in
Quo Vadis (1951) Ustinov appeared in
White Cargo at the
Aylesbury Rep in 1939, where he performed in a different accent every night. He served as a
private in the
British Army during the Second World War, including time spent as
batman to
David Niven while writing the Niven film
The Way Ahead. The difference in their ranksNiven was a
lieutenant-colonel and Ustinov a privatemade their regular association militarily impossible; to solve the problem, Ustinov was appointed as Niven's batman. 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
Entertainments National Service Association, he presented and performed the role of Sir Anthony Absolute, in
Sheridan's The Rivals, with
Dame Edith Evans, at the theatre in
Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, England. 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, one of his successful plays being Romanoff and Juliet (1956). His film roles include Roman emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (1951), Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (1960), Captain Blackbeard in the Disney film Blackbeard's Ghost (1968), 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
Appointment with Death (1988) 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, 1985's
Thirteen at Dinner (TV movie), 1986's ''
Dead Man's Folly'' (TV movie), 1986's
Murder in Three Acts (TV movie), and 1988's
Appointment with Death. '' (1960) ,
Charles Chaplin, and Ustinov in 1965 Ustinov won Academy Awards for
Best Supporting Actor for his roles in
Spartacus (1960) and
Topkapi (1964). He also won a 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). Ustinov was also the winner of three Emmys and one Grammy and was nominated for two Tony Awards. During the 1960s, with the encouragement of
Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed several operas, including
Puccini's
Gianni Schicchi,
Ravel's ''
L'heure espagnole'',
Schoenberg's
Erwartung, and
Mozart's
The Magic Flute. Further demonstrating his great talent and versatility in the theatre, Ustinov later undertook set and costume design for
Don Giovanni. In 1962 he adapted
Louis O. Coxe and
Robert H. Chapman's critically successful Broadway play
Billy Budd into a film; penning the screenplay, producing, directing, and starring as Captain Vere. In 1968, he was elected the first
rector of the University of Dundee and served two consecutive three-year terms. 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. From 1969 until his death, his acting and writing took second place to his work on behalf of
UNICEF, for which he was a goodwill ambassador and fundraiser. In this role, he visited some of the neediest children and made use of his ability to make people laugh, including many of the world's most disadvantaged children. "Sir Peter could make anyone laugh", UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy is quoted as saying. On 31 October 1984, Ustinov was due to interview
Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi for
Irish television. She was
assassinated on her way to the meeting. Ustinov served as president of the
World Federalist Movement (WFM) from 1991 until his death. He once said, "World government is not only possible, it is inevitable, and when it comes, it will appeal to patriotism in its truest, in its only sense, the patriotism of men who love their national heritages so deeply that they wish to preserve them in safety for the common good". He was the subject of
This Is Your Life on two occasions, in November 1977 when he was surprised by
Eamonn Andrews at
Pinewood Studios on the set of
Death on the Nile. He was surprised again in December 1994, when
Michael Aspel approached him at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva. A car enthusiast since the age of four, he owned a succession of interesting machines ranging from a
Fiat Topolino, several
Lancias, a
Hispano-Suiza, a
preselector gearbox Delage, and a special-bodied
Jowett Jupiter. He made records like Phoney Folklore that included the song of the Russian peasant "whose tractor had betrayed him" and his "Grand Prix of Gibraltar" was a vehicle for his creative wit and ability at car-engine sound effects and voices. He spoke English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Russian fluently, as well as some Turkish and modern Greek. He was proficient in accents and dialects in all his languages. Ustinov provided his own German and French dubbing for some of his roles, both of them for ''
Lorenzo's Oil. As Hercule Poirot, he provided his own voice for the French versions of Thirteen at Dinner, Dead Man's Folly, Murder in Three Acts, Appointment with Death, and Evil under the Sun, but unlike Jane Birkin, who had dubbed herself in French for this film and Death on the Nile
, Ustinov did not provide his voice for the latter (his French voice being provided by Roger Carel, who had already dubbed him in Spartacus
and other films). He dubbed himself in German as Poirot only in Evil under the Sun'' (his other Poirot roles being undertaken by three actors). However, he provided only his English and German voices for
Disney's
Robin Hood and
NBC's
Alice in Wonderland. In the 1960s, he became a Swiss resident. He was
knighted in 1990 and was appointed
chancellor of
Durham University in 1992, having previously been elected as the first
rector of the
University of Dundee in 1968 (a role in which he moved from being merely a figurehead to taking on a political role, negotiating with student protesters). Ustinov was re-elected to the post for a second three-year term in 1971, narrowly beating
Michael Parkinson after a disputed recount. He received an honorary doctorate from the
Vrije Universiteit Brussel. , Berlin 2003 Ustinov was a frequent defender of the Chinese government, stating in an address to Durham University in 2000, "People are annoyed with the Chinese for not respecting more human rights. But with a population that size it's very difficult to have the same attitude to human rights." In 2003, Durham's postgraduate college (previously known as the Graduate Society) was renamed
Ustinov College. Ustinov went to
Berlin on a UNICEF mission in 2002 to visit the circle of
United Buddy Bears that promote a more peaceful world between nations, cultures, and religions for the first time. He was determined to ensure that
Iraq would also be represented in this circle of about 140 countries. Ustinov also presented and narrated the official video review of the
1987 Formula One season and narrated the documentary series
Wings of the Red Star. In 1988, he hosted a live television broadcast entitled
The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper. Ustinov gave his name to the Foundation of the
International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their
Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award, given annually to a young television screenwriter. ==Personal life==