A tribute
Peter Ustinov
Hero who shone as Nero
Ervell E. Menezes

IN the death of Oscar-winning actor, playwright, novelist and humorist Peter Ustinov in Geneva recently, the film world has lost a giant though not many of this generation will have seen his films. In a way, he earned fame as detective Hercule Poirot in the many adaptations of Agatha Christie’s mysteries but that was much after he won two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor in Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964) and a Golden Globe for playing Nero in Quo Vadis (1951).

May be, it is still his best-remembered role. How he collected his tears after fiddling as Rome burned. This multi-faceted genius of Russian extraction is also known for his popular play Romanoff and Juliet.

That Ustinov was in New Delhi when the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated is academic. He also visited India in the late 1970s, as a UN Ambassador.

I interviewed him in Bombay in 1979. He was pleasant and accommodating even though it was well past midnight. I remember him describing Humphrey Bogart, his co-star in We’re No Angels, as a ‘soft-centred chocolate’ and being delighted at the plaudits he received for Nero’s role. Ustinov was all praise for Bogart as an actor and thought he received the acclaim he so richly deserved. He cited Bogart’s film Casablanca as one of his all-time favourites.

Born Peter Alexander Ustinov in Swiss Cottage, London, on April 16, 1921, he died nearly a fortnight before his 83rd birthday. His was an eventful and versatile career, shifting from stage to screen to even doing voiceovers for children’s films like Peter and the Wolf. That cinema was not his only love is probably reflected in his never getting the Best Actor Oscar. But none can deny his ample talent.

As the safe-cracker in We’re No Angels (1955), along with Bogart and Aldo Ray, he was simply outstanding. It is a film of three conmen who go about stealing folks with unimaginable panache. They hardly make delightful movies like that these days. May be, Paper Moon (Ryan and Tatum O’Neal) in the 1970s came close to it.

In the 1960s, he generally did cameos. Whether it was in The Sundowners (1960), Billy Bud (1962), The Comedians (1967), which had Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the lead roles, Hot Millions (1968) or Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968), both comedies.

The late-1960s saw a spate of larceny films like Carnival of Thieves, How to Steal a Million (Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn) and Topkapi. Ustinov was impeccable as the gentle thief in cahoots with the Greek siren Melina Mercuori, who later went into politics.

But the 1970s saw him less on celluloid and more as an author. He was also fond of photography. A little known fact, however, is that during World War II he was batman to David Niven, who was then a Lt-Col.

May be, those who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s will miss him most. But his many-faceted talents will be remembered by others too.