica appears to have completed the shooting-barely-though Peter himself took on the task of orchestrating postproduction work on the film.

Fed up, John Bryan terminated his relationship with Peter. After the Fox After the Fox was Brookfield's first, last, and only production; the company dissolved. was Brookfield's first, last, and only production; the company dissolved.

At the beginning of filming After the Fox After the Fox, Victor Mature was quoted as saying that "if Sellers plays his cards right, I may let him steal the picture." By July, Mature was disenchanted. "I just saw my rushes," the aging star told Sheilah Graham, "and I suggest you sell your United Artists stock."

When the film was released, the New York Times New York Times agreed with Mature: "Mr. Sellers acts on the level of Mr. [Jerry] Lewis, which is to say broadly, bluntly, and hoggishly." agreed with Mature: "Mr. Sellers acts on the level of Mr. [Jerry] Lewis, which is to say broadly, bluntly, and hoggishly." Time Time was also scathing: "a garlicky farce that could barely make the late late show on Sicilian TV." was also scathing: "a garlicky farce that could barely make the late late show on Sicilian TV."

Still, Peter's time in Italy was scarcely in vain. He bought a new Hasselblad camera, which he used to take a number of photos that ran in Italian newspapers as well as in London's Daily Express Daily Express and and Daily Mirror Daily Mirror.

And he got his Ferrari Superfast at last.

Only five of the cars were made that year, but Peter managed to snag one-a sand-colored number with matching butter-leather seats. It was capable of revving up to 180 miles per hour, he was proud to say, though he was also forced to acknowledge that there was no place in England where he could actually drive that fast.

In public, Peter was buoyant, his marriage to Britt a visible success as long as it was outsiders who were watching. Once again, he had married an actress. Each member of the couple knew how to play a scene in front of an audience. They played things differently at home.