Peter Sellers, our TCM Star of the Month for January, once said of himself, "I'm a classic example of all humorists. I'm only funny when I'm working." That's something with which his friends and former coworkers readily concur.

On screen and TV, few were funnier than the British-born Sellers, but off screen it was another matter altogether. The professional funnyman had a dark side, which deeply complicated a personal life that included four marriages and four divorces (none of which involved Sophia Loren, about whom Sellers said, "I was never in love with any woman as deeply as I was with Sophia"). He was also his own severest critic, once claiming in an interview, "I writhe when I see myself on screen," adding, "I look like such an idiot, some fat awkward thing dredged up from some third-rate drama company. I say to myself, 'Why doesn't he get off?'"

But if Sellers wasn't wild about Sellers, audiences certainly were. Moviegoers embraced him as one of the great mirth-makers of his time, a quirky but extremely inventive fellow with a perennial twinkle in his eye and continual, unpredictable bursts of comic genius. Certainly, few screen characters have been funnier than Sellers' bonkers-mad Dr. Strangelove (we'll be showing the film on January 27). He was so warmly embraced as the wacky Inspector Jacques Clouseau in 1964's The Pink Panther (airing January 20) that he went on to play the role four more times, with yet another Panther movie in the works at the time of his death in 1980. In fact, the script for Romance of the Pink Panther was delivered to his Dorchester Hotel suite in London on the very day he died. It was never made, but there was a sixth Clouseau caper involving Sellers, 1982's Trail of the Pink Panther, compiled from outtakes of his earlier Panther comedies mixed with new footage featuring other veterans of the series--a true curiosity that we'll air on January 21.

An interesting thing about his Clouseau casting: another Peter (Ustinov) was supposed to play the bumbling French police inspector but dropped out just before filming was scheduled to begin. When Sellers joined the cast, Clouseau was very much a supporting character in the story. But Peter S. was so inventive, so outrageously funny as the cameras rolled, that the film's director Blake Edwards began tilting the movie heavily in Sellers' favor, and he ultimately became the major focus of the film.

This month you'll have ample opportunity to see the comedic brilliance of Peter Sellers at work as we bring you 25 of his most notable films. Four of the Pink Panther comedies are playing, plus all the Sellers "essentials," including Lolita (1962) and Being There (1979). Also included is his one film with the aforementioned Sophia Loren, 1960's The Millionairess, and three of his films we've never shown on TCM before: 1959's Man in a Cocked Hat, 1960's Never Let Go and 1967's The Bobo.

Unfortunately, Sellers himself was never able to enjoy his work, but for the rest of us there are many jolly, hilarious, laugh-out-loud times in store on TCM each Thursday in prime time as this brand-new year kicks off. Viva, Peter! And a deep bow to you for the limitless laughter you've left us.

by Robert Osborne