The 1955 comedy movie We're No Angels centred on three escaped convicts. Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray were two, but who played the third?
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We're No Angels (1955 film) Peter Ustinov Aldo Ray
We're No Angels is a 1955 Christmas comedy film starring an ensemble cast of Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone, and Leo G. Carroll. Shot in both  VistaVision and Technicolor, the Paramount Studios production was directed by Michael Curtiz, who had directed Bogart in Casablanca when both were under contract to Warner Brothers. It is one of Bogart's rare comedies.

The screenplay was written by Ranald MacDougall, based on the play My Three Angels by Samuel and Bella Spewack, which itself was based upon the French play La Cuisine Des Anges by Albert Husson. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.

Plot

Three convicts – Joseph, Albert and Jules – escape from prison on Devil's Island just before Christmas and arrive at a nearby French colonial town. They go to a store managed by the Ducotel family, the only one to give supplies on credit. While there, they notice its roof is leaking, and offer to fix it. They do not actually intend to, but decide to remain there until nightfall, when they will steal clothes and supplies and escape on a ship waiting in the harbor. As they wait, they find that the small family of Felix, Amelie, and daughter Isabelle, is in financial distress and offer their services to hide the trio's all-too-sinister ruse. Joseph even gets to work conning people and falsifying records to make the store prosperous.  However, the three felons begin to have a change of heart after they fix a delicious Christmas dinner for the Ducotels made mostly of stolen items.

Tensions heighten after store owner Andre Trochard arrives from Paris with his nephew Paul, the light in Isabelle's eye.  The Trochards plan on taking over the store, which they perceive is unprofitable due to its use of credit.  It turns out that Paul is betrothed to another woman, to Isabelle's dismay.  Before any action can be taken, both men are bitten by Albert's pet viper, Adolphe, and die nearly instantly.  Isabelle finds another love, and the family is happy as the convicts finally ready for their postponed escape.  However, while waiting on the docks for their boat to arrive, the threesome reconsiders.  Judging that the outside world is likely to be worse than that of the prison, they decide to turn themselves back in.  As they walk toward it at film's end halos appear over their heads...followed by one above the cage of Adolphe.

Cast

*Humphrey Bogart as Joseph
*Aldo Ray as Albert
*Peter Ustinov as Jules
*Joan Bennett as Amelie Ducotel
*Basil Rathbone as Andre Trochard
*Leo G. Carroll as Felix Ducotel
*Gloria Talbott as Isabelle Ducotel
*John Smith as Doctor Arnaud
*Torben Meyer as Butterfly Man
*Paul Newlan as Port Captain
*John Baer as Paul Trochard
*Lea Penman as Mme. Parole
*Jack Del Rio as Gendarme
*Joe Ploski as Customs Inspector
*Louis Mercier as Celeste
*George Dee as Coachman
*Victor Romito as Gendarme Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE FRSA ( or;  16 April 1921 - 28 March 2004) was an English actor, writer, and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster, and television presenter. A noted wit and raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. He was also a respected intellectual and diplomat, who in addition to his various academic posts, served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and President of the World Federalist Movement.

Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards over his life, including two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards for acting, and a Grammy Award for best recording for children, as well as the recipient of governmental honours from, amongst others, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He displayed a unique cultural versatility that has frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance man. Miklós Rózsa, composer of the music for Quo Vadis and of numerous concert works, dedicated his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 22 (1950) to Ustinov.

In 2003, Durham University changed the name of its Graduate Society to Ustinov College in honour of the significant contributions Ustinov had made as chancellor of the university from 1992 until his death.

Family background and early life

Ustinov was born Peter Alexander von Ustinow  in London, England. His father, Jona von Ustinov was of Russian, Polish Jewish, German, and Ethiopian descent. Peter's paternal grandfather was Plato von Ustinov, a Russian nobleman, and his grandmother was Magdalena Hall, of mixed Ethiopian-German-Jewish origin. Peter's paternal great-great-grandparents (through Magdalena's mother) was the German painter Eduard Zander and the Ethiopian aristocrat Court-Lady Isette-Werq in 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 Madonna Benois. 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 the Emperor Paul.

