Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander
von Ustinov) (April 16, 1921 – March 29,
2004) was a Great Britain|British-born and raised
actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur.

Ustinov was born in Swiss Cottage in London. His
father, Iona (Jona) von Ustinov, was half
Russia|Russian and half Germany|German. He was
known to his friends as "Klop" (bedbug). Klop had
served as a German fighter pilot in World War I
and worked as a press officer at the German
Embassy in London in the 1930s, as well as a
reporter for a German news agency. In 1935 he
began working for the British intelligence service
MI5 and became a British citizen, thus avoiding
internment or deportation during the war (Peter
Wright mentions in his book Spycatcher that Klop
was possibly the spy known as U35; Ustinov says in
his autobiography that his father hosted secret
meetings of senior British and German officials at
their London home). 

Peter Ustinov's mother, Nadia (Nadezhda)
Leontievna Benois, was a painter and ballet
designer of mixed Russian, France|French and
Italy|Italian ancestry (she also had Ethiopian
ancestry). Her father Leon Benois was an imperial
Russian architect and owner of Leonardo's painting
The Benois Madonna|Madonna Benois. His more famous
brother Alexandre Benois was an outstanding stage
designer who worked with Stravinsky and Diaghilev.
Their paternal ancestor Jules-César Benois was a
chef who had left France for St Petersburg during
the French Revolution and became a chef to Tsar
Paul of Russia|Paul.

Peter was educated at Westminster School and had a
difficult and uncertain childhood because of his
parents' constant bickering and personality
clashes. After training as an actor in his late
teens, he made his stage début in 1938 at the
Players' Theatre, becoming quickly established. 

Following military service as a private soldier
during World War II, during which he had made
propaganda films with actors such as David Niven,
he began to branch out into writing. His first
major success was with The Love of Four Colonels
in 1951. His career as a dramatist continued
alongside his acting career, his best-known play
being Romanoff and Juliet (1956).  His film roles
include Roman emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (1951
movie)|Quo Vadis? (1951), Captain Vere in Billy
Budd (1962), Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus
(movie)|Spartacus (1960), an old man surviving a
totalitarian future in Logan's Run (1976), and in
several films as Hercule Poirot, a part he first
played in Death on the Nile (1978).  He also
worked on several films as writer and occasionally
director, including The Way Ahead (1944), School
for Secrets (1946), Hot Millions (1968) and Memed
My Hawk (1984).  His autobiography, Dear Me
(1977), was well received and saw him describe his
life (ostensibly his childhood) whilst being
interrogated by his own ego.

He won Academy Awards|Oscars for his roles in
Spartacus (movie)|Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi
(movie)|Topkapi (1964). He also won two Golden
Globe Award|Golden Globe awards (he famously set
the Oscar and Globe statues up on his desk as if
playing doubles tennis; the game was also a love
of his life, as was ocean yachting).

In the later part of his life (from 1969 until his
death), his acting and writing tasks took second
place to his work on behalf of UNICEF - the United
Nations Children's Fund, for which he was a
Goodwill Ambassador and fundraiser. In this role
he visited some of the neediest children and made
use of his ability to make just about anybody
laugh, including many of the world's most
disadvantaged children. "Sir Peter could make
anyone laugh," UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy is quoted as saying. "His one-man show in
German was the funniest performance I have ever
seen – and I don’t speak a word of
German."

Ustinov also served as President of the World
Federalist Movement from 1991 until his death. He
once said, "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"http://www.wfm.org/IN_HOUSE/sirpeter.html.

He is most well-known to many British people as a
chat-show guest, a role to which he was ideally
suited - his multicultural background made it
possible for him to criticise the British
character with good humour. Towards the end of his
life he undertook some one-man stage shows in
which he let loose his raconteur streak - he told
the story of his life and of his frequent
alienation in British society (as just one
example, he took a test as a child which asked him
to name a Russian composer; he wrote Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov but was marked
down, told the correct answer was Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky since they had been
studying him in class, and told to stop showing
off).

He spoke English language|English, French
language|French, German language|German, Italian
language|Italian, Russian language|Russian,
Spanish language|Spanish fluently, as well as some
Turkish language|Turkish and Greek language|modern
Greek. 

