Peter Ustinov would have been 100 today. Happy Birthday, Nero! What's your favorite Ustinov role?

He wasn't really Poirot but very comforting in that role

[quote] I had a bf who was Russian Jewish and looked so much like Peter that he and his brother once passed him off as the actor to an MGM exec (my bf's brother worked for MGM in London).

No, you didn't.

Ustinov was terrific across the board but "We're No Angels" with Humphrey Bogart and Aldo Ray had surprisingly fine chemistry.

I've always enjoyed his interviews as much as anything.

I used to live in Lausanne, Switzerland. Saw him several times wandering up and down the Rue du Bourg. Also saw Audrey Hepburn, David Niven, Jackie Onassis, James Mason and Richard Burton in Lausanne. It was quite the A list celebrity hot spot.

R1 I agree - in a way it's just Peter Ustinov solving crimes, but very comforting. And as R4 says, he was just a very interesting person to watch and listen to.

Any stories or impressions to tell us about, R5?

Ustinov was funny. A friend and I kind of followed him up the street one day. When he'd stop to check out a shop window, we would too as we couldn't actually figure out if we wanted his autograph (which seemed tacky). No selfies back then. Finally after we'd followed him for a while, he turned to us and asked if he could help us with something. We were 20ish and must have blushed and blurted out we were big fans. The next time I saw him in the street, he waved to me.

I loved it when he played me in “”Murder On The Orient Express”. His interpretation didn’t follow Christie’s vision, but I loved it.

I think he made a documentary about the Orient Express, but not a movie.

[quote] I think he made a documentary about the Orient Express

Wasn’t that David Suchet, another Poirot?

I think we need a Poirot to figure out all these credits...

He was a philosopher and serious playwright who unfortunately appeared in a lot of trash and married 3 uninteresting women.

You can hear him alluding to serious issues at the 4 minute mark in the video at R4.

He had box-office power in the early 50s and was able to get finance for his own projects— the quasi-gay 'Billy Budd' and 'Lady L'.

A brilliant raconteur (as seen in the second half of the video at R4). And he was rather cute back in the 1950s.

R1 Indeed. Watched Topkapi last night for first time in full, wonderful performance.

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"What's My Line?" panelist .... with mystery-celebrity challenger, Miss Joan Crawford!

R16 He appeared on the panel and not as the celebrity guest— which I think backs up his claim to be an iconoclast in his younger years.

R17 I was answering OP's question: his role as a What's My Line? panelist ... and simply noting that Joan Crawford was the celebrity guest.

I get annoyed when people physically compare the late Peter Ustinov with Seth Rogen.

One was a polymath and the other is a moron.

When I was a child I couldn't differentiate Ustinov from Charles Laughton.

Both were fat and both played the Emperor Nero.

But they're both fascinating in different ways

Did he deserve both his Oscars?

The Oscar competition is like a chook raffle.

I think he deserves a great deal of praise for his real talents, his writing and being a raconteur.

But he got an Oscar twice for doing the same thing— playing a comic snivelling scammer.

Prince John, of course.

Peter Ustinov when he was just Peter Ustinov. Great story-teller.

As an actor he had a tendency to ham it up.

My mom was a huge fan of [italic]The Merv Griffin Show[/italic] in the '60s and '70s, and she thought Peter Ustinov was hilarious. One time he recounted flying through a storm on Air India, and instead of the pilot or cabin crew announcing that there was turbulence coming, fasten your seat belts, etc., a flight attendant simply got on the PA and exclaimed, "LIGHTNING!"

To be honest, a good many Oscars (and other acting awards) are for other reasons than necessarily being that year's "best" performance.

Ustinov mostly played tiny variations of his persona but it was a great persona.

And, his Poirot isn't very accurate but it is very entertaining. Suchet is the best of course but I prefer Ustinov's Poirot over Finney's which was too loud and sinister.

We don't speak of Branagh's Poirot because it is An Abomination.

Dame Angela Lansbury foolishly mispronounced Topkapi as Top-cappy when giving him his 2nd Oscar (accepted by Jonathan Winters). It's Topkap-uh, bitch!

