CAUSE: At 6am on August 30, Jean rose naked, wrapped herself in a blanket, picked up two months’ supply of barbiturates she had recently collected from the chemist, a bottle of mineral water and her car keys. She drove her white Renault (licence plate 334 APK 75) to the Rue du Général Appert, climbed into the back seat, swallowed the pills, pulled the blanket over her head and laid down to die. She was 40. On September 8, 1979, her decaying body was discovered by police. Jean’s car had been parked around the corner from her home for ten days. One of the first journalists to arrive at the scene noted: “It wasn’t a pretty sight. The car doors were the sort that close hermetically, so the body had literally baked in the sun for ten days. The odour was unimaginably foul. It just seemed to hang in the warm summer air for hours.” It was only when her body was taken to a morgue that a note was discovered clutched in her hand. It was written in French and addressed to her son, Diego. It read:
Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves. Understand me. I know that you can and you know that I love you.
Be strong.
Your loving mother,
Jean
On September 14, she was buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. By a strange coincidence, Romain Gary was also to die by his own hand. On December 2, 1980, he blew his brains out with a Smith & Wesson.38. A note was found by his body. It read in part: “No connection with Jean Seberg. Lovers of broken hearts are kindly asked to look elsewhere.”
FURTHER READING: Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story – David Richards (New York: Playboy Paperbacks, 1982).
Sir Harry Secombe, CBE
Born September 8, 1921
Died April 11, 2001
‘Sir Cumference’. Born in a council house near the Swansea docks Harry Donald Secombe had six brothers and sisters, was the son of a commercial traveller, and was constantly ill as a child and bullied. He compensated by finding humour in most things. In 1938 (adding two years to his age) he joined 132 Field Regiment, RA (a Territorial Regiment) and then in 1939 was called up to the Royal Artillery. In 1944 while serving, he met Lance Bombardier Spike Milligan on a battlefield in Italy. Secombe remembered, “ A gun came flying over a cliff, missing us by a few feet. This man appeared and said, ‘Has anyone seen a gun?’ It was Spike Milligan.” Following demob in April 1946, Secombe began working among the nudes at the Windmill. He then joined the BBC’s Variety Bandbox on radio. On May 28, 1951, he, Peter Sellers (with whom he shared a birthday), Milligan and Michael Bentine created The Goon Show, a radio series that ran on the BBC for some seven years. Years later Bentine recalled being buttonholed by a customer who asked how they managed to formulate the “psychological and sociological” impact of the show. “We were all pissed,” he replied. In 1963, at the Saville Theatre, Secombe created the title role in the musical Pickwick, which ran for two and a half years in London, with a further run in America. He began making films from the late-Forties but his first major role was a second-rate vaudeville comedian in the 1957 Ealing movie Davy. Secombe’s films included Svengali (1954) and Song Of Norway (1970). In 1968 he played Mr Bumble the beadle in Carol Reed’s Oliver!. He hosted the religious programme Highway for 10 years from 1983 on Sunday evenings. In 1948, Harry married Myra Atherton, a Swansea girl. They had two sons, Andrew and David, and two daughters, Katy and Jennifer. Harry’s brother, the Rev Fred Secombe, conducted the wedding ceremony.
CAUSE: Harry Secombe became a diabetic in 1980 after an operation for a perforated colon, caused by diverticulitis. He was found to have prostate cancer in 1998, and had a stroke in 1999. He died aged 79 in Guildford Hospital, Surrey, from the cancer.
Peter Sellers, CBE
(RICHARD HENRY SELLARS)
Born September 8, 1925
Died July 24, 1980
Troubled comedian. Peter Sellers was born, an only child, at 20 Southsea Terrace, Southsea, Hampshire, four years to the day after fellow Goon Sir Harry Secombe. One of his ancestors was the fighter Daniel Mendoza. Sellers was born a year after his brother died in infancy. The first child had been called Peter Sellars and when Richard Henry was born, virtually as a replacement, he was immediately named Peter. Sellers’ mother was Jewish and his father, Bill Sellars (sic) (d. October 1962), a Protestant but he was educated at a Roman Catholic school, leaving at 14 to become a back room boy in various theatres. He then decided he wanted to be a drummer in a jazz band. Like most Jewish mothers, Agnes ‘Peg’ Sellers (b. 1895, d. February 1967) was extremely solicitous about her son’s welfare and even tried to have him disqualified from military service on medical grounds. The 5́ 9˝ Sellers joined the RAF and was sent to the entertainment section, where he appeared with Ralph Reader’s Gang Show. Following demob he landed a job in 1948 by using his impressionistic skills to fool a BBC producer into thinking he was talking to Kenneth Horne. He appeared on a number of radio shows before the show that made his name, The Goon Show, which started on May 28, 1951, and ran for nine years. Fellow Goon Spike Milligan opined: “He was not a genius, Sellers, he was a freak.” He also