Peter Sellers and his terrifying phobia of the colour purple
Peters Sellers has been a star almost from the very moment he was born. This is no exaggeration, as a two-week-old infant, Sellers, the son of variety entertainers, was brought on stage by music hall comedian Dick Henderson. The audience sang ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’, and the baby Sellers began to cry.
That was just the beginning, and Sellers travelled with his parents and performed in countless variety shows as a child, a situation which caused him a lot of unrest. Despite his father lacking faith in the young boy’s talents, he began to develop strong improvisational skills at school, with his friend Bryan Cannon recalling that Sellers would “do all the radio personalities and chuck in a few voices of his own invention as well“.
Later, Sellers ended up practising the drums in his spare time as a teenager, which led him to play in a series of jazz combos. From here, he joined the ENSA, which provided entertainment for factory workers and the British Forces during World War II. During this time, Sellers would perform comedy routines.
Shortly after the war, Sellers auditioned for the BBC and eventually became a frequent radio performer. This led to his breakthrough, performing with Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe in The Goon Show. Before he knew it, Sellers found success in the film industry, starring in the likes of The Pink Panther, Lolita, and Only Two Can Play, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA. He continued this success into the following years, which saw him take the lead role in Stanley Kubrick’s now-iconic movie Dr. Strangelove.
Yet despite Sellers’ successful 30-year film career, his life off-stage was much more turbulent. He was known for his explosive behaviour and abusive tendencies. For example, in 1962, he asked his children Michael and Sarah, “who we love more, our mother or him. Sarah, to keep the peace, said, ‘I love you both equally’. I said, ‘No, I love my mum.'” Sellers kicked his children out of the house in a rage.
It has also been said in a TIME article that “he had a talent for abuse, threatening his wives with tantrums, crockery-crashing and brandishing shotguns”.
With that, more stories began to emerge. He wasn’t the best of actors to work with, as suggested by Billy Wilder, who, upon hearing that Sellers had suffered eight heart attacks over the course of three hours, declared: “You have to have a heart before you can have an attack.”
One of Sellers’ many peculiarities was his preoccupation with superstitions, which often caused him to get violently angry. He was not a fan of the colour green and refused to wear it or even act with those who were wearing it. However, his hatred for purple was even stronger. Italian director Vittorio De Sica declared: “It’s the colour of death!” and Sellers was deeply affected by this claim and would not go near anything purple. He was convinced that purple could kill, so he refused to be in the same room as anything of that colour.
If Sellers came into contact with the colour, he would have screaming tantrums, which led his publicists to search his hotel rooms beforehand to remove anything purple.
