I saw Peter Ustinov in a YouTube video and I started to wonder about his life
And so I looked him up.
Want to see something complicated? From Ustinov’s Wiki page:
Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov was born at 45 Belsize Park, London, England. His father, Jona Freiherr von Ustinov, was of Russian, German, Polish, Ethiopian and Jewish descent. Ustinov’s paternal grandfather was Baron Plato von Ustinov, a Russian noble, and his grandmother was Magdalena Hall, of mixed German-Ethiopian-Jewish origin. Ustinov’s great-grandfather Moritz Hall, a Jewish refugee from Kraków and later a Christian convert and colleague of Swiss and German missionaries in Ethiopia, married into a German-Ethiopian family. Ustinov’s paternal great-great-grandparents (through Magdalena’s mother) were the German painter Eduard Zander and the Ethiopian aristocrat Court-Lady Isette-Werq of Gondar.
Ustinov’s mother, Nadezhda Leontievna Benois, known as Nadia, was a painter and ballet designer of French, German, Italian, and Russian descent. Her father, Leon Benois, was an Imperial Russian architect and owner of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Benois Madonna. Leon’s brother Alexandre Benois was a stage designer who worked with Stravinsky and Diaghilev. Their paternal ancestor Jules-César Benois was a chef who had left France for St. Petersburg during the French Revolution and became a chef to Emperor Paul I of Russia.
Plato Freiherr von Ustinov (born Platon Grigoryevich Ustinov) 1840–1918 was a Russian-born German citizen and the owner of the Hôtel du Parc (Park Hotel) in Jaffa, Ottoman Empire (now Israel).
Ustinov was born in the Russian Empire, younger brother of Mikhail Grigorievich Ustinov (the Russian consul in Hong Kong), son of Grigori Mikhailovich Ustinov (1803–1860) and wife Maria Ivanovna Panshina, paternal nephew of Mikhail Mikhailovich Ustinov (1800–1871; the Russian ambassador in Constantinople), paternal grandson of Mikhail Adrianovich Ustinov (1755–1836), a millionaire merchant from Saratov.
He was a Russian nobleman who held a manor estate in Ustinovka in today’s Balashov Raion. He travelled to the Levant after his doctors recommended its climate to heal his lung disease. On his way there, he met Peter Martin Metzler [de] (1824–1907) and his wife Dorothea, née Bauer (1831–1870), who both worked in Jaffa as Protestant missionaries for the St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission [de]. The couple earned their livelihood through several enterprises, including a steam mill, a pilgrim hostel, and trading in imported European merchandise. From mid-1861 until early 1862, Ustinov stayed in the Metzlers’ hostel, eventually becoming a financial partner in their enterprises.
There’s a great deal more at the link. But now I’ll go to Ustinov’s mother and add a bit to what we already know:
On 12 January 1889, Ustinov married Magdalena Hall (1868–1945), who had been born in Magdala on 13 April 1868, the day when British forces took the fortress by storm at the Battle of Magdala, liberating her family and others from captivity in Ethiopia. Her family had later moved to Jaffa. Her father was Moritz Hall (1838–1914), a Jew from Kraków and cannon-caster of Negus Tewodros II of Ethiopia, who was converted to Protestantism by missionaries of the St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission. Her mother was the Ethiopian court-lady Katharina Hall (1850–1932), also known as Welette-Iyesus, who was of mixed Ethiopian-German origin, the daughter of the German painter Eduard Zander (1813–1868) and court-lady Isette-Werq of Gondar, daughter of an Ethiopian general named Meqado (active before the mid-19th century).
There will be a short quiz next period. Not open-book.
A bit more about Peter Ustinov himself:
He spoke English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian fluently, as well as some Turkish and modern Greek. He was proficient in accents and dialects in all his languages. Ustinov provided his own German and French dubbing for some of his roles
As a raconteur he is simply peerless, in a category of one. Yes, a genius.
Treat yourself! (Beaucoup prominent Brits in the audience.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi1GXrLLHjs
I guess that Russo-European background was a good way to acquire a bunch of languages! How else did they do it in those days?
Looking at Ustinov’s filmography, I see that he is one of those actors whose output fell largely outside my range. “Spartacus,” “Topkapi,” and one of the Poirot films are all that I remember.
I’ve got “Le Plaisir” for the French, which has Ustinov. Maybe I’ll cue it up tonight.
