Peter Sellers renowned for his comic skills in the “Pink Panther” series, as well as “The Mouse that Roared“, “Dr. Strangelove” and most notably in Being There is admired in a recent biography. Though reviews suggest it skips over what a monster he was in reality. He married four times; had four children, including one illegitimate daughter he never met. Once during a marital fight, he tried to kill a puppy. Haunted by death he took drugs to enhance sex and abused his friends, even writing his children out of his will. In the industry he was known as impossibly difficult and “basically not a nice man.”
He was born 8 September 1925 6am (memory) Southsea, England, the only child of variety-show troupers and grew up in theatrical boarding houses. He was close to his overbearing mother. He started in vaudeville, and moved into variety shows, radio The Goon Show and into the movies.
John Mortimer once described him as “a man who stood empty, waiting to be inhabited by other people”. Which he played to perfection in Being There as Chauncey Gardiner, a simple gardener who copies behaviour glimpsed on television screens.
His Sun Mars in Virgo (like Dorothy Parker) sat at one angle of a Half Grand Sextile with a pushily confident Jupiter in Capricorn opposition Pluto, sextile/trine Saturn in Scorpio. Talented, arrogant, stubborn, sharp-tongued. His Taurus Moon was square a 12th house Neptune Mercury, trine his Sun Mars and on one leg of a yod sextile Uranus inconjunct Venus – he’d be indulgent, stubborn, addictive-prone, escapist, head-in-the-clouds, evasive.
He had a second yod onto a defiant, lawless Uranus in his 7th house of relationships inconjunct Neptune sextile Venus – consistency and commitment were never his strong point. Though such a Uranus can have the capacity to act as a catalyst because of its intolerance of convention and tendency to cause disruptions. He had planets in all three Water signs and all three Earth signs – too wide for Grand Trines but still giving him a balance of creative and practical energy.
Sellers always sticks in mind from a comment in an astrology book about harmonics about his 13H chart. 13 in numerology is ascribed to breakthrough genius – which would mirror his Uranus on a yod – but is also associated with not having a strong sense of identity. His 13H has a Sun, Moon, Saturn conjunction square Jupiter – essentially depressed but given to highs as well. There was also a Pluto Uranus opposition Midheaven square Mars combining his disruptive streak with more than a touch of cruelty.
ADD ON: Robin Williams, 21 July 1951 1.34 pm Chicago, Illinois, had an upbeat 9th house Cancer Sun sextile Saturn in Virgo; with an emphasized zany, unpredictable, explosive Uranus Mars in Cancer on the point of a T square to Jupiter opposition Neptune. His sensitive Pisces Moon opposed Venus in Virgo giving him a sweet-natured feel. His Moon was also trine his overly excitable Mars Uranus.
His chart does not reflect depression so much as an over-stretched and chaotic nervous system.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZTfr0G7dc8”
Rod Serling’s 1964 version of A Carole for Another Christmas, with Peter Sellers. Ran on ABC back in the day, B&W only.
I watched a bbc documentary about his life. It may have been ‘Peter Sellers: A State of Comic Ecstasy’, but I remember Britt Eckland describing their marriage, the painful devaluation when he tired of her and how he had a kind of shrine to his dead mother in their bedroom placed on a table right next to the marital bed!
Following one row in which she (understandingly) had reached boiling point, she destroyed the shrine, sending the flowers, mementoes and photographs of his adored Jewish mother, Agnes to the ground, glass shattering everywhere. Sellers, mortified immediately fell to the ground, grappling to retrieve every fragment of broken glass. At that point, Britt Eckland realises the full dysfunction of this man and his inability to love a real, living woman. One interpretation of Venus/Pluto – shades of Freud’s Eros and Thanatos?
Sellers lost his mother in 1967. Saturn that year entered Aries, opposing his Sun/Mars and Venus midpoint and the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo of the time had crossed over that Sun/Mars. It was obviously a devastating blow for him. But boy, do I feel sorry for his wives – how could they ever be anything but second fiddle to this woman?
Always think of him as the negative image of the lovely Robin Williams. Never found PS funny just odd and sinister (esp in Dr Strangelove which is a brilliant movie thanks his triple performance playing largely aspects of himself….)but you can see the depression and sadism in the eyes. Unlike RW who has depression/despair writ large even in Mork and Mindy. Sorry no astro although i bet they have some shared things.
Seller’s Half Grand Sextile is also called the Cradle. It is motivated towards
security & stabiliity. The Red opposition acts like a protective barrier behind
which Sellers can hide. With two small Talent Triangles, the talent is there
to be tapped into & developed. One has to overcome their fear of falling out
of the Cradle into the empty space of the chart. One’s task is to leave the
security of the Cradle, go into the empty space and creatively express their
inherent talent.
https://ibb.co/gSBjBZk
He is quite a study of professional success vs an emotionally turbulent life offscreen. Perhaps his natal Venus-Pluto square is a factor in both; with his self-worth positively emphasized, appreciated, and validated onscreen and, negatively, with his self-ish focus and lack of control in relationship dynamics. Britt Ekland suggested he was bipolar – and Pluto certainly can be a marker for deep psychological issues or pathology.
There is a film about his life. The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers. I think. It was a real study of some sort of identity crisis he had. It is a strong study of disorder of personality. Peter Sellers is portrayed with Brit Ekland I think. They were having a relationship or were married. The beginning was that idealised phase. Peter Sellers is then shown suddenly turning. It is called the devaluation phase I think. What powerful extremes as he bored of her. She was such a pretty and kind woman. There is study of the enmeshed I think it is called relation with his mother. Peter Sellers switches into his mother in a dialogue at the funeral. It is disturbing and really interesting. I do like Peter Sellers’ films. Actors maybe do have this search for identity. But maybe it is more human condition too. Interesting chart. He was Virgo. I read a clever article somewhere about how Virgos run steadily then suddenly every now and then go off the rails. That can be drugs or sex or some sort of over the top event. The article I read said it was Virgo is The Virgin and the events of going off the rails at regular intervals of Virgo are some sort of cathartic re-birth back into The Virgin. The Virgin was meant more like the earth the soil nature balance of universe. Thanks for the articles Marjorie. Interesting.