Peter Ustinov Trivia

1. Just a few years before World War 2 started Peter's father, "Klop", had left the German Foreign Office and put in an application to become a British citizen. Who was the person who sponsored "Klop".

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: Sir Robert Vansittart

Vansittart was Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1930 to 1938 and was strongly against the policy of appeasement created by Chamberlain's government. Jones was the head of Reuters who had refused to sponsor "Klop", the reason being that he did not want to offend the German Government; something Vansittart was more than happy to do. Beaverbrook and Halifax were members of Churchill's war cabinet.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Delivering mail from British prisoners of war to the allied lines

The uncle, whom Peter was named after, was crossing 'no-man's land' in his aeroplane to deliver post from British prisoners of war. Normally those planes which had white streamers attached to their wings were not to be fired upon. However the British anti-aircraft gunners were blinded by the sun and did not see the streamers. Peter's uncle and father had entered the German army at the start of the Great War before transferring into the Air Force.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: All three of these

From September 1939 until April 1940 the people of Britain expected the famed Nazi "Blitzkrieg" to be unleashed on them. Believing that attack was imminent many children were evacuated out of the major cities. As time went along many of these evacuees were brought back home. Meanwhile the Battle of the Atlantic and the Nazi consolidation of Poland began. It was Churchill who called this period "The Twilight War" while the Germans referred to it as "Sitzkrieg", "The Sitting War". The identity of the person who coined the phrase "The Phony War" is not truly known though it has been attributed to an American senator called William Borah.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Emperor Paul I

Originally from a village in France Jules-Cesar became an apprentice pastry cook instead of the family trade of being a schoolmaster in the village. He started the ladder to greatness by being the pastry cook to the Duc de Montmorency. After emigrating to the Netherlands, in the company of the Duc, they both then went to St. Petersburg and parted company. Jules became chef de cuisine to the Dutch Legation before becoming Maitre de Bouche to the Emperor Paul I of Russia. Ustinov compares the Russian Emperor to Nero though some historians and much more kinder to his memory. The Emperor, like Nero, was a target of assassins and was killed in his bedroom after he refused to abdicate.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Oxo

Oxo is a brand of stock cubes used in the UK. Like Bovril it can be made into a beef tea. According to Peter he was able to say Oxo at the age of nine months while travelling on top of a double-deck bus as he was passing by Victoria Station in London.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: David Niven

Both Burton and MacNee served with the British Royal Navy whilst Hawkins served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, though he spent some of his time producing entertainment shows for the troops serving in India.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: A parrot

As a child Peter was in the care of a succession of nurses who turned out to be highly unsuitable to look after an infant. One of these nurses, a twenty-something Irish girl, used to leave Peter in his pram outside a house while she went into the basement for an assignation. To keep the child quiet he was given the company of a parrot in a cage. The parrot did what parrots do and imitated the child and the child, being a child, imitated the parrot. After a while the nurse would return with a jaunty step and a smile on her face and returned Peter to his parents. However, Peter's mother became suspicious and had them followed and the young lady was found and dismissed.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: Jack Sharkey

The "Boston Gob" had been drinking one night during the voyage and was in the mood for a fight. In the bunk above Ustinov was an officer who had lost a leg to a land mine and was now using the latest artificial leg which had been made in the U.S.A. The one-legged officer brandished his artificial leg at the sozzled fighter who howled with fear and staggered away.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Swiss Cottage

Swiss Cottage is in the London Borough of Camden. The area received its name from a tavern called "The Swiss Tavern" which had been built in 1804. Peter's mother, Nadia, had given birth at a nursing home in Adelaide Road after arriving in the UK in 1921. She had travelled to the British Isles from St. Petersburg via Holland.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: Rispoli

Using his abilities to affect a foreign accent Peter plays the character of Rispoli, the café owner, who is caught in the middle between the British and German forces somewhere in North Africa. This film is based on Ustinov's previous offering, "The New Lot", and was released in 1944.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Haile Selassie

On a visit to England to buy some armaments Haile Selassie was invited by Peter's father, 'Klop', to dinner. The "Lion of Judah" accepted and arrived with a large retinue of staff. 'Klop' immediately contacted his employers at the German Embassy for help and a fleet of Mercedes were sent with food for the guests. To cover the lack of food until the embassy food arrived, Peter was woken up from bed and pressed upon to entertain the Ethiopian Emperor.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: Costume Designer

Peter's mother, Nadia Benois, was an accomplished artist who was born in St. Petersburg in 1896. Her many accomplishments included collaboration with Marie Rambert, and the Rambert Dance Company, in the designs for the ballet "Dark Elegies". She started her career in art under her uncle Alexander Benois who was the designer for the major Diaghilev ballets. She also had several exhibitions in Britain to showcase her paintings.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Von

Peter's full name was Peter Alexander Von Ustinov. He attended the school between the wars and received either congratulations if a German won something, or commiserations if they lost; especially if the winner was English.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: Ralph Richardson

Ralph Richardson loved motorcycles and air planes but had been known for destroying said machines resulting in the loss of several teeth which resulted in the use of some bridgework within his mouth. On the third day of filming Richardson arrived on set minus the bridgework and bellowing his hale and hearty welcome to all. However the loss of the teeth resulted in the appearance of a whistling sound coming from Richardson on certain sibilants; some that he was totally unaware of. So the 24 year old director, Peter, panicked and told the famous actor that the camera was broken, which the cameraman denied landing Peter in hot water whereupon he said that he had made a mistake because of his inexperience and that it was the sound-mixing machine which had broken down. The sound-man confirmed this as he had been on the receiving end of a number of the piercing whistles emitted by Richardson. Meanwhile the assistant director hastened to the phone to call Richardson's home to deliver the missing teeth.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Westminster

Peter attended Westminster School for a year and a half along with most of the sons from the families belonging to the Members of Parliament who were close by. One of his first tests was to debate in favour of the death penalty, something he was strongly against.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: Mein Kampf

The full title of the movie is "Mein Kampf- My Crimes" and Peter's role was that of the man charged with setting fire to the Reichstag in 1933. Marinus van der Lubbe was a Dutch communist who was charged, and executed, for the Reichstag fire. He received a pardon from the German authorities in 2008.

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Early Years

Answer: Von Ribbentrop

Originally young Rudolf Von Ribbentrop had been meant to enter the hallowed halls of Eton. However, Eton refused to have him and he was enrolled in Westminster School instead. Peter describes him as "an overgrown and shy fellow with glasses, reddish hair and freckles, who kept to himself." On arrival at the school both Rudolf and his chauffeur had a quick discussion and then gave the Nazi salute and shouted "Heil Hitler".

From Quiz Peter Ustinov: The Middle Years

Answer: House of Regrets

The play centres on the lives of Russian émigrés living in wartime London. All the answers are plays written by Peter; the most successful of his plays was "The Love of Four Colonels".

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