Thank you Le Mot Juste for the linked video. A wonderful personality. Like comedian Victor Borge, little known by today’s millennial generation. I wonder if any realize that someday, stars like Robin Williams will suffer the same fate? The flip side of the “15 minutes of fame” coin is the slow fade into obscurity.
he was the best poirot, with suchet a close second, he had a minor role in topkapi that picaresque heist film,
Baron von Ustinov. Who knew. Sounds like a villain’s name though.
Apparently there *was* an Ethiopian in the fuel supply. (h/t WC Fields)
Out of curiosity and my affection for the arcane, I researched (that’s what we used to call “googling”) “Tewodros II of Ethiopia.” I recommend you do as well. Be prepared to find out more than you thought was possible about that felllow and his native land. When one thinks about contemporary Ethiopia, one conjures famine, poverty, internecine conflict and misery and if one is a sportsman, long distnce running. That country’s former glory and significance have, like Ustinov (who I have always found to be wonderfully good in all his movie appearances, at once usually charming yet sinister and comical at the same time) faded from memory. But what a history!
Ustinov is one of two people I’ve seen on Johnny Carson who could switch seamlessly between accents** … Ustinov was showing off, of course, but he was talking about settling on the accent for a character he was going to play, and suggested (I don’t actually recall, but it was like this) he considered a German, and started his speaking with a Geman accent… the he said (still in the accent), that he also thought about a Russian, and started speaking with a Russian accent… and then he settled on a French accent… and switched to English with a French accent***
Ustinov had a long and varied career as a character actor. One of his roles that many probably saw him in but may have forgotten was as the old man that Logan and Jessica meet in Logan’s Run.
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** The other was Clive Revell, a moderately accomplished character actor from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, though he is still alive and doing work, usually voice work — he did the voice for Jetfire in Transformers – Revenge
*** Revell used a similar example, in regards to Mathilda, a 1978 movie about a boxing kangaroo, where he ran through an English, Aussie, and Irish accent as I recall.
My favorite fun fact about Ustinov–
From 1942-46, Ustinov served with the British Army’s Royal Sussex Regiment. He was batman for David Niven, and the two became lifelong friends.
Indeed, “…a rich jewel…”
Particularly like the Plato part…
(Got to be an Aristotle in there, somewhere. Could well be, though, that he was the black sheep of the family and so De-Ustinoved….)
Hmmm….as long as we’re waxing philosophical…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzzYxTPYAcA
Ustinov said that in his travels to Russia the Russians mangled the names of the other Englishmen, but not his (they would have said it with the original Russian pronunciation, Ustinoff, rather than Yustinov, though). Ustinov was close to his Russian roots and I believe a critic of Ronald Reagan’s policies.
I remember him as the ringmaster in Max Ophuls’ “Lola Montès” and as the host of “Europe: The Mighty Continent,” a documentary series on 20th century European history — and of course, as a frequent talk show guest.
Russia had a complicated relationship with the Ottoman Empire. They were geopolitical rivals, but Russians were drawn to Constantinople and the Holy Land. That attraction to Constantinople may have been a reason some of the political difficulties, as were conflicts in the Caucasus and perhaps Russia’s rule over the Turkic peoples of Central Asia.
OK, if no one else will, I’ll just mention his character as the villain “King Tut” opposite Adam West’s Batman.
Wasnt that victor buono. His father was also an agent for MI 5 at one point
I passed a link to this blog post to Prof. Ruth Kark, who has written about Baron Ustinow:
https://www.academia.edu/49058385/Decolonising_and_Displaying_Ancient_Palestine_Baron_Plato_von_Ustinows_Collection_of_Antiquities
His Hotel du Parc is now Beit Immanuel, a Messianic (CMJ) hostel. In its history it hosted such notables as Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife, Augusta Victoria. The Baron also had a zoo and botanical garden there, in addition to a substantial collection of antiquities. Alas, the collection has scattered, although some are housed at the University of Oslo, Norway.
Another actor from decades ago, who had a really eccentric background among the Euro-interesting was Yul Brynner. I was watching a very old movie from the 1950s and got rather curious … looked him up and, oh-my. Actor, circus acrobat, singer, performer, multi-lingual … mostly Russian-Tatar and Jewish.
Curiously, over the twenty or thirty years that he was in show business … he never seemed to age. He always appeared to be the same age, vaguely thirty-ish, lean and spare.
