Biography
Friends and Family
David Niven
[Friend]
Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Monica Seles: I`d hate to be next door to her on her wedding night.
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Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.
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By increasing the size of the keyhole, today`s playwrights are in danger of doing away with the door.
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In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from.
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Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.
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They require the kind of courage that none of us would have. It`s a kind of courage that`s very hard to understand. And it`s our duty to try to understand it because it is the courage of desperation. And what is the difference between somebody who goes into a coffee house with the intention of killing as many people as possible - and does so - and somebody who`s in an aeroplane at the height of five miles, unobtainable by any anti-aircraft gun, and lets their bombs drop as scientifically as possible, in order to kill as few people as possible? I guarantee that the one who tries to kill as few people as possible will kill many more than the one who goes into a snack bar and blows himself or herself up. But in this campaign, I wonder how many of the people who have been killed were terrorists? I think very, very few. To my mind, it`s a big lie. - On Palestinian suicide bombers
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Mervyn LeRoy, the director of Quo Vadis, gave me this gem of advice on how to play the Emperor Nero: `The way I see Nero, this is the kinda guy who plays with himself nights`.
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World government is not only possible, it is inevitable; and when it comes, it will appeal to patriotism in its truest, in its only sense, the patriotism of men who love their national heritages so deeply that they wish to preserve them in safety for the common good.
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Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.
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To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.
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Children are the only form of immortality that we can be sure of.
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Did you know that every two hours the nations of this world spend as much on armaments as they spend on the children of this world every year?
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I suppose you can`t blame Gorbachev [for the collapse of the Soviet Union], but it is his fault for making America the only superpower.
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Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn`t amount to much.
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I`m convinced there`s a small room in the attic of the Foreign Office where future diplomats are taught to stammer.
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If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can`t be done.
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Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.
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You can`t fight terrorism without becoming a terrorist yourself. - On the American and British invasion of Afghanistan in 2001
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People are annoyed with the Chinese for not respecting more human rights. But with a population that size it`s very difficult to have the same attitude to human rights.
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The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.
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There was a great campaign to make life difficult for Vladimir Putin when he came in. Nobody ever mentions that George Bush senior was head of the CIA. What`s the difference between the CIA and the KGB? Except that probably the KGB are more thorough, intelligent, and more respectful of foreign traditions. - On Russo-American relations
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The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.
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I believe that the Jews have made a contribution to the human condition out of all proportion to their numbers: I believe them to be an immense people. Not only have they supplied the world with two leaders of the stature of Jesus Christ and Karl Marx, but they have even indulged in the luxury of following neither one nor the other.
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It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.
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Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.
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People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven`t got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.
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"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich." - On the Iraq war in 2003
`When Rosalind Hicks, Agatha Christie`s daughter, first saw me, she said, `That`s not Poirot.` I said, `It is now, my dear.`" [regarding his portrayal of supersleuth Hercule Poirot]
"I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilized music in the world."
"Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them."
"The habit of religion is oppressive, an easy way out of thought."
On critics: "They search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find."
"Two members of my profession who are not urgently needed by my profession, Mr. Ronald Reagan and Mr. George Murphy, entered politics, and they`ve done extremely well. Since there has been no reciprocal tendency in the other direction, it suggests to me that our job is still more difficult than their new one."
"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."
"...the great thing about history is that it is adaptable."
"A diplomat these days is nothing but a head waiter who`s allowed to sit down occasionally"
Trivia
Winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (1960), Ustinov stands as the only actor to win an Oscar for a Stanley Kubrick film. In fact, Peter Sellers is the only other actor to receive so much as a nomination.
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In 1964, he accepted the Oscar for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" on behalf of Margaret Rutherford, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony
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Chancellor of the University of Durham from 1992 until his death in 2004.
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In 1958, received two Tony Award nominations for "Romanoff and Juliet": as Best Actor (Dramatic) and as Best Play Author.
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During WWII Pvt. Peter Ustinov was batman to Lt. Col. David Niven.
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The New London Theatre in Drury Lane WC2 first opened on 2nd January 1973 with Peter Ustinov's play "The Unknown Soldier and His Wife"
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Awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). [1975]
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According to Peter Wright, in his book "Spycatcher," Ustinov's father was Klop Ustinov, who had been active in MI5 (British Security Service, Counterespionage) as an agent runner during the Second World War. He also had the distinction of having held commissions in the Russian, German and British armies (presumably at different times).
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Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1986.
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In January 1963, the Mirisch Company sued him for damages after he pulled out of The Pink Panther (1963), which was in production in Rome with his replacement, Peter Sellers.
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First marriage to Isolde Denham, daughter of Reginald Denham and Moyna MacGill. Their daughter is Tamara Ustinov. Isolde was half-sister of Angela Lansbury.
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Has a song written about him: "The Night I Saved Peter Ustinov" - written and recorded by Lauren Christy.
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On 31 October 1984, he was waiting in the garden of Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, to interview her for an Irish television documentary - when she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards (Beant Singh, killed day of assassination, Satwant Singh, sentenced to hang in 1988), as she was approaching Ustinov and his film crew.
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Made a comedy record in the late 1950s, "Mock Mozart" and "Phoney Folk Lore". He had been performing these as party pieces. Overdubbing allowed Ustinov to sing multiple parts. His producer was George Martin, future producer of The Beatles. (Martin later described Ustinov as "Britain`s answer to Orson Welles.")
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Both his father and uncle were officers in the German army and fought Britain in WWI.
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Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966
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He was a Humanist Laureate, a member of the International Academy of Humanism.
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Funeral service held at Geneva`s historic Cathedral of St Pierre. He was later buried in the village of Bursins, where he had lived in a Chateau since 1971. (April 2004)
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He was known to proudly say "I have Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Ethiopian blood in my veins."
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Is fluent in French, German, English, Italian, Russian and Spanish and can pass in Turkish and Greek among others.
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Is 1/4 Ethiopian on his mother`s side.
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Peter and Suzanne had 3 children: two daughters, Pavla Ustinov and Andrea Ustinov, and a son Igor Ustinov.
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His father was a German subject who came to Soviet Russia on personal business where he met his future wife. Shortly after they were married they decided to leave Russia and settle in Britain. As Ustinov has said, "It is for that very reason that I am addressing you today in English."
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Was the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF from 1968 until his death in 2004.
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Was knighted Sir Peter Ustinov. [1990]
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His mother was artist Nadia Benois, the niece of Alexandre Benois. Both were designers for the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. Both also worked for the "Russian Seasons" and "Ballets Russes" productions by impresario Sergei Diaghilev.
(imdb.com)
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