If Peter Sellers hadn't died so relatively young (54) what direction might his career have taken in the 80s and 90s? He almost went out on a triumph with Being There (although I'm not a fan of it) but sadly managed to make The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu-Manchu before turning up his toes.

I have said many times I would have seen him taking on more serious roles, such as the drunk lecturer in Educating Rita, or even Hannibal Lecter. However, I suspect that the Pink Panther series would have staggered on, Clouseau eventually accompanied by a Poochie-style partner (played by Bronson Pinchot) until box-office returns and audience indifference resulted in Sellers doing stir for hospitalising Blake Edwards

A baddy in the Die Hard franchise.

Lots of films where an aging bloke gets to fuck a magic pixie dream girl before settling for someone more age appropriate. Probably her Mum.

He would've hosted SNL (in characters, not as himself) and made a wildly self-indulgent flop film with Mike Myers. He would've done some stuff for Comic Relief too, probably with Rowan Atkinson or Steve Coogan.

Guest role in Blackadder.

At some point in the 80's, John Nathan-Turner would have offered him a role in Doctor Who.

If he'd lived long enough, The Penguin in Batman Returns.

Jonathan Miller trying to talk him into playing King Lear in the BBC Shakepeare.

Charles Augustus Milverton in the Master Blackmailer episode of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes.

Skullion in Porterhouse Blue.

Guest appearance in Goodness Gracious Me.

Some plausible scenarios here:
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=79409.0

Quote from: Autopsy Turvey on January 14, 2024, 02:11:49 PMSome plausible scenarios here:
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=79409.0

Oh yes. I'd forgotten about that.

Something I could imagine him being superb in - the Michael Gambon role in The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover.

In reality, though, multiple cameos in The Simpsons.

he'd still be alive, today!

I think he'd be up for a Muppets film, since he was on the show. Maybe he would have been Scrooge.

Then lots of wasted supporting roles in rubbish, like John Cleese. Rat Race and that kind of thing. Would probably get roped into doing a voice in Shrek or something like that. An obligatory passing the torch cameo in Steve Martin's Pink Panther.

He'd end up in Harry Potter like every other living British actor at the time.

Quote from: Terry Torpid on January 14, 2024, 03:55:18 PMHe'd end up in Harry Potter like every other living British actor at the time.

Inevitable BBC News headline: Harry Potter actor Peter Sellers dies aged 94.

I'd love there to have been more straight Sellers roles, he's terrifying as a crooked, violent garage owner in Never Let Go and I always enjoy his more underplayed performances like in Heavens Above! and the hugely underrated The Optimists Of Nine Elms a lot. Unfortunately the man was often terrible at choosing his film roles and leaving it up to personal psychics and arbitrary decisions based on superstitious self-invented claptrap (I think it's true Coppola offered him the Hyman Roth character in The Godfather 2 but he nahed that off to be in some flyweight fare like Soft Beds, Hard Battles) so even if he'd lived I dunno if we'd have seen his talents being utilised to the full. Maybe if they'd have cut out that gag reel ending and he'd actually won the Oscar for Being There he'd have pushed himself and chased more interesting roles in the 80s through sheer ego. Seems more likely he'd have plumped for another Pink Panther or his equivalent of something like Mike Myers' The Love Guru.

Host of It'll be alright on the night.

The most blessed timeline:

1980: Recovers from the heart attack which also has rewired his brain/outlook on life somewhat. Gets and stays sober and gets some therapy that works for him.

1980s:
Pops up in loads of stuff made by younger comics eg The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents, French & Saunders etc.

1987: Does a radio series with Peter Cook.

1989: General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth (Fry was too young innit).

1989 onwards: Various character roles in the Branagh-directed Shakespeare films. 

1991: A Goon Show 40th anniversary show at the Albert Hall includes characters performed by younger comics. It's broadcast on BBC1 at Christmas and a new generation of kids discovers radio comedy which has a golden age 20 years later. 

1996: Instead of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick makes a black comedy based on Jonathan Coe's What A Carve Up! Sellers plays 5 characters and wins all the awards.

1997: A revival of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser with Sellers as Sir and Michael Palin as Norman is massively successful and leads to...

1999: Sellers does a one-man show dramaturged and directed by Simon McBurney. It has a limited run in the West End and on Broadway and wins lots of awards. Sellers is now generally respected as an actor with range.

2000s: Plays Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter films. Does it as a Hercules Grytpype-Thynne kind of thing which shouldn't work but does brilliantly.

Last role is Polonius/1st Gravedigger in a Jonathan Miller
- directed Hamlet made for BBC TV. It's all effing awesome and everybody goes out on a high.

Quote from: lauraxsynthesis on January 14, 2024, 05:57:45 PM1989: General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth (Fry was too young innit).


1996: Instead of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick makes a black comedy based on Jonathan Coe's What A Carve Up! Sellers plays 5 characters and wins all the awards.



Last role is Polonius/1st Gravedigger in a Jonathan Miller
-directed Hamlet made for BBC TV. It's all effing awesome and everybody goes out on a high.

Brilliant post and I now yearn for these three things especially.

Quote from: lauraxsynthesis on January 14, 2024, 05:57:45 PMThe most blessed timeline:

1980: Recovers from the heart attack which also has rewired his brain/outlook on life somewhat. Gets and stays sober and gets some therapy that works for him.

1980s:
Pops up in loads of stuff made by younger comics eg The Young Ones, The Comic Strip Presents, French & Saunders etc.

1987: Does a radio series with Peter Cook.

1989: General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth (Fry was too young innit).

1989 onwards: Various character roles in the Branagh-directed Shakespeare films. 