Jona (or Iona) worked as a press officer at the German Embassy in London in the 1930s, and was a reporter for a German news agency. In 1935, two years after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Jona von Ustinov began working for the British intelligence service MI5 and became a British citizen, thus avoiding internment during the war. He was the controller of Wolfgang Gans zu Putlitz, an MI5 spy in the German embassy in London who furnished information on Hitler's intentions before the Second World War.  (Peter Wright mentions in his book Spycatcher that Jona was possibly the spy known as U35; Ustinov says in his autobiography that his father hosted secret meetings of senior British and German officials at their London home.) Ustinov's great-grandfather Moritz Hall,  a Jewish refugee from Kraków and later a Christian convert and collaborator of Swiss and German missionaries in Ethiopia, married into a German-Ethiopian family.

Ustinov was educated at Westminster School and had a difficult childhood because of his parents' constant fighting. One of his schoolmates was Rudolf von Ribbentrop, the eldest son of the Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. While at school, Ustinov considered anglicising his name to "Peter Austin", but was counselled against it by a fellow pupil who said that he should "Drop the ‘von’ but keep the ‘Ustinov’". After training as an actor in his late teens, along with early attempts at playwriting, he made his stage début in 1938 at the Players' Theatre, becoming quickly established. He later wrote, "I was not irresistibly drawn to the drama. It was an escape road from the dismal rat race of school." 

Career highlights

In 1939, he appeared in White Cargo at the Aylesbury Rep, where he performed in a different accent every night. 

Ustinov served as a private in the British Army during World War II, including time spent as batman to David Niven while writing the Niven film The Way Ahead. The difference in their ranksNiven was a lieutenant-colonel and Ustinov a privatemade their regular association militarily impossible; to solve the problem, Ustinov was appointed as Niven's batman.  He also appeared in propaganda films, debuting in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), in which he was required to deliver lines in English, Latin, and Dutch. In 1944 under the auspices of ENSA, he presented and performed the role of Sir Anthony Absolute, in Sheridan's The Rivals, with Dame Edith Evans, at the Larkhill Camp theater.

After the war, he began writing; his first major success was with the play The Love of Four Colonels (1951). He starred with Humphrey Bogart and Aldo Ray in We're No Angels (1955). His career as a dramatist continued, his best-known play being Romanoff and Juliet (1956). His film roles include Roman emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (1951), Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (1960), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (1962), and an old man surviving a totalitarian future in Logan's Run (1976). Ustinov voiced the anthropomorphic lions Prince John and King Richard in the 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood. He also worked on several films as writer and occasionally director, including The Way Ahead (1944), School for Secrets (1946), Hot Millions (1968), and Memed, My Hawk (1984).

In half a dozen films, he played Agatha Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot, first in Death on the Nile (1978) and then in 1982's Evil Under the Sun, 1985's Thirteen at Dinner (TV movie), 1986's Dead Man's Folly (TV movie), 1986's Murder In Three Acts (TV movie), and 1988's Appointment with Death.

Ustinov won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964). He also won one Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor for the film Quo Vadis (he set the Oscar and Globe statuettes up on his desk as if playing doubles tennis; the game was a love of his life, as was ocean yachting). Ustinov was also the winner of three Emmys and one Grammy, and was nominated for two Tony Awards.

Between 1952 and 1955, he starred with Peter Jones in the BBC radio comedy In All Directions. The series featured Ustinov and Jones as themselves in a London car journey perpetually searching for Copthorne Avenue. The comedy derived from the characters they met, whom they often also portrayed. The show was unusual for the time, as it was improvised rather than scripted. Ustinov and Jones improvised on a tape, which was very difficult, and then edited for broadcast by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, who also sometimes took part. The favourite characters were Morris and Dudley Grosvenor, two rather stupid East End spivs whose sketches always ended with the phrase "Run for it, Morry" (or Dudley as appropriate.)

During the 1960s, with the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti, Ustinov directed several operas, including Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Ravel's L'heure espagnole, Schoenberg's Erwartung, and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Further demonstrating his great talent and versatility in the theatre, Ustinov later undertook set and costume design for Don Giovanni.

His autobiography, Dear Me (1977), was well received and had him describe his life (ostensibly his childhood) while being interrogated by his own ego, with forays into philosophy, theatre, fame, and self-realisation.

In the later part of his life (from 1969 until his death), his acting and writing tasks took second place to his work on behalf of UNICEF, for which he was a Goodwill Ambassador and fundraiser. In this role, he visited some of the neediest children and made use of his ability to make just about anybody laugh, including many of the world's most disadvantaged children. "Sir Peter could make anyone laugh," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy is quoted as saying. "His one-man show in German was the funniest performance I have ever seen – and I don't speak a word of German."

