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Posts tagged as peter sellers

Lost Roles

The Lost Roles of Peter Sellers

by | January 31st, 2013

Lost Roles is a weekly column exploring "what might have been" in movie and TV comedy as we take a different actor, writer, or comedian each week and examine the parts they turned down, wanted but didn’t get, and the projects that fell apart altogether. This week, we turn our attention to Peter Sellers, regarded as one of the greatest comedic actors that ever was. Renowned for his chameleonic abilities, Sellers proved capable of disappearing into a wide array of characters, from bumbling French detectives to sinister German scientists. Let's take a look at some of the parts Peter Sellers almost played but didn't, including Charlie Chaplin, Willy Wonka, [...]

Pleas

Come Back, Mike Myers. We Love You

by | October 29th, 2010

I grew up a giant Mike Myers fan. I saved up to buy the Wayne's World book (there was one!), I camped out outside The Spy Who Shagged Me for a night before its release, and the "Head! Move! Now!" line from So I Married An Axe Murderer is still used in my apartment probably far more than it should be. And I'm not alone! A large percentage of this generation born in the 80's grew up with Mike. But recently, watching him flounder on the bottom, hidden by terrible plot and ham-fisted concepts, is a strange and frankly hurtful thing to watch. But there's still stock in Myers. [...]

From the Archives

A Look at Peter Sellers' Local Television Show Called Fred

by | April 20th, 2012

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

Hey, do you know The Goon Show? It was a radio show that aired on the BBC in the fifties that was written chiefly [...]

Movies

Which Comedian Had the Greatest Five-Year Span of Films?

by | November 21st, 2011

In the days leading up to the release of Tower Heist, one of the many, many stories I read about Eddie Murphy stated that from roughly 1982-1986, the actor had the greatest five-year stretch of any comedian, ever. The writer was including not only his gig as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, but also his stand-up routine and his films. That got me wondering whether, in fact, Murphy did have the best half-decade of all-time, with one exception: to only include movies. So, I looked at the filmography of every lauded, respected, and hilarious comedian (and I chose only people who we’d think of as comedians first, [...]

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