About the Author

Ed Sikov is the author of On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder, Screwball, Laughing Hysterically, and Study Guide for American Cinema. He earned a doctorate in film studies at Columbia University and has taught film courses at Haverford and Colorado colleges. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

"[M]ethodically through, thoroughly enjoyable."

"[Sikov] treats Sellers with just the right mix of awe, irritation and sympathy, giving readers a clear-headed, respectful tribute to a disturbed genius."

Highly in Hardcover-- "Sikov has pulled off the difficult trick of producing both an authoritative biography and a compulsive page turner."

Sikov, a film critic, biographer, and academic, methodically and exhaustively surveys the life and oeuvre of one of cinema's comedic geniuses, Peter Sellers (1925-80). Juxtaposed with the author's trenchant analysis is a cornucopia of interviews with Sellers's ex-wives, children, friends, intimates, and fellow artists. As Sikov chronologically wends his way through the Sellers canon, priceless stories, anecdotes, and bon mots grace every page. His dysfunctional relationship with his mother (and, subsequently, his four wives) features prominently, as do his World War II Royal Air Force experience, groundbreaking work and success with the influential BBC Radio show The Goon Show, and such celluloid jewels as The Ladykillers, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, "The Pink Panther" series, and Being There. Sikov's work supercedes Peter Evans's Peter Sellers: The Mask Behind the Mask (1968) and Alexander Walker's Peter Sellers: The Authorized Biography (1981) to become, along with Roger Lewis's excellent The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (1997), the new standard. Enthusiastically endorsed for all libraries. Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

"[M]ethodically through, thoroughly enjoyable."
"[Sikov] treats Sellers with just the right mix of awe, irritation and sympathy, giving readers a clear-headed, respectful tribute to a disturbed genius."
Highly in Hardcover-- "Sikov has pulled off the difficult trick of producing both an authoritative biography and a compulsive page turner."