On 31 October 1984, Ustinov was to meet with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She was assassinated on her way to the meeting. 

Ustinov also served as President of the World Federalist Movement from 1991 until his death. He once said, "World government is not only possible, it is inevitable, and when it comes, it will appeal to patriotism in its truest, in its only sense, the patriotism of men who love their national heritages so deeply that they wish to preserve them in safety for the common good." 

He is best known to many Britons and Americans as a chat-show guest, a role to which he was ideally suited. He was an extremely frequent guest of Jack Paar's Tonight Show in the early 1960s and was a guest on the famous "upside down" episode of the American talk show Late Night, during which the camera, mounted on a slowly revolving wheel, gradually rotated the picture 360° during the course of an hour; Ustinov appeared midway through and was photographed upside down in close-up as he spoke while his host appeared only in long shots. Towards the end of Ustinov's life, he undertook some one-man stage shows in which he let loose his raconteur streak: he told the story of his life, including some moments of tension with the society into which he was born. For example, he took a test as a child, asking him to name a Russian composer; he wrote Rimsky-Korsakov, but was marked down. He then told the correct answer, Tchaikovsky, since he had been studying him in class, and was told to stop showing off.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions: in November 1977 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Pinewood Studios on the set of Death on the Nile, and a week before, he was surprised at a book signing at book printers Butler and Tanner in Frome, Somerset. This footage was not used, as Ustinov flatly refused to take part and swore at Andrews. His wife persuaded him to change his mind.  He was surprised again in December 1994, when Michael Aspel approached him at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.

A car enthusiast since the age of four, he owned a succession of interesting machines ranging from a Fiat Topolino, several Lancias, a Hispano-Suiza, a preselector gearbox Delage, and a special-bodied Jowett Jupiter. He made records like Phoney Folklore that included the song of the Russian peasant "whose tractor had betrayed him" and his "Grand Prix of Gibraltar" was a vehicle for his creative wit and ability at car-engine sound effects and voices.

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.

In the 1960s, he became a Swiss resident to avoid the British tax system of the time, which heavily taxed the earnings of the wealthy. However, he was knighted in 1990 and was appointed chancellor of Durham University in 1992, having previously been elected as the first rector of the University of Dundee in 1968  (a role in which he moved from being merely a figurehead to taking on a political role, negotiating with militant students). Ustinov was re-elected to the post for a second three-year term in 1971, narrowly beating Michael Parkinson after a disputed recount. 

He received an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium).

Ustinov was a frequent defender of the Chinese government, stating in an address to Durham University in 2000, "People are annoyed with the Chinese for not respecting more human rights. But with a population that size it's very difficult to have the same attitude to human rights." In 2003, Durham's postgraduate college (previously known as the Graduate Society) was renamed Ustinov College.

Ustinov went to Berlin on a UNICEF mission in 2002 to visit the circle of United Buddy Bears that promote a more peaceful world between nations, cultures, and religions for the first time. He was determined to ensure that Iraq would also be represented in this circle of about 140 countries. In 2003, he sponsored and opened the second exhibition of the United Buddy Bears in Berlin. 

Amongst his lesser-known works, Ustinov presented and narrated the official video review of the 1987 Formula One season. His commentary proved highly entertaining. Ustinov also narrated the documentary series Wings of the Red Star.  In 1988, he hosted a live television broadcast entitled The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper.

Ustinov gave his name to the Foundation of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their prestigious Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award, given annually to a young television screenwriter.

Ustinov appeared as a guest star during the first season of The Muppet Show in 1976.

Personal life

Ustinov was married three times—first to Isolde Denham (1920-1987), daughter of Reginald Denham and Moyna Macgill. The marriage lasted from 1940 to their divorce in 1950, and they had one child, daughter Tamara Ustinov. Isolde was the half-sister of Angela Lansbury. His second marriage was to Suzanne Cloutier, which lasted from 1954 to their divorce in 1971. They had three children, two daughters, Pavla Ustinov and Andrea Ustinov, and a son, Igor Ustinov. His third marriage was to Helene du Lau d'Allemans, which lasted from 1972 to his death in 2004. 

Ustinov was a secular humanist. He was listed as a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association, and had once served on their advisory council.  

Ustinov suffered from diabetes and a weakened heart in his last years. 