began making films in this period including Penny Points To Paradise (1951) as The Major/Arnold Fringe, Let’s Go Crazy (1951) as Groucho/Giuseppe/Cedric/Izzy/ Gozzunk/Crystal Jollibottom, Down Among The Z Men (1952) as Major Bloodnok, Orders Are Orders (1954) as Private Goffin and Our Girl Friday but came to fame in The Ladykillers (1955) as Harry – Mr Robinson. Then came another set of poor films such as John And Julie as Police Constable Diamond, The Smallest Show On Earth (1957) as Percy Quill, The Naked Truth (1957) as Sonny MacGregor, Insomnia Is Good For You (1957) as Hector Dimwiddle, Up The Creek (1958) as Chief Petty Officer Doherty, tom thumb (1958) as Tony and The Mouse That Roared (1959) as Tully Bascombe/Grand Duchess Gloriana XII/Prime Minister Count Mountjoy. Spike Milligan’s award-winning The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959) brought Sellers a certain amount of praise but it was I’m All Right Jack (1959) as Fred Kite/Sir John Kennaway that won him international fame. Then came Carlton-Browne Of The F.O. (1959) as Prime Minister Amphibulos, The Battle Of The Sexes (1959) as Mr Martin, Two Way Stretch (1960) as Dodger Lane and The Millionairess (1960) as Dr Ahmed el Kabir during which time he had an affair (and a Top 5 hit – ‘Goodness Gracious Me’) with co-star Sophia Loren. He starred in and directed Mr Topaze (1961) as Auguste Topaze and played Pearly Gates in The Wrong Arm Of The Law (1962). He appeared in Lolita (1962) as Clare Quilty and Waltz Of The Toreadors (1962) as General Leo Fitzjohn but then his career took off meteorically with The Pink Panther (1963) in which he played the part of the bumbling, ineffectual Inspector Jacques Clouseau. A sequel, A Shot In The Dark (1964), proved almost as popular and then Sellers appeared in Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964) as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake/President Merkin Muffley/Dr Strangelove for which he was nominated for an Oscar and What’s New, Pussycat (1965) as Dr Fritz Fassbender but then his career stalled. He appeared in a succession of duff or second-rate films including The Wrong Box (1966) as Doctor Pratt, Casino Royale (1967) as Evelyn Tremble, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968) as Harold Fine, The Magic Christian (1969) as Sir Guy Grand, Hoffman (1970) as Benjamin Hoffman, There’s A Girl In My Soup (1970) as Robert Danvers, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (1972) as the March Hare, Where Does It Hurt? (1972) as Albert T. Hopfnagel and Soft Beds And Hard Battles (1973) as General Latour/Major Robinson/Herr Schroeder/Adolf Hitler/The President/Prince Kyoto. It was only when he reprised the role of Inspector Clouseau in The Return Of The Pink Panther (1974) that he hit gold again. He became a millionaire as a result of the success and appeared in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), promoted to Chief Inspector Clouseau. He brought the character back again in Revenge Of The Pink Panther (1978). (Following Sellers’ death, director Blake Edwards used unseen footage to make Trail Of The Pink Panther (1982) which, perhaps deservedly, was not a success.) Sellers appeared in The Prisoner Of Zenda (1979) as Rudolf IV/Rudolf V/Syd Frewin and co-wrote the flop The Fiendish Plot Of Dr Fu Manchu (1980) as Fu Manchu/ Nayland Smith. His penulti
mate film is generally regarded to be his best. He played the bewildered Chance the gardener who achieves political greatness in Hal Ashby’s Being There (1979) for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Sellers was married four times. On September 15, 1951, at Caxton Hall, Westminster, he married RADA-educated actress Anne Hayes (b. Australia, 1930, as Anne Howe) by whom he had two children, Michael (b. London Clinic, April 2, 1954, weighing 7lb 11oz) and Sarah Jane (b. London Clinic, October 16, 1957), from whom he was often estranged. They divorced in March 1963. On February 19, 1964, at Guildford Registry Office, he married Swedish starlet Britt Ekland (b. Allmänna B.B., Stockholm, October 6, 1942, as Britt-Marie Eklund) who gave birth to his troubled daughter, Victoria (b. Welbeck Nursing Home, 27, Welbeck Street, St Marylebone, London, January 20, 1965). It was only the intercession of Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman that stopped Sellers insisting on Ekland aborting Victoria. It was remarked, rather cruelly but probably accurately, that Victoria was blessed with her father’s looks and her mother’s talent, which might explain why her life became a tabloid headline involving, drugs, prostitution and even prison. Sellers and Ekland were divorced in 1968. Ten years later, Ekland sold her story to a newspaper and moaned: “I don’t like very hairy men, which my ex-husband … is.” On August 24, 1970, Sellers married Miranda Quarry (b. 1947) but they divorced in 1974. In Paris on February 18, 1977, he married Lynne Frederick but that marriage was also on the point of dissolution when Sellers died. Regarded by many as genius, an equal number thought him certifiable. Film director Roy Boulting commented: “As a man he was abject, probably his own worse enemy, although there was plenty of competition.”
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 157