Born in London to White Russian parents, writer, director, and playwright,
Peter Ustinov was educated at Gibbs's Preparatory School and Westminster
School, and graduated to the London Theatre Studio. He first appeared
on stage in 1938. He made his screen début in a short film, Hullo
Fame (1940), and the 22-year-old Ustinov appeared in his first feature
film as a Dutch priest in Powell and Pressburger's One
of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942). In the Will
Hay comedy The
Goose Steps Out (1942), he played a German youth again taught by
Hay that a V-sign to Hitler is the supreme form of salute.
After military service during WWII, Ustinov penned his first screenplay,
The True Glory
(1945). The successful light-hearted thriller School for Secrets (1946)
was the first of several films written and directed by Ustinov, quickly
followed by a film version of F. Anstey's Vice-Versa
(1948). He garnered international acclaim for his gloating Nero in Quo
Vadis? (1951), which admirably combined suspense and lurid humour. It
started his most successful period as a screen actor, appearing in such
films as the French Resistance biopic Odette
(1950), Beau Brummell (1954) and We're No Angels (1954).
Subsequently, Ustinov won two Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards
for his portrayal of slave-trader Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (1960)
and as the duped con man in Topkapi (1964). He went on to appear in
more of his own plays in such films as Romanoff and Juliet (1961), a
laudable version of Herman Melville's Billy
Budd (1962) and Lady L (1966). Beginning with Death on the Nile
(1978), he has played Agatha Christie's Belgium sleuth Hercule Poirot,
a role he again essayed in Evil Under the Sun (1982) and Appointment
with Death (1988). In latter years he established a considerable reputation
as a raconteur and was an ambassador for charity Unicef. Ustinov was
appointed CBE in 1975, and knighted in 1990.