Death

Ustinov died on 28 March 2004 of heart failure in a clinic in Genolier, near his home in Bursins, Vaud, Switzerland.  He was so well regarded as a goodwill ambassador that UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy spoke at his funeral and represented United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

World politics

Ustinov was the President of the World Federalist Movement from 1991 to 2004, the time of his death.  WFM is a global NGO that promotes the concept of global democratic institutions. WFM lobbies those in powerful positions to establish a unified human government based on democracy and civil society. The United Nations and other world agencies would become the institutions of a World Federation. The UN would be the federal government and nation states would become similar to provinces.

Novels, novellas, short stories, and plays

* Abelard and Heloise 
* Add a Dash of Pity and Other Short Stories
* Beethoven's Tenth
* Brewer's Theatre (with Isaacs, et al.) 
* The Comedy Collection
* Dear Me
* Disinformer: Two Novellas
* Frontiers of the Sea
* Generation at Jeopardy: Children in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (with the United Nations Children's Fund)
* God and the State Railways
* Halfway Up the Tree
* The Indifferent Shepherd
* James Thurber with Thurber
* Klop and the Ustinov Family (with Nadia B. Ustinov)
* Krumnagel
* The Laughter Omnibus
* Life is an Operetta: And Other Short Stories
* Loser
* The Love of Four Colonels
* The Methuen Book of Theatre Verse (with Jonathan and Moira Field)
* Monsieur Rene
* My Russia
* The Moment of Truth
* Niven's Hollywood with Tom Hutchinson
* The Old Man and Mr. Smith: A Fable 
* Photo Finish
* Quotable Ustinov
* Romanoff and Juliet
* Still at Large
* The 13 Clocks with James Thurber
* The Unicorn in the Garden and Other Fables for Our Time (with James Thurber)
* The Unknown Soldier and His Wife
* Ustinov at Eighty
* Ustinov at Large
* Ustinov in Russia
* Ustinov Still at Large

Television

* Doctor Snuggles
* Jesus of Nazareth (miniseries)
* Peter Ustinov on the Orient Express
* Omni: The New Frontier  
* Wings of the Red Star (as narrator)
* Le défi mondial  

Discography

* Grand Prix of Gibraltar (1960) (spoken word comedy)
Filmography

* Hullo Fame (1940) (documentary)
* Mein Kampf — My Crimes (1940) (documentary)
* One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
* Let the People Sing (1942)
* The Goose Steps Out (1942)
* The New Lot (1943)
* The Way Ahead (1944) (screenwriter)
* The True Glory (1945) (documentary)
* School for Secrets (1946) (director and writer)
* Carnival (1946) (screenwriter)
* Vice Versa (1948) (screenwriter, director, and producer)
* Private Angelo (1949) (screenwriter, director)
* Odette (1950) 
* Hotel Sahara (1951)
* The Magic Box (1951)
* Quo Vadis (1951)
* The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird (1952) (voice)
* Pleasure (1952) (narrator of English version)
* The Egyptian (1954)
* Beau Brummell (1954)
* We're No Angels (1955)
* Lola Montès (1955)
* The Wanderers (1956)
* The Spies (1957)
* An Angel Passed Over Brooklyn (1957)
* Spartacus (1960)
* The Sundowners (1960)
* Romanoff and Juliet (1961) (screenwriter, director)
* Billy Budd (1962) (screenwriter, director, and producer)
* Alleman (1963) (documentary) (narrator)
* Women of the World (1963) (documentary) (narrator)
* Topkapi (1964)
* The Peaches (1964) (narrator)
* John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965)
* Lady L (1965) (screenwriter, director)
* The Comedians (1967)
* The Comedians in Africa (1967)
* Blackbeard's Ghost (1968)
* Hot Millions (1968) (screenwriter)
* Viva Max! (1969)
* The Festival Game (1970) (documentary)
* Hammersmith Is Out (1972) (director)
* Robin Hood (1973) as Prince John / King Richard (voice)
* One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975)
* Logan's Run (1976)
* Treasure of Matecumbe (1976)
* The Muppet Show (1976)
* The Purple Taxi (1977)
* The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977)
* Jesus of Nazareth (1977) (Herod the Great)
* The Mouse and His Child (1977)
* Double Murder (1977)
* Death on the Nile (1978)
* Thief of Baghdad (1978 film) (The Calif)
* Winds of Change (1979) (narrator)
* Tarka the Otter (1979) (narrator)
* Morte no Tejo (1979) (documentary)
* Einstein's Universe (1979) (documentary)
* My Friend as the Alien (1999) (voice)
* Ashanti (1979)
* ' (1979)
* Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)
* The Great Muppet Caper (1981) (cameo)
* Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981) (voice)
* The Search for Santa Claus (1981) 
* Evil Under the Sun (1982)
* Memed, My Hawk (1984) (screenwriter, director)
* Thirteen at Dinner (1985)
* Dead Man's Folly (1986)
* Peter Ustinov's Russia (documentary) (1986)
* Murder in Three Acts (1986)
* Appointment with Death (1988)
* Peep and the Big Wide World (1988) (narrator)
* La Révolution française (1989)
* Granpa (pencil animation) (1989) (voice talent)
* Around the World in 80 Days (1989)
* There Was a Castle with Forty Dogs (1990)
* Lorenzo's Oil (1992)
* Wings of the Red Star (1993) (narrator)
* The Phoenix and the Magic Carpet (1995)
* The Old Curiosity Shop (1995)
* Paths of the Gods (1995) (documentary)
* Stiff Upper Lips (1998)
* The Bachelor (1999)
* Alice in Wonderland (1999)
* Animal Farm (1999) (voice)
* My Khmer Heart (2000) (documentary)
* Majestät brauchen Sonne (2000) (documentary)
* Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) (documentary)
* The Will to Resist (2002)
* Luther (2003)
* Winter Solstice (2003)
* Siberia: Railroad Through the Wilderness (2004) (narrator) 