I quite agree with Sgt. Mom’s observations about Yul Brynner, who died in 1985 at age 65 of lung cancer, which he attributed to his heavy smoking, though smoking is associated with only 10-15% of lung cancers. HPV is a major culprit in that. But his was an addictive personality, with a long struggle with opioids.
He was born in Vladivostok where his family’s home still stands, an impressive edifice despite Stalin and the USSR appropriating it. A statue of him was erected there after his death.
He shaved his head daily beginning at age 31! I had always thought he had a form of auto-immune hair loss.
I appreciate Neo bringing him to my attention as a truly remarkable man. I love Westerns, and his role in The Magificent Seven was so very strong. Terrific movie!
Re Brynner, I liked him in the original Westworld. Also saw him in The King and I, when I was a tot.
Ustinov, Brynner, and a third actor-singer with an unusual background: Theodore Bikel. Born in Vienna, trained in Mandatory Palestine, worked in the UK and the United States. The original Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” and an early champion of Bob Dylan.
Brynner and Bikel both recorded albums of Russian gypsy music in the 1950s-1960s. Bikel’s LP “Songs of a Russian Gypsy” (1958) was often on my father’s homemade hi-fi (tube amplifier, Rek-O-Kut turntable, plywood-and-concrete bass port) when we were growing up.
Cicero:
I realize that cancer is your field of expertise, but I’m wondering about that figure you gave. I thought that was the percentage of lung cancers NOT associated with smoking. I looked it up just now to check, and it does say that about 12% of lung cancer is in non-smokers. Also, in general, websites say that between 70% and 90% of all lung cancers are in smokers. It depends on the site and on the study, but it’s always the vast majority.
Could you clarify?
It also occurs to me that perhaps you meant that by no means do all smokers get lung cancer. Only somewhere between 10% and 20% do.
Neo-
Yes, I meant precisely that smokers of cigarettes (not pipe or cigar) are not all doomed to develop lung cancer. The association of cigarette smoke and lung cancer has markedly dwindled because smoking is not nearly as common as it once was. I did misstate the degree of smoking association. I meant that 10-20% lung cancers occur in never-smokers.
I’m inclined to believe that the HPV virus is causative in many cases of lung cancer, as it is in other body sites such as base of tongue, hypopharynx and esophagus.
Not quite as mysterious, but my wife is reading Hedy LaMarr’s story, “The Only Woman In The Room”
Got some Vienna in there.
Sgt Mom:
And still another actor who was more than we thought we knew about him was Kirk Douglas. Not in the same category of Ustinov and Brynner, he nevertheless came from an immigrant Jewish family, and spoke Yiddish at home. He was successful on stage and on the silver screen. On top of that he lived past 100, IIRC.
Other memorable roles:
Nero in Quo Vadis
Rupert Venniger in the Sundowners
Jules (with Bogart) in We’re No Angles
Batius in Spartacus
Like Barry Fitzgerald, a scene-stealer and general raconteur!
Le Mot Juste–I found myself wondering a few things as his presentation went on–one being, were any of his stories actually true? His visit to the White House was post-assasination attempt on Reagan, so maybe his disparaging stories regarding him were true. Otherwise it is the same liberal tropes bandied about Republican politicians. It was at the end, when he said of Gorbachov “…without abandoning the aims of Communism he’s gone back to Lenin and is trying to do what Lenin might have done if had lived longer in other words in Christian terms he’s gone back to Christ…” WHAT?! For all his intellect this has to be supreme, dangerous ignorance. 180 degrees from the learned writings of Gary Saul Morson who Neo has linked to on more than one occasion. And Ustinov’s opinion that “basically people everywhere are really very good…they are only made bad.” What foolishness. I always go back to the succinct way Dennis Prager has posed it–how many times do you have to remind a child to say “thank you” in order to instill good manners? as just one example of raising virtuous people. Ustinov was speaking to his crowd–a roomful of people that believe the world actually is what they wish it was.
he was a talented thespian and philanthropist, he believed in World Government, a dangerous fantasy,
Now Hedley Lamar, he was a character!
@ Sharon W > “Ustinov was speaking to his crowd–a roomful of people that believe the world actually is what they wish it was.”
Well, he WAS an actor.
Never get your politics from a dealer in fantasy lives.
Ustinov along with Greenstreet are some of my all time favorites!