You’ll see below the 11 minute interview actor Paul Mescal had with Paul McCartney today on amazon.com.
It’s a cute plug since Mescal is playing the Beatle in four films coming in April 2028.
In the interview, McCartney mentions “an actor named Peter Ustinov.” Mescal had no idea what he was talking about. He’s young, he’ll learn. He just found out about Shakespeare!
So who was Peter Ustinov? I was lucky enough to know him. He was a great British actor, but also a hilarious, erudite writer and filmmaker. You couldn’t make it through a meal without collapsing in laughter. His memoir is called “Dear Me.”
Peter won TWO Oscars, for Supporting Actor in “Topkapi” and “Spartacus.” He had one other nomination, for “Qup Vadis,” and one for writing the screenplay for a film called “Hot Millions” in 1969.
A few weeks ago I ran into David Letterman at the opening of Lorne Michaels’ documentary I reminded him of the time, 40 years ago this fall, when I brought Peter to his show on NBC. He was promoting a book for UNICEF. Producer Bob Morton asked if Peter would be agreeable to the following: during the show, it would look like the stage was turning upside down, rotating a full 360 degrees. When Peter came on, he’d have to pretend that he was hanging on to the deskn.
Of course, Peter said Yes. He did it, and it was brilliant. The clip is below.
I urge Paul Mescal and everyone else to see Peter’s movies and read his books. There’s no one like him now, and we are the poorer for it.
