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Movies: Peter Sellers To Play Four Roles in “Dr. Strangelove”

Mar. 6, 1963 - Stanley Kubrick (left) is apparently determined to get his money’s worth out of Peter Sellers (right), whom he cast in three roles in “Lolita.” Mr. Sellers is playing four people in “Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” — a German nuclear expert; a Texan, pilot of an H-bomber; an RAF group captain; and President of the United States. The three other principals — with only one role apiece — are George C. Scott, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Sterling Hayden (who acted for Kubrick in “The Killing”), a psychotic Air Force general who presses the button for World War III, and Keenan Wynn, a battalion commander “who loves to carry out orders.” The nutty general unleashes his wing of B-52 bombers on Russia. The President, unable to recall the aircraft, is forced to cooperate with the Soviet Premier “in a bizarre attempt to save the world.” The most elaborate set, at Shepperton Studios outside London, is the “war room” of the Pentagon, in which the President presides at a huge circular table and studies a wall of critical electronic maps.

© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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