Peter Ustinov

Peter Ustinov (1921-2004), British actor, writer, producer, director, and two-time Academy Award winner. Of mixed European descent, Peter Alexander Ustinov had a special flair for accents and mimicry. Born and trained in London, he made his acting debut there, in sketches he had written, in 1939. The Love of Four Colonels (1951) was the first of his witty and satiric plays to achieve international success. His play Romanoff and Juliet (1956) was filmed in 1961, with Ustinov serving as producer, director, and actor. In 1962 he produced, directed, and acted in the film Billy Budd. He adapted the script from a novella by American writer Herman Melville. In 1967 two of his plays, The Unknown Soldier and His Wife and Halfway Up the Tree, ran simultaneously in New York City.

Ustinov received an Academy Award as best supporting actor for his roles in the films Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964). He also performed many television roles and won three Emmy Awards for best television actor of the year. He wrote novels and short stories, more than a score of plays, and two autobiographies, Dear Me (1977) and My Russia (1983). Ustinov was knighted in 1990.