In the late 1960s, he became a Switzerland|Swiss
citizen to avoid the United Kingdom|British tax
system of the time which taxed the earnings of the
wealthy at up to 90 per cent. However, he was
British honours system|knighted in 1990, and was
appointed Chancellor of the University of Durham
in 1992, having previously served as Rector of the
University of Dundee in the late 1970s (a role in
which he moved from being merely a figure-head to
taking on a political role, negotiating with
militant students).

Ustinov was a frequent defender of the People's
Republic of China|Chinese government, stating in
an address to the University of Durham in 2000,
"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."

In 2003 Durham's postgraduate college (previously
known as the Graduate Society) was renamed Ustinov
College when it moved to a new site.

He passed away in 2004 due to heart failure in a
clinic in Genolier, near his home in Bursins,
Vaud, Switzerland, and was buried in a private
ceremony in the town on Saturday April 3, 2004. He
was so well regarded as a goodwill ambassador that
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy spoke at
the funeral and represented United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

When, in an interview, he was once asked what he
would like it to read on his tomb stone|tombstone,
Ustinov replied "Please keep off the grass".

==Reference==
*http://www.wfm.org/IN_HOUSE/sirpeter.html Sir
Peter Ustinov, President of the World Federalist
Movement from 1991-2004, Dies at Age 82, World
Federalist Movement, Mar. 29, 2004.

==External links==

*imdb name|id=0001811|name=Peter Ustinov
*http://www.unicef.org/media/media_20193.html
Obituary (UNICEF)

===Critical viewpoints===
*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml
=%2Fopinion%2F2004%2F04%2F04%2Fdo0404.xml "I Can
Only Speak Ill of Sir Peter" (Telegraph article)


{| border="2" align="center"
|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Margot Fonteyn|Dame Margot Fonteyn
|width="40%" align="center"|University of
Durham|Chancellor of the University of Durham
1992–2004
|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Bill
Bryson
|}

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander
von Ustinov) (April 16, 1921 – March 28,
2004) was a Great Britain|British-born and raised
actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur.


Ustinov was born in Swiss Cottage in London. His
father, Iona (Jona) von Ustinov, was half
Russia|Russian and half Germany|German. He was
known to his friends as "Klop" (bedbug). Klop had
served as a German fighter pilot in World War I
and worked as a press officer at the German
Embassy in London in the 1930s, as well as a
reporter for a German news agency. In 1935 he
began working for the British intelligence service
MI5 and became a British citizen, thus avoiding
internment or deportation during the war (Peter
Wright mentions in his book Spycatcher that Klop
was possibly the spy known as U35; Ustinov says in
his autobiography that his father hosted secret
meetings of senior British and German officials at
their London home). 

Peter Ustinov's mother, Nadia (Nadezhda)
Leontievna Benois, was a painter and ballet
designer of mixed Russian, France|French and
Italy|Italian ancestry (she also had Ethiopian
ancestry). Her father Leon Benois was an imperial
Russian architect and owner of Leonardo's painting
The Benois Madonna|Madonna Benois. His more famous
brother Alexandre Benois was an outstanding stage
designer who worked with Stravinsky and Diaghilev.
Their paternal ancestor Jules-César Benois was a
chef who had left France for St Petersburg during
the French Revolution and became a chef to Tsar
Paul of Russia|Paul.

Peter was educated at Westminster School and had a
difficult and uncertain childhood because of his
parents' constant bickering and personality
clashes. After training as an actor in his late
teens, he made his stage début in 1938 at the
Players' Theatre, becoming quickly established. 

