9/1/2004
Sir Peter Ustinov

Actor, director, author, playwright, raconteur – the list is endless. Another, perhaps less well-known, achievement must be added to the accomplishments of this international Renaissance man – UNICEF campaigner.

Born in London of French, Russian and German extraction, Peter Ustinov's early life pointed the way to his chosen paths – at four he was an accomplished mimic. One of his defining experiences, along with many of his generation, was service during the Second World War. As a result of his army service, Ustinov developed a mistrust of the ‘military mind' and a scepticism of national agendas and power politics. These themes underpin a great deal of his subsequent work, particularly his plays. As a playwright Ustinov has brought a blend of reality-fantasy mixing the political with the comical and the international with the local, and biting satire dressed as gentle humour. An early example is his play set in post-war occupied Berlin, the Love of Four Colonels. Another is his interpretation of the Shakespeare classic but set against the absurdities of the Cold War, Romanoff and Juliet. He is famous to a later audience for his film portrayals as Agatha Christie's Belgian detective with the over-active “little grey cells”, Hercule Poirot. As to his own prodigious talents, he has observed that one career relaxes him from another. With a more serious edge he also maintains that he acts to make a living and writes, “because I must”.

The soubriquet “citizen of the world” might have been coined for Ustinov. Operating from his base in Switzerland he has appeared in movies, directed plays and opera, presented television programmes and commentated on the state of the planet for well over fifty years. He has always been a passionate advocate of peace, which, he maintains, he has tried to preach through what he terms the “gift of laughter”. A brilliant observer of the human condition with a unique gift of noting matters of the utmost gravity with humour and light-heartedness, Ustinov has endeared himself to young and old all over the world.