Peter Alexander Ustinov (London, 16 April 1921) is an English actor, writer, dramatist, filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster, and television presenter.
Ustinov served as a private in the British Army during World War II, including time spent as batman to David Niven while writing the Niven film "The Way Ahead". He also appeared in propaganda films, debuting in "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" (1942), in which he was required to deliver lines in English, Latin, and Dutch. In 1944 under the auspices of ENSA, he presented and performed the role of Sir Anthony Absolute, in Sheridan's "The Rivals", with Dame Edith Evans, at the Larkhill Camp theater.
After the war, he began writing; his first major success was with the play "The Love of Four Colonels" (1951). He starred with Humphrey Bogart and Aldo Ray in "We're No Angels" (1955). His career as a dramatist continued, his best-known play being "Romanoff and Juliet" (1956). His film roles include Roman emperor Nero in "Quo Vadis" (1951), Lentulus Batiatus in "Spartacus" (1960), Captain Vere in "Billy Budd" (1962), and an old man surviving a totalitarian future in "Logan's Run" (1976). Ustinov voiced the anthropomorphic lions Prince John and King Richard in the 1973 Disney animated film "Robin Hood". 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).
In half a dozen films, he played Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot, first in "Death on the Nile" (1978) and then in 1982's "Evil Under the Sun". Ustinov won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in "Spartacus" (1960) and "Topkapi" (1964). He also won one Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor for the film "Quo Vadis" (he set the Oscar and Globe statuettes up on his desk as if playing doubles tennis; the game was a love of his life, as was ocean yachting). Between 1952 and 1955, he starred with Peter Jones in the BBC radio comedy "In All Directions", and his autobiography, "Dear Me" (1977), was well received and had him describe his life (ostensibly his childhood) while being interrogated by his own ego, with forays into philosophy, theatre, fame, and self-realisation.