Peter Ustinov great family, acting, writing.

Peter Ustinov's great-grandfather Moritz Hall was Jewish refugee from Kra­ków and later a Christian colleague of German miss­ion­ar­ies in Ethiopia. Peter’s pat­ernal grand-father was a Ru­s­s­ian nobleman Baron Plato von Ustinov, a WW1 German Air Force pilot. Grandmother was Magd­alena Hall of mixed Ger­man-Ethiopian and Jewish descent.

In 1919 father Jona von Ustinow joined his family in St Petersburg. There he met Peter's mother artist Nadia Ben­ois who worked for the Imperial Mariin­sky Ballet and Opera House as a painter and bal­l­et desig­ner. Nadia was half Russian plus French, German and Ital­ian descent; her fa­t­­h­er Leon Be­n­ois was an Imperial Rus­sian architect. Leon's br­other Al­ex­an­dre Ben­ois was a stage designer with Stra­v­insky & Dia­g­hilev. What a cultured family!

Jona and Nadia married in St Pe­t­ersburg’s Russian-German church in 1920, after the Communist Revolution. In Feb 1921, when she was 7 months pregnant with Peter, the couple left Russia for UK. So Peter was brought up in a mu­lti­ling­ual family fluent in English, Russian, French, Italian and German. Dad was a respected British journalist and mum an ac­c­omplished painter.

Jona became a press officer at the German embassy in London in the 1930s and a reporter for a German news agency. Aft­er Hitler came to power in Ger­m­any, Jona be­gan work­ing for the British intell­igence se­rvice MI5 and became a British subject, avoiding int­er­nment. He was the con­t­r­ol­ler of an MI5 spy in the German embassy who gave information on Hitler's WW2 plans.

Peter Ustinov as Nero in Quo Vadis, 1951

Armchair Travel

Ustinov, wife and 4 children, 1963

The Guardian

Terence Stamp, Peter Ustinov, Robert Ryan

promoting Billy Budd, London, 1961

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We saw Peter had ancest­ral connections to nobility. So he was aptly educated at Westminster School (1934-7), having a diff­icult ch­ild­hood with his parents. After sch­ool, he took drama and acting classes under Michel St Denis at the London Theatre Studio (1937-9). And made his stage debut in 1938 at the Stage Theatre Club Surrey, playing an old man in Chekhov's The Wood Demon. His London stage début later that year at the Players' Theatre in Covent Garden, becom­ing quickly established. In 1939, Peter made his London stage debut in a revue sketch, then did regular performances with the Aylesbury Repertory Co.

Then he made his film debut in Hullo, Fame! 1940. His acting was now ch­ar­acterised by many roles wh­ere he displayed his talents for vocal mimicry and age artifice. After a few small parts in British films, he landed his first major screen role in The Goose Steps Out (1942).

From 1942-6, Ustinov served in the British Army's Royal Sussex Regiment. He was batman for Officer David Niven, where the two became lifelong friends. Ustinov spent most of his service working with the Army Cinema Unit making recruitment films, wrote plays and appeared in 3 films as an actor. He co-wrote and acted in The Way Ahead (1944).

Ustinov, 1986        

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He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as Roman Emper­or­ Nero in Quo Vadis (1951) and won Best Supporting Act­or Oscars for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964). His drama, Photo Finish, was st­aged in N.Y, London and St Peter­s­burg, where Ustinov was dir­ector. He was a co­mic convict partner to Humphrey Bogart in We’re No Ang­els 1955, Capt Vere in the film version of Her­man Melv­il­le’s Billy Budd (1961), a modern Mexican general determ­ined to recl­aim the Al­amo in Viva Max! (1969), and Agatha Christ­ie’s sleuth Hercule Poir­ot in 6 films of the 1970s-80s.

Finney, Murder on the Orient Express, 1974

Outspoken & Freckled

David Niven, Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith

Death on the Nile, 1978

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Peter also wrote most of the films he directed, especially noteworthy was the brilliant Billy Budd. Lady L (1965) with Sophia Lo­r­en and Paul New­m­an was probably his best-received directorial ef­fort. And in 1969 he earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay, Hot Millions.

Acting was only one of Peter’s many crea­tive outlets. A notable pl­ay­wright, equa­l­ly appreciated in NY and in Lon­don, Ustinov wrote The Love of Four Colonels (1951), Romanoff and Juliet (1956; filmed 1961), Halfway up the Tree (1967), The Unknown Soldier and His Wife (1967), in which he also starred. Beet­hoven’s 10th (1983) was a comedy in which he himself starred as the great composer. His credits as a film direc­t­or in­cluded the scr­een adaptation of Roman­off and Juliet, and the darkly comic Hamm­ersmith Is Out (1972) with El­izabeth Taylor & Richard Burton.

He was Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile (1978) by director John Guillermin. In the 1980s, Ustinov recreated Poirot in some tv and cinema films including Evil Under the Sun (1982) and Appointment with Death (1988), while his cinema work in the 1990s also includes his superb role as Prof Gus Nikolais in George Miller's dramatic film, Lorenzo's Oil (1992).

He was a master of the English lang­uage. Note some of his books: eg the autobiographical works Dear Me (1977), Ustinov at Large (1991) and Ustinov Still at Large (1993). In My Russia (1996), Peter gave his views on life, career and his multi­cul­tural his­­tory.

Most pleasurable was his act as a witty raconteur. Peter was acclaimed for his fluent, humorous one-man shows where every foreign accent he used in Eng­l­ish was perfect! I was convinced that Presidents Nixon and Reagan were actually talking on stage with Ustinov! His expertise in comedy made him a regular guest of talk show hosts and tv comedians.

He was also an acclaim­ed TV journ­al­ist. Ustinov visited 30+ Russian cities in the making of his well-received BBC tv series, Russia 1986. He won the Royal Soc­iety of Arts’ Benjamin Franklin Medal, but his efforts as a humanitarian were seen best when he became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF from 1969 on. He was made Commander, Order of British Empire 1975, knighted 1990 and won UNICEF’s Medal for Distinguished Service, 1993.

Ustinov had made 70+ films in Rome, London and Hollywood during a career of nearly 60 years. But from 1971, his permanent home was a château in Vaud Sw­itzerland. He died of heart failure in 2004, the funeral being at Geneva's historic St Pierre Cath­edral. This British actor, author, director, playwright, screen­writer, novelist, raconteur and human­itarian was survived by 4 children.

Ustinov's modest grave, Vaud

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