1991: A Goon Show 40th anniversary show at the Albert Hall includes characters performed by younger comics. It's broadcast on BBC1 at Christmas and a new generation of kids discovers radio comedy which has a golden age 20 years later. 

1996: Instead of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick makes a black comedy based on Jonathan Coe's What A Carve Up! Sellers plays 5 characters and wins all the awards.

1997: A revival of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser with Sellers as Sir and Michael Palin as Norman is massively successful and leads to...

1999: Sellers does a one-man show dramaturged and directed by Simon McBurney. It has a limited run in the West End and on Broadway and wins lots of awards. Sellers is now generally respected as an actor with range.

2000s: Plays Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter films. Does it as a Hercules Grytpype-Thynne kind of thing which shouldn't work but does brilliantly.

Last role is Polonius/1st Gravedigger in a Jonathan Miller
- directed Hamlet made for BBC TV. It's all effing awesome and everybody goes out on a high.

Brilliant!

Quote from: non capisco on January 14, 2024, 05:26:01 PMMaybe if they'd have cut out that gag reel ending and he'd actually won the Oscar for Being There he'd have pushed himself and chased more interesting roles in the 80s through sheer ego.

As mentioned in the previous Sellers thread on this subject, the decision to end Being There with a fucking blooper is absolutely staggering. You've got that stunning final shot, you're still processing it, and then - bang! - here's an outtake of funny old Peter Sellers breaking character, a character he's been entirely committed to during the film you've just invested in for the last two hours.

Sellers was furious, and no wonder.

His last role is a one-line (or possibly just a silent double-take) cameo in the 2006 Casino Royale.

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 14, 2024, 07:00:45 PMAs mentioned in the previous Sellers thread on this subject, the decision to end Being There with a fucking blooper is absolutely staggering. You've got that stunning final shot, you're still processing it, and then - bang! - here's an outtake of funny old Peter Sellers breaking character, a character he's been entirely committed to during the film you've just invested in for the last two hours.

Sellers was furious, and no wonder.

Apologies for the duplicate thread... I'm kind of new around here

Quote from: Lapsedcat on January 14, 2024, 07:28:03 PMApologies for the duplicate thread... I'm kind of new around here

Not at all, I'd totally forgotten about that old thread. It's an interesting topic, new members, their analysis, insight and theories, are always welcome!

The forum would just be full of stagnant old cunts like me repeating ourselves otherwise. :)

Quote from: magister on January 14, 2024, 01:46:58 PMJonathan Miller trying to talk him into playing King Lear in the BBC Shakepeare.

Charles Augustus Milverton in the Master Blackmailer episode of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes.

Fuck me, yes!!

He would have done a body swap comedy with Corey Feldman.

Given that at the time of his death his years of taking cocktails of drugs had swelled his heart to 30 times its normal size [check this before posting], I'd say he'd never have recovered his health and would have been a semi-comatose zombie barely capable of reading an autocue. So a guest presenter on HIGNFY then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OP's Good Pod podcast is great by the way.

Quote from: Maurice Yeatman on January 15, 2024, 02:31:05 AMOP's Good Pod podcast is great by the way.

Thanks!

Talk show regular on both sides of the pond, then an unexpected renaissance towards the end of the eighties following a career-best turn in a prestige BBC drama. This leads to him being cast as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, for which he wins an Oscar.

I don't think he'd necessarily have been cast as Lecter, but he probably would have become a psychotic cannibal

Quote from: Lapsedcat on January 14, 2024, 12:27:31 PMIf Peter Sellers hadn't died so relatively young (54) what direction might his career have taken in the 80s and 90s? He almost went out on a triumph with Being There (although I'm not a fan of it) but sadly managed to make The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu-Manchu before turning up his toes.

I have said many times I would have seen him taking on more serious roles, such as the drunk lecturer in Educating Rita, or even Hannibal Lecter. However, I suspect that the Pink Panther series would have staggered on, Clouseau eventually accompanied by a Poochie-style partner (played by Bronson Pinchot) until box-office returns and audience indifference resulted in Sellers doing stir for hospitalising Blake Edwards

I imagine that Cannon would sign him up to a contract, and  do a few forgettable, terrible films, and then buy the rights to the Pink Panther in 85/86, and do The Legend of the Pink Panther (1986), and get Jonathan Lynn to direct. 


I also think that as I've said before, he would have done at some point, a US sitcom, probably called Peter, that probably would have had one season on CBS in 1989, where he is a widowed British college professor who becomes a sub-Mr. Belvedere butler for a nouveau riche family, or some rammel like that.

I know he was wanted as a Columbo baddie, but in 1976 was too expensive (Dick Van Dyke got it, instead). Provided his fee had changed by 1990, he might have done a 90s Columbo, maybe in the Anthony Andrews role.

Provided if he was open to doing episodic TV, I can see him turn up in a Magnum PI as one of Higgins' old buddies from the war, hamming it up.
Hell, I could even see him in a Murder, She Wrote (he worked with Lansbury in the World of Henry Orient), as another mystery novelist.


Perhaps if he lives past 1980, he does an appearance on There's A Lot of It About with Milligan. There, he meets David Renwick. Years later, Renwick sends him the script to One Foot in the Grave, hoping he'll like it, but not expecting him to, especially if he's just done a flop sitcom in LA.
Unexpectedly, he agrees to play Victor Meldrew.

Quote from: Senior Baiano on January 19, 2024, 11:57:54 AMI don't think he'd necessarily have been cast as Lecter, but he probably would have become a psychotic cannibal

I can see him as Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula, overdoing the accent.

POLICE SQUAD!

in color

starring LESLIE NIELSEN

also starring ALAN NORTH

and REX HAMILTON

special guest star PETER SELLERS