Awards

Academy Award

* 1952 nominated: Best Supporting Actor (Quo Vadis)
* 1961 won: Best Supporting Actor (Spartacus)
* 1965 won: Best Supporting Actor (Topkapi)
* 1969 nominated: Best Original Screenplay (Hot Millions, with Ira Wallach)

BAFTA Award

* 1962 nominated: Best British Screenplay (Billy Budd)
* 1978 nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Death on the Nile)
* 1992 won: Britannia Award for Lifetime Achievement
* 1995 nominated: Best Light Entertainment Performance (An Evening with Sir Peter Ustinov)

Berlin International Film Festival

* 1961 nominated: Golden Bear (Romanoff and Juliet) 
* 1972 won: Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution (Hammersmith Is Out) 
* 1972 nominated: Golden Bear (Hammersmith Is Out)

Emmy Award

* 1958 won: Best Single Performance by a Leading or Supporting Actor (Omnibus: The Life of Samuel Johnson)
* 1967 won: Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Barefoot in Athens)
* 1970 won: Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (A Storm in Summer)
* 1982 nominated: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Informational Programming (Omni: The New Frontier)
* 1985 nominated: Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts (The Well-Tempered Bach with Peter Ustinov)

Golden Globe Award

* 1952 won: Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Quo Vadis)
* 1961 nominated: Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Spartacus)
* 1965 nominated: Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Topkapi)

Grammy Award

* 1960 won: Best Recording for Children (Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf) with the Philharmonia Orchestra directed by Herbert von Karajan 
* 1974 nominated: Best Recording for Children (The Little Prince)
* 1978 nominated: Best Recording for Children (Russell Hoban, The Mouse and His Child)
* 1981 nominated: Best Spoken Word Album (A Curb in the Sky)

Tony Award

* 1958 nominated: Best Play (Romanoff and Juliet)
* 1958 nominated: Best Actor in a Play (Romanoff and Juliet)

Evening Standard British Film Award

* 1980 won Best Actor (Death on the Nile)

Lifework

* 1992: Britannia Award
* 1993: London Critics' Award
* 1994: Bambi
* 1997: German Video Prize of the DIVA Award
* 1998: Bavarian Television Award
* 2001: Golden Camera (Goldene Kamera, Berlin)
* 2002: Planetary Consciousness Award of the Club of Budapest
* 2004: Bavarian Film Award (Bayerischer Filmpreis)
* 2004: Rose d'Or Charity Award with UNICEF (posthumously)

Other

* 1974: Golden Camera Award for Best Actor for the Exchange of Notes
* 1978: Prix de la Butte for Oh my goodness! Messy memoirs
* 1981: Karl-Valentin-Orden (Munich)
* 1987: Golden Rascal (Goldenes Schlitzohr)

