Mr. Strangelove

Peter Sellers's explosive talent made him a beloved figure in world cinema and
continues to attract new audiences. With his darkly comic performances in Dr.
Strangelove and Lolita and his outrageously funny appearances as Inspector
Clouseau in the Pink Panther films, he became one of the most popular movie
stars of his time. Sellers himself identified most personally with the
character he played in Being There \-- an utterly empty man on whom others
projected what they wanted, or needed, to see. In this lively and exhaustively
researched biography, Ed Sikov offers unique insight into Sellers's comedy
style. Beginning with Sellers' lonely childhood with a mother who wouldn't let
go of him, through his service in the Royal Air Force and his success on BBC
Radio's The Goon Show, Sikov goes on to detail his relationships with co-stars
such as Alec Guinness, Sophia Loren, and Shirley MacLaine; his work with such
directors as Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, and Blake Edwards; his four failed
marriages; his ridiculously short engagement to Liza Minnelli; and all the
other peculiarities of this eccentric man's unpredictable life. The most
insightful biography ever written of this endlessly fascinating star, Mr.
Strangelove is as comic and tragic as Peter Sellers was himself.