Peter Ustinov Obituary, Remembering the Man Who Was “Irrevocably Betrothed to Laughter”

He said it himself, in the clearest possible terms: “I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilized music in the world.” If you need a single sentence to understand Peter Ustinov, that’s the one. Not his two Academy Awards. Not his six turns as Hercule Poirot. Not his 35 years as UNICEF’s goodwill ambassador, his knighthood, his university chancellorship, or the dozens of plays and novels and screenplays that tumbled from him with apparently effortless abundance. All of those things were expressions of the same fundamental impulse: the desire to connect with other human beings through laughter, through storytelling, through the bottomless warmth of a man who found the world genuinely, endlessly, hilariously interesting.

The Peter Ustinov obituary covers a life that began in London on 16 April 1921, to parents of Russian and French origin, and ended on 28 March 2004, in a clinic overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, of heart failure. In between those dates, he made approximately 90 films, wrote dozens of plays and novels, directed operas, narrated Prokofiev for a Grammy, voiced Disney characters, traversed Russia for the BBC, sat at the bedsides of sick children for UNICEF, and became one of the most beloved and unmistakable presences in 20th-century entertainment.

He was, as his school reports once noted with disapproval, a person of extraordinary originality. The school thought that needed curbing. The world disagreed.

Who Was Peter Ustinov? A Quick Overview

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov KBE (16 April 1921 — 28 March 2004) was a British actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, director, raconteur, humanitarian, and academic. He won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor — for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964) — and received three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Silver Bear among his accolades. He played Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot six times on film and television. He was UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador from 1969 until his death. He was knighted in 1990 and served as Chancellor of Durham University from 1992. He was fluent in multiple languages, could imitate anyone, and was widely considered the finest dinner party guest and television talk show presence of his generation.

Born of the World — Peter Ustinov’s Extraordinary Ancestry

Russian Nobles, Ethiopian Missionaries, and Everything in Between

Most actors have a country. Peter Ustinov had a continent’s worth. His father, Jona Freiherr von Ustinov, was of Russian, German, Polish, Ethiopian, and Jewish descent. His paternal grandfather was Baron Plato von Ustinov, a Russian nobleman. His great-great-grandfather Moritz Hall was a Jewish refugee from Kraków who converted to Christianity and became a colleague of Swiss and German missionaries in Ethiopia, where he married into a German-Ethiopian family. His mother, Nadia Benois, was a French painter and designer. His great-uncle was the artist Alexandre Benois, who collaborated with Diaghilev on the Ballets Russes.

He claimed also to have Swiss, Italian, and French blood in the mix — “everything except English,” as he cheerfully noted, despite being born in London and living most of his life in Britain and later Switzerland.

“Conceived in St Petersburg, Born in London, Christened in Germany”

Ustinov described his own origins with characteristic precision and comic timing, calling himself “conceived in St Petersburg, born in London and christened in Germany.” It was a line that told you everything — about the improbable richness of his heritage, his delight in the absurdity of national identity, and the way he turned autobiography into performance. He always said he never particularly felt British. “I rather think of myself as ethnically filthy,” he said — “and proud of it.”

Growing Up Under Cameroonian, Irish, and German Nurses

His childhood was, in its own way, as international as his ancestry. He was raised under a succession of Cameroonian, Irish, and German nurses — meaning that by the time he reached school age, he had already absorbed accents, languages, and human types that most of his contemporaries would never encounter. The gift for mimicry that would eventually make him the most celebrated impressionist in British entertainment started here, in a nursery populated by voices from three different continents.

Westminster School and the Report That Got It Exactly Wrong

“Shows Great Originality Which Must Be Curbed at All Costs”

Ustinov attended Westminster School in London, where he was, by his own account, unhappy. He hated the conformity, the snobbery, and the institutional hostility to anything that deviated from the expected. But the school produced at least one document that unintentionally became one of the funniest pieces of institutional self-condemnation in educational history.

An early school report on Peter Ustinov read: “He shows great originality which must be curbed at all costs.”

He never tired of quoting it. He was right not to. It was, as he clearly understood, the entire argument for why he should leave school as soon as possible — which is essentially what he did, departing at 16 without particular qualifications but with an absolutely clear sense of what he wanted to do.

At 14, he had already earned his first fee for a satirical piece in the London Evening Standard about a fellow pupil — the son of the German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop. The school journalist was already operational.

The Decision Not to Change His Name

At Westminster, one of his fellow pupils suggested he might consider anglicising his name. The solution proposed was “Peter Austin.” Ustinov considered it. Then another pupil — and nobody has ever been more decisively right in an advisory capacity — told him: “Drop the ‘von’ but keep the ‘Ustinov.'” He did. It was the best theatrical career decision he never consciously made.

Training for the Stage — London Theatre Studio and His First Steps

Leaving Westminster at 16, Ustinov enrolled at the London Theatre Studio — the training school established by Michel Saint-Denis, a rigorous and highly regarded institution that produced some of British theatre’s finest mid-century performers. His gift was recognised almost immediately. He made his professional stage debut on 18 July 1938 at the Barn Theatre in Shere, playing Waffles in Chekhov’s The Wood Demon. He was 17 years old and was playing an old man.

