A Couple of Anecdotes Peter Ustinov Told Me by Tony Piazza

  

 

  Sir Peter Ustinov

   Sir PETER USTINOV…actor, author, and man of too many other accomplishments to fully do him justice here. I took this photograph (below) just before a personal introduction we were given him during a reception in San Francisco back in the early 1990’s.

  During that visit he told us anecdotes about some of the actors that he worked with. Two of them particularly stand out in my mind. One had to do with CHARLES LAUGHTON. He was a house guest of the Ustinov’s and came down to breakfast one morning with pink curlers in his hair. Promptly at his appearance, one of Peter’s children spoke out and asked (to Ustinov’s embarrassment), “Who the lady was?”

   Charles Laughton in “Witness for the Prosecution”

   As some of you mystery fans know, he played Poirot in both motion picture and television movies. This second story has to do with that.  When he was going to do “Death on the Nile” he was introduced to Dame Agatha Christie’s daughter Rosalind as Poirot, in which she responded, “You are NOT Poirot!” To which he replied, “I am now, Madame!”

Sir Peter Ustinov as Poirot

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  Tony Piazza is author of the 1930s Hollywood murder mystery novel; “Anything Short of Murder,” which had its roots on the TCM fan website. His newest novel, “The Curse of the Crimson Dragon” was just released January of this year. He was an actor/extra during the 1970’s and worked with such legends as Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Karl Malden.