60 Years Ago, Peter Sellers Got Into a Fistfight With His ‘Casino Royale’ Director Over Orson Welles
· Vice
Pink Panther star Peter Sellers was well-known for his erratic behavior. Director Joe McGrath witnessed it firsthand while working with Sellers on the 1967 James Bond parody Casino Royale. The film was a troubled production as it was, but Sellers’s conduct behind the scenes didn’t serve to help matters any. According to McGrath, the problem stemmed from Sellers’s jealousy of his co-star, Orson Welles.
As McGrath explained in a recent interview with Boisdale Life, things started to go wrong after Sellers invited Queen Elizabeth II’s sister, Princess Margaret, to lunch while Casino Royale was in production in 1966. When Margaret arrived, she reportedly walked right over to Welles, who was also in attendance, and snubbed Sellers. Margaret sat between Sellers and Welles the entire time she was there, but only spoke to Welles. This infuriated Sellers, and he vowed never to talk to Welles again.
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Peter Sellers (Allegedly) Punched a Director After Princess Margaret Snubbed Him for Orson Welles
The next day, McGrath had a falling out with Sellers over the Welles incident. Having requested Welles be in the movie in the first place, Sellers was now refusing to do any scenes with him. McGrath told Sellers he was acting like a spoiled child and, without hesitation, Sellers punched the director in the face. McGrath countered with a punch of his own, and was dismissed from the production at Sellers’s request; Sellers walked away from the film without completing his scenes in May 1966.
McGrath would later be the recipient of the only apology letter Sellers ever wrote in his lifetime. Shortly before his death in 1980, Sellers confided in McGrath that he’d never apologized to anyone else. “Please promise me you’ll never print it,” Sellers asked him during one of their last encounters. “I’m keeping my promise, I’m not printing it,” said McGrath of their agreement, “but Peter never said don’t tell anyone.”
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