State honours and awards

* 1957: Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts (London)
* 21 September 1974: Order of the Smile (Poland)
* 1975: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) (United Kingdom)
* 1978: UNICEF International Prize for outstanding services
* 1985: Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
* 1986: Istiqlal Order (Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan)
* 1987: Order of the Yugoslav Flag
* 1987: Elected to the Académie française
* 1990: Gold Medal of the City of Athens
* 1990: Medal of the Hellenic Red Cross
* 1990: Knight Bachelor (United Kingdom)
* 1991: Medal of Charles University in Prague
* 1994: Knight of the National Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil)
* 1994: German Culture Prize (Deutscher Kulturpreis)
* 1995: International UNICEF Prize for Outstanding Services
* 1998: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz)
* 2001: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class 
* 2004: Hanseatic Bremen Prize for International Understanding (Bremer Hansepreis für Völkerverständigung)

Honorary Degrees

Sir Peter Ustinov Received Many Honorary Degrees These Include:

;Honorary Degrees

In popular culture

In 1997 singer/songwriter Lauren Christy released a song entitled "The Night I Saved Peter Ustinov", on her Polygram Records album Breed. In it Christy recounts a story in which she saves Ustinov from a suicide attempt. Aldo Ray (born Aldo Da Re; September 25, 1926 – March 27, 1991) was an American actor.

Biography

Ray was born in Pen Argyl in Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania, to an Italian family with five brothers (Mario, Guido, Dante, Dino and Louis) and one sister (Regina). His brother, Mario DaRe (1933-2010), lettered in football at USC in the years 1952 to 1954, and on May 12, 1955 appeared as a contestant on the NBC quiz show You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx.  In 1944, at age 18, during World War II, Aldo entered the United States Navy, serving as a frogman until 1946; he saw action at Okinawa with UDT-17.

Early life

Upon leaving the Navy, he entered the University of California at Berkeley, but his studies there were brief. Shortly after leaving Berkeley, he settled in his family's hometown Crockett, California, with his first wife, Shirley Green. They had one child, a daughter named Claire.

Ray was elected as the Constable of the Crockett Judicial District in Contra Costa County California. Ray drove his brother Guido to an audition for the film Saturday's Hero (1951). Director David Miller was more interested in Ray than his brother, because, it is rumored, of his voice, and hired him for the small role of a cynical college football player opposite John Derek and Donna Reed. Columbia Pictures wasted no time in signing Ray to an exclusive contract, and despite having no acting experience, Ray soon appeared in several films under his birthname, Aldo DaRe. 

Hollywood stardom

Ray's husky frame, thick neck, and raspy voice made him perfect for playing tough sexy roles. In his first film as Aldo Ray, he starred with Judy Holliday in The Marrying Kind (1952), directed by George Cukor. Cukor famously suggested that Ray go to ballet school because he walked too much like a football player. That same year, Ray appeared in Pat and Mike, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, again directed by Cukor. Ray's work in Pat and Mike led to his nomination, along with Richard Burton and Robert Wagner, for a Golden Globe as Best Newcomer. Burton won the award that year, but Ray’s career was launched. Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn liked Ray and wanted him for the role of Private Robert Prewitt in From Here to Eternity (1953) but Fred Zinnemann insisted Montgomery Clift be cast. 

In 1953, he and first wife Shirley Green were divorced. He starred opposite Rita Hayworth in Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), a remake of the W. Somerset Maugham story Rain. This began the most productive period of Aldo's career, preceded by his marriage to actress Jeff Donnell (from 1954 to 1956), which also ended in divorce.

In 1955, Ray featured in starring roles in Battle Cry, Three Stripes in the Sun, and one of his best-loved films, We're No Angels (1955), in which he starred with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Basil Rathbone, Leo G. Carroll, and Joan Bennett. In 1956, in between appearances in Three Stripes In The Sun and Men in War, Ray tried his hand at radio, working as a personality and announcer at Syracuse, New York hit music station WNDR. A photo of Ray with a colleague in the WNDR studios, taken as part of a station promotional package, survives and can be found on a WNDR tribute website, although it's not known if any aircheck tapes of his radio shows still exist. By 1957, in any event, he had left WNDR and the radio business and returned to Hollywood. He would appear in 11 films during the following 11 years (1957–68), the busiest period of his film career. 

On January 31, 1957, Ray appeared on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. He and Tennessee Ernie Ford did a comedy skit from a foxhole. 

