Peter Ustinov ...Oscar-winner and humanitarian dead at 82

rest in peace peter :

(http://www.cbc.ca/arts/stories/ustinovobit20040329



GENEVA - Acclaimed stage, television and film actor Sir Peter Ustinov, who also served as a United Nations goodwill ambassador for more than 30 years, died of heart failure Sunday night. He was 82.

Ustinov died in a Swiss clinic at Genolier, near his home overlooking Lake Geneva, his friend Leon Davico told The Associated Press.

"He was not just a writer and actor. He was someone who really tried to help," said Davico, a former UN spokesperson who enlisted Ustinov as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations's children's agency, after seeing him in the West End play The Love of Four Colonels.

<snip>
Even UN Secretary General Kofi Annan once joked that, given the actor's long and loyal service to the UN -- including becoming a staunch advocate for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- Ustinov was the man who would take over from him.

Really one of my very favorites. Absolutely brilliant in Spartacus, for example.

... I remember him as Jules the safecracker in We're No Angels with Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Basil Rathbone. He underplayed the part beautifully, and he was and very, very funny.

and thoroughly underrated.

One of my 2 favorite Ustinov performances!

The other being "on the darker side" -- Quo Vadis. Whoa!

The bit where he learns that Petronius has killed himself and calls for a tear glass to preserve the Imperial Grief is priceless. A sad passing.

And then he reads Petronius' letter... and realizes what it SAYS... oh, the expression on his face!

I hope they re-run this movie in his honor on one of the movie channels. I don't have it on DVD (is it even available?) and it's been ages since I saw it.

His "Add a Dash of Pity" and Other Stories is a very good collection of short fiction.

I remember him on the old Jack Paar Tonight Show. Jack would line up several multilingual people – Ustinov, Genevieve, José Melis and others – and whisper a joke in English to the first person, and each in turn would repeat the joke to the next person in a different language. The person at the end would then translate what he heard into English again, and the final joke bore little resemblance to the original.

A man of great culture and humanity. Spoke every language.

Why can't we have presidents like this man?

Can you wait until January 20, 2005?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3578415.stm

Located upper right hand column of web page.

So sad to realize that he's gone now.

I loved his movies: Spartacus, Quo Vadis and not to forget his role as Hercule Poirot. Not only his books were great, too: Every time when Peter Ustinov was invited to a talk show, it was worth tuning in for hearing him speak alone. He had such a big heart and such great humor. He was one of the greatest actors of all times.

My prayers go out to him and his family. I'll miss him.

A real classic !!


:thumbsup:

like Blackbeard's Ghost

funny funny underrated film.
I know I would follow Peter into a whorehouse.
:kick:

A great loss - have a safe journey, PeterO8)