Following military service as a private soldier
during World War II, during which he had made
propaganda films with actors such as David Niven,
he began to branch out into writing. His first
major success was with The Love of Four Colonels
in 1951. His career as a dramatist continued
alongside his acting career, his best-known play
being Romanoff and Juliet (1956).  His film roles
include Roman emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (1951
movie)|Quo Vadis? (1951), Captain Vere in Billy
Budd (film)|Billy Budd (1962), Lentulus Batiatus
in Spartacus (movie)|Spartacus (1960), an old man
surviving a totalitarian future in Logan's Run
(1976), and in several films as Hercule Poirot, a
part he first played in Death on the Nile (1978). 
He also worked on several films as writer and
occasionally director, including The Way Ahead
(1944), School for Secrets (1946), Hot Millions
(1968) and Memed My Hawk (1984).  His
autobiography, Dear Me (1977), was well received
and saw him describe his life (ostensibly his
childhood) whilst being interrogated by his own
ego.

He won Academy Awards|Oscars for his roles in
Spartacus (movie)|Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi
(movie)|Topkapi (1964). He also won two Golden
Globe Award|Golden Globe awards (he famously set
the Oscar and Globe statues up on his desk as if
playing doubles tennis; the game was also a love
of his life, as was ocean yachting).

In the later part of his life (from 1969 until his
death), his acting and writing tasks took second
place to his work on behalf of UNICEF - the United
Nations Children's Fund, for which he was a
Goodwill Ambassador and fundraiser. In this role
he visited some of the neediest children and made
use of his ability to make just about anybody
laugh, including many of the world's most
disadvantaged children. "Sir Peter could make
anyone laugh," UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy is quoted as saying. "His one-man show in
German was the funniest performance I have ever
seen – and I don’t speak a word of
German."

Ustinov also served as President of the World
Federalist Movement from 1991 until his death. He
once said, "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"http://www.wfm.org/IN_HOUSE/sirpeter.html.

He is most well-known to many British people as a
chat-show guest, a role to which he was ideally
suited - his multicultural background made it
possible for him to criticise the British
character with good humour. Towards the end of his
life he undertook some one-man stage shows in
which he let loose his raconteur streak - he told
the story of his life and of his frequent
alienation in British society (as just one
example, he took a test as a child which asked him
to name a Russian composer; he wrote Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov but was marked
down, told the correct answer was Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky since they had been
studying him in class, and told to stop showing
off).

He spoke English language|English, French
language|French, German language|German, Italian
language|Italian, Russian language|Russian,
Spanish language|Spanish fluently, as well as some
Turkish language|Turkish and Greek language|modern
Greek. 

In the late 1960s, he became a Switzerland|Swiss
citizen to avoid the United Kingdom|British tax
system of the time which taxed the earnings of the
wealthy at up to 90 per cent. However, he was
British honours system|knighted in 1990, and was
appointed Chancellor of the University of Durham
in 1992, having previously served as Rector of the
University of Dundee in the late 1970s (a role in
which he moved from being merely a figure-head to
taking on a political role, negotiating with
militant students).

Ustinov was a frequent defender of the People's
Republic of China|Chinese government, stating in
an address to the University of Durham in 2000,
"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."

In 2003 Durham's postgraduate college (previously
known as the Graduate Society) was renamed Ustinov
College when it moved to a new site.

He passed away in 2004 due to heart failure in a
clinic in Genolier, near his home in Bursins,
Vaud, Switzerland, and was buried in a private
ceremony in the town on Saturday April 3, 2004. He
was so well regarded as a goodwill ambassador that
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy spoke at
the funeral and represented United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

When, in an interview, he was once asked what he
would like it to read on his tomb stone|tombstone,
Ustinov replied "Please keep off the grass".

==Reference==
*http://www.wfm.org/IN_HOUSE/sirpeter.html Sir
Peter Ustinov, President of the World Federalist
Movement from 1991-2004, Dies at Age 82, World
Federalist Movement, Mar. 29, 2004.

==External links==

*imdb name|id=0001811|name=Peter Ustinov
*http://www.unicef.org/media/media_20193.html
Obituary (UNICEF)

===Critical viewpoints===
*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml
=%2Fopinion%2F2004%2F04%2F04%2Fdo0404.xml "I Can
Only Speak Ill of Sir Peter" (Telegraph article)


{| border="2" align="center"
|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Margot Fonteyn|Dame Margot Fonteyn
|width="40%" align="center"|University of
Durham|Chancellor of the University of Durham
1992–2004
|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Bill
Bryson
|}