He also appeared on an episode of Bonanza "The Wild One" as a horse wrangler, October 4, 1964

Author Richard Matheson said that his best-known work, The Incredible Shrinking Man, was inspired by a scene in Aldo Ray's Let's Do It Again in which a character puts on someone else's hat and it sinks down past his ears; "I thought, what if a man put on his own hat and that happened?" he recounted in an interview for Stephen King's non fiction work Danse Macabre. 

This period of Ray’s career would culminate with a starring role in God's Little Acre (1958), an adaptation of Erskine Caldwell's controversial novel, starring Robert Ryan and Tina Louise. Ray appeared in The Naked and the Dead, an adaptation of Norman Mailer's novel. He starred in 1959 in Four Desperate Men (The Siege of Pinchgut). The movie was filmed on location in Sydney Harbour, Australia.  Pinchgut is actually Fort Denison. The film was the last produced by Ealing Studios, a small British Studio which lasted from 1939 to 1959. In 1959, Ray was cast as Hunk Farber in the episode, "Payment in Full" of the NBC western series, Riverboat. In the story line, Farber betrays his friend and employer to collect reward money, which he uses to court his girlfriend, Missy. 

Typecasting in the 1960s

By the dawn of the 1960s, Aldo was most often typecast as the tough guy, capitalizing on his husky good looks and gravelly voice.  He married Johanna Bennet, who continues to work today under the name Johanna Ray, as a respected casting director.  They were divorced in 1967 after having two sons and a daughter.  Johanna Ray, a longtime collaborator with David Lynch, cast her son Eric DaRe with Aldo in Lynch’s Twin Peaks series, as well as the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.  Aldo’s work of this decade included The Day They Robbed the Bank of England, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round and Welcome to Hard Times. His best-known work of the 1960s however, was his portrayal of Sergeant Muldoon, alongside John Wayne, in The Green Berets. Ray starred in Kill a Dragon and Suicide Commando. He also made two television pilots in the 1960s; neither was picked up. 

Career decline

As the 1960s ended, Hollywood’s appetite for Ray’s machismo started to wane. Though he worked steadily in the 1970s, the quality of his roles diminished, and he was typically cast as gruff and gravelly rednecks. In 1976, Ray appeared in Haunted, and also a pornographic movie, Sweet Savage, in a non-sexual role. His career decline accelerated in the 1980s, and after being diagnosed with throat cancer, he accepted virtually any role that came his way to maintain his costly health insurance. Ray was originally cast in the role of Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel Dune, but was replaced by Patrick Stewart due to ongoing issues with alcoholism. His SAG membership was revoked when it was discovered he was acting in non-union productions. His last film was Shock 'Em Dead which was filmed in 1990 which he appeared with Traci Lords and Troy Donahue.

Final years and death

Ray remained in Crockett, with his mother and family and friends, where he died of throat cancer on March 27, 1991.  He was cremated and buried in Crockett, with a majority of the residents coming out to pay their respects. The Crockett Museum has a display depicting his life.

Selected filmography

*Saturday's Hero (1951)
*My True Story (1951)
*The Marrying Kind (1952)
*Pat and Mike (1952)
*Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)
*Let's Do It Again (1953)
*Battle Cry (1955)
*We're No Angels (1955)
*Men in War (1957)
*Nightfall (1957)
*God's Little Acre (1958)
*The Naked and the Dead (1958)
*Four Desperate Men (1959)
*The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960)
*Johnny Nobody (1961)
*Musketeers of the Sea (1962)
*What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
*Riot on Sunset Strip (1967)
*Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
*Kill a Dragon (1967)
*The Green Berets (1968)
*The Power (1968)
*Angel Unchained (1970)
*Dynamite Brothers (East Meets Watts) (1974)

*Seven Alone (1974)
*Inside Out (1975)
*Psychic Killer (1975)
*Gone with the West (1975)
*Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
* Haunted (1976)
*Haunts (1977)
*Death Dimension (1978)
*The Lucifer Complex (1978)
*Sweet Savage (1979)
*The Glove (1979)
*Human Experiments (1979)
*Don't Go Near the Park (1981)
*Bog (1983)
*Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie (1984)
*Biohazard (1985)
*Evils of the Night (1985)
*The Sicilian (1987)
*Terror Night (1987)
*Terror on Alcatraz (1987)
*Prison Ship (1988)
*Shooters (1989)
*Blood Red (1989)
*Shock 'Em Dead (1991)
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Humphrey Bogart
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