Sir Peter Ustinov

A Much-Missed Entertainer

Peter Ustinov was a writer, actor, director, raconteur and more, who delighted audiences on stage, television and film with his ready wit and larger-than-life character.

He was born on 16th April 1921 in London, the only child of Jona von Ustinow and his wife Nadezhda. His ancestry was extremely mixed, including Russian, German and French, and his parents had arrived in England from Russia not long before he was born. His father had been a journalist, but later worked as an intelligence officer for the British government.

Peter was educated at Westminster School but did not do well, and his mother enrolled him at a drama school at the age of 16, having been impressed by his early talent as a mimic. He obtained several minor parts in repertory theatre.

He was married in 1940 to Isolde Denham, the daughter of an actor, when both bride and groom were 19. World War II had broken out, and many such marriages took place when the man was on the verge of going away to fight and might never return.

In Ustinov’s case, the war presented an opportunity to develop his career as a playwright, his first full-length play being written while he was an infantry private. He spent much of the war producing films for propaganda and recruitment purposes, the most substantial being “The Way…