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Originally Posted by atari 2600
Best actor in the history of cinema for his roles in that one?
I think it's up there, at the very least.
He is playing "types" but it's like he really is those different people, insofar as they can be real and more than caricatures in a black comedy of that scope.
As RAF Capt. Mandrake he is playing the sort of silly uptight Brit he grew up around. And then he's taking that guy and acting like he would in the extraordinary situation. It's comedic brilliance. As President Muffle he's playing the self-obsessed leader who is a rationalist logician. Then, as Dr. Strangelove he breathes satrical life into an over-the-top personification of authoritarian fascism. He probably told Kubrick he has to be in a wheelchair as to make him more plausible as the deeply evil Nazi half-man half-madman he portrays.
He was supposed to also play the bomber pilot later made memorable by the character actor Slim Pickens, but he broke his leg thus preventing him from doing so.
old news to some, but...:
George Martin produced a couple of Sellers comedy records before his work with The Beatles. Peter also did a cover of A Hard Day's Night. Of course this year marks the fortieth anniversary of The White Album. George and especially Ringo were friends with Sellers and Starr gave him a copy of outtakes called The Peter Sellers Tape.
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Eddie Murphy has nothing on him and Alec Guinness when it comes to portraying multiple roles in one film.
Another Beatles/Sellers connection: Ringo did play the hobo that he adopts in the Magic Christian. It's not among Sellers best films, but it does have its moments.