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.
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).
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.
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
Wiki
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.
Murder on the Orient Express, 1974
Outspoken & Freckled
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.
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
Wiki
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10 comments:
His life is such a great life lived.
Hercule Poirot was a Belgian detective who lasted for a very long time. Christie's detective films appealed to young men back then, including me. I know Poirot was played by amazing actors like David Suchet, John Malkovich and Kenneth Branagh. But in my late teens I thought that of all the actors, Ustinov had the best speech, clothes and sensible acting.
roentare
quite right.... talented generations before him, top quality education, safety in WW2, and excellent career support in everything that interested him. Plus heaps of talent.
Christie created a very fussy, eccentric character for her detective, so it must have been difficult for all the actors. I think Ustinov must have struggled as well, but he seemed to have the most brilliant mind of all the Poirots that I saw.
Hello Hels, I don't think one can get a more mixed background than that, and Ustinov used it to add nuance to all his roles. I saw a number of his films too long ago to make precise comments, but we saw Billy Budd last summer, and Ustinov's performance was complex and riveting. By coincidence, last spring I re-read Melville's short stories, so I was able to compare the movie with the novelette. The film was more cinematic and less symbolic, although both versions were moving.
--Jim
Parnassus
that reminds me. I prefer to read the original book _first_ and only see the film after. That way the film doesn't block what Melville intended (eg justice, innocence) in my mind.
Did you feel Ustinov acted well, and that the Billy Budd film did justice to Britain and the Napoleonic Wars?
I never liked Peter Ustinov, though acknowledging that he was a uniquely talented man.
jabblog
You are not the only person who would say that. Not because he wasn't uber talented but because mimicked relentlessly, taking the mickey out of people with no apology. He knew he was quicker than other people, and although I don't suppose he ever meant to sound arrogant, sometimes it was a bit insensitive.
I always enjoyed his performances. Such a talented man.
Hi again, While both Stamp and Ustinov did very well in the film, Terence Stamp's character was purely allegorical and therefore single dimensional--he did not change during the film. On the other hand, Ustinov's character had to develop during the film, so he had more scope to react to the dramatic events around him, which opportunity as an actor he took advantage of.
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The Britain vs. France part of the film I don't think was supposed to be part of the core message, it was simply a deus ex machina to resolve the scene in which the sailors were angry with the captain over Billy's execution. A mutiny would have been going to far, yet meekly submitting would not have acknowledged their feelings, so the arrival of the French enemy was timely indeed. --Jim
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