Few actors in the history of cinema have matched the chameleonic brilliance of Peter Sellers. Born in Southsea, England, in 1925, Sellers rose to fame in the 1950s through BBC Radio’s The Goon Show, where his vocal range and character work earned him a cult following. But it was on the big screen where he truly made his mark, not just as a comedian, but as an actor of astonishing depth and versatility.
Sellers wasn’t content to play the straight man or the clown. He embodied his characters so fully, often vanishing completely into their quirks, voices, and eccentricities, that audiences sometimes forgot they were watching the same person from one film to the next. From the bumbling genius of Inspector Clouseau to the eerie stillness of Chauncey Gardiner, and the deranged brilliance of Dr. Strangelove, Sellers could be subtle or outrageous, tragic or absurd, sometimes all at once.
Here, we rank his ten greatest performances according to Rotten Tomatoes audience rating.