His Nero always reminds me of Trump.

Hear, hear R26

He stirred something in me as a young gayling that helped set me on my lifelong love of bears.

That was supposed to be “Death on the Nile”. Geez, oh dear squared! I’m a huge Christie and Ustinov fan.

He told good stories, but probably did too many chat shows. I remember once he was in the middle of an anecdote and stopped and said - 'Oh I told this last time I was on your show', the host said, 'Please carry on', but he became very uncomfortable, mortified even. It was quite hard to watch.

R30 Yes he was bearish. He was cute and cuddly in the 50s.

His Nero was an inoffensive Nero.

[quote] Dame Angela Lansbury

Who was (at one point) his sister-in-law, as I learnt just recently.

Lansbury's twin brothers, Bruce & Edgar, were handsome.

R2, that is the absolute truth. I don't know why you find it so unlikely. I'm old, my bf was MUCH older, and this all took place in the '60s.

Fair enough, R2, R36. I accept you and appreciate your anecdote.

R34 Peter and Angela's sister had already divorced. Angie really was a treat as the drunk romance novelist Salome Otterbourne.

R35 The brothers were moderately handsome. She, not so much.

And Angela announced him as the winner of the 1964 supporting actor. Seen many of his films and he was a really great actor. I’d like to see some of his Emmy work (he won three total) which may be on YouTube.

I loved a mystery show he did in the early eighties

Natural causes?

[quote] As an actor he had a tendency to ham it up.

True, and as good an example as any of that is his Herod the Great in Jesus of Nazareth, but then, why should I single him out for hamminess among that cast?

Ustinov was a study in subtlety compared to, say, Michael York as John the Baptist.

Still, I loved "Jesus of Nazareth". It was very well-made and the screenplay was superb. I never see it broadcast anymore.

I caught a few youtube scenes of it over the past few years. The 70s datedness of it is a blast.

My first memories of him are as Prince John in [italic]Robin Hood[/italic]. He and Terry-Thomas MADE that movie.

[quote] Jesus of Nazareth

A collection of silly cameos by some fabulous stars. Their fabulosity lessens the sincerity of the story. And Jesus was an ugly runt.

It would be a change of pace after ten showings of [italic]The Greatest Showing Ever Told[/italic]. Who the hell thought John Wayne and Roddy McDowall should be in a picture together?

[italic]Story[/italic]

^ I had to look at IMDB and it seems that Ustinov played Herod.

I don't know the bible stories but I think Herod was a useless, non-committal pawn, wasn't he? (I think they camped up Herod in that musical JC superstar).

So I guess the role is true to Ustinov's screen persona— non-threatening and semi-comic— as well as fat.

Werking Herod's caftan.

He's grotesquely fat here in this clip but still 'on point'.

Topkapi has his best moments: when he is snivelling before the Turkish police, afraid he's about to be tortured, and then switches to absolute dignity as he tells about his father, a British non-com. Love that scene. It sets up for later when he shows bravery in agreeing to help the group with the heist.

I enjoyed his 'Billy Budd' which is so rarely played on television. In fact I’m sure the last time I saw it was 25 years ago. He played Captain Vere.

Unfortunately he was overshadowed by the American who really did dominate the movie with his ugliness. I know there are DLers who fancy Robert Ryan but I never have. Ryan played an ugly man with an ugly name Claggart.

Ustinov played another character with a similarly appropriate name. His name was Vere. The word veer implies ambivalence, something that's neither this nor that.

And I guess those sophisticated people (who say that all of Herman Melville’s stuff is drenched with repressed homo-sex) will suggest that the sweet-faced Billy Budd resembled a pluckable rose-bud.

Hot Millions (1968), with the delightful Maggie Smith.

He played a cockney computer hacker who swindles a multinational corporation headed by Karl Malden and Bob Newhart (Mr. Gnatpole).

Very funny and ahead of its time.

The conductor Gustavo Dudamel reminds me of Ustinov.