Academic Cynthia Baron observed that Sellers's external characterisations led to doubt with reviewers as to whether Sellers's work was "true" acting.
Howe has three objections to Sellers's thesis.
Sellers's final Clouseau film, Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), was assembled from unused footage of the other films and was released after Sellers's death.
Like face blindness, the eventual divorce isn't treated as another notch in Sellers's tear duct.
"My little darling, I want you to have these," Milligan drawls, arriving at Sellers's door.
The look is perhaps the funniest half-second in all of Sellers's career.
Yet even as Sikov examines Sellers's qualities, clues to his darker side emerge.
"How many of us really did know Peter David Nivenen asked in his eulogy at Sellers's memorial service in 1980.
(One man in Sellers's online support group wrote to George Bush urging legislation, under the Americans With Disabilities Act, that would require name tags in the work place).
