July 24: On This Day in World History … briefly
Following Sellers's death, fellow actor Richard Attenborough said that Sellers 'had the genius comparable to Chaplin', while the Boulting brothers considered Sellers as 'a man of enormous gifts, and these gifts he gave to the world.'
1980: Funny man Peter Sellers dies from a heart attack
British comic actor Peter Sellers dies at the age of 55 in a London hospital after suffering a massive heart attack. Sellers had stopped over in London for a reunion supper with fellow ‘Goons’ Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe en route to Los Angeles where he was to undergo an important heart operation.
He began his 30-year career as a comic on radio, starring in ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ and most famously, ‘The Goon Show’. International stardom beckoned when he made the transition to the big screen in the late 50s.
The Inspector Clouseau films ‘The Pink Panther’ and ‘A Shot in the Dark’ brought him a steady stream of lucrative screen roles.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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