His London stage debut followed that same year at the Players’ Theatre. He became quickly established — and quickly noted for a particular quality that would define his entire career. At the Aylesbury Rep in 1939, appearing in White Cargo, he performed in a different accent every night. Not once was he pulled up for it. Which means either nobody noticed, or everybody was too entertained to object.

Peter Ustinov Goes to War — Batman, Screenwriter, and Reluctant Soldier

Batman to David Niven

In 1942, Peter Ustinov entered the British Army. He served as a private — the lowest possible rank — and at one point was assigned as batman (personal military servant) to his friend and fellow actor David Niven. The arrangement suited neither of them particularly well in any conventional military sense, but it did produce consequences: while in Niven’s service, Ustinov wrote the screenplay for The Way Ahead (1944), a British propaganda film directed by Carol Reed, in which Niven starred. The batman had used his time productively.

Writing The Way Ahead While in Uniform

The Way Ahead was not a minor film. It was a carefully constructed piece of wartime cinema designed to encourage civilian morale and military recruitment, and it required real craft. Ustinov brought that craft while nominally a low-ranking soldier. It was an early demonstration of something that would characterise his entire career: he was always working, always producing, always finding ways to turn whatever situation he was in into material.

The Tank Anecdote That Defined His Approach to Life

During his army years, Ustinov attended an officer selection board. When asked his preferences for military deployment, he replied that he had a preference for tanks. The reason? “Because you can go into battle sitting down.”

He failed the board. He did not seem unduly troubled by this.

The Playwright Who Wrote to Fill the Time — Peter Ustinov’s Theatre Career

Producing at Age 21

Ustinov turned producer at 21, presenting Squaring the Circle in London shortly before he entered the army. It was an early indication of his creative ambition: he wasn’t content to perform in other people’s work. He wanted to create his own, present his own, direct his own. He would eventually do all three simultaneously, in multiple countries, in multiple languages, across a career of extraordinary productivity.

The Love of Four Colonels and the Little Man vs. the System

If his plays had a defining theme, it was — as the Deseret News noted — “a celebration of the little man bucking the system.” His most successful play, The Love of Four Colonels, ran for two years in London’s West End. It was also the play that changed his humanitarian life: it was at a performance of The Love of Four Colonels that Leon Davico, beginning his career at UNICEF, saw Ustinov perform and decided this was the man he needed as a goodwill ambassador. The play that launched an acting career and a humanitarian legacy simultaneously.

Romanoff and Juliet (1956), his East-West Cold War romantic comedy, ran successfully in both New York and London and was later filmed. Halfway up the Tree (1967), The Unknown Soldier and His Wife (1967), and Beethoven’s Tenth (1983) — in which he himself played Beethoven — added to a theatrical body of work that was genuinely valued for its literary quality, not merely for its association with a famous name.

Romanoff and Juliet and Billy Budd — From Stage to Screen

Ustinov adapted and directed several of his own works for the cinema. His film version of Romanoff and Juliet (1961) was affectionate and deft. But his most ambitious directorial achievement was Billy Budd (1962) — his adaptation of Herman Melville’s novella, which he directed, co-wrote, and starred in. The film starred Terence Stamp in his breakthrough role, and Ustinov himself played Captain Vere — the authority figure whose tragic duty demands that he condemn a man he privately believes to be innocent. It is, in retrospect, one of the most serious and accomplished British films of the 1960s.

Playing King Lear — His Only Stated Ambition

In 1979, at the Stratford, Ontario, festival, Peter Ustinov played King Lear. He later described this as the only ambition he had ever consciously held as an actor. Most people assumed the opposite — that a man of his gifts and productivity must have been driven by ambition throughout. He consistently denied it. Lear was the exception. The rest, he suggested, was just his natural tendency to say yes to interesting things.

Peter Ustinov in Film — From Nero to Poirot and Everything in Between

Nero in Quo Vadis (1951) — His First Oscar Nomination

Ustinov’s international film career took decisive shape in 1951 when he played the Roman Emperor Nero in Quo Vadis — the lavish Hollywood epic directed by Mervyn LeRoy. His Nero was a camp, paranoid, petulant monster — an emperor who played the lyre while Rome burned and expected to be praised for it. The performance earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He didn’t win, but the world knew his name.

He also received the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the same role — setting up the Oscar and Globe statuettes on his desk, he jokingly said, as if they were playing doubles tennis, since tennis was one of his great loves.

Spartacus (1960) — First Academy Award

Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus gave Ustinov the role of Batiatus — the proprietor of the gladiator school who trains, sells, and attempts to manage Spartacus. It was a supporting role in a film dominated by Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, and Tony Curtis, and Ustinov managed to be the most entertaining person in virtually every scene he appeared in. His Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor was entirely deserved — and he was competing against some of the greatest actors of the 20th century to win it.

Topkapi (1964) — Second Academy Award

Jules Dassin’s comic heist film Topkapi gave Ustinov his second Oscar, again for Best Supporting Actor. He played Arthur Simpson — a small-time English grifter in Istanbul who finds himself accidentally recruited into an elaborate jewel robbery. The character was comic, warm, and fundamentally decent beneath his venality, which made him quintessentially Ustinov. Two Best Supporting Actor Oscars, in films of very different tonal registers, for characters with almost nothing in common except the exceptional quality of his performance.

Hercule Poirot — Six Films for Agatha Christie’s Belgian Detective

From 1978 onwards, Peter Ustinov played Hercule Poirot in six productions:

• Death on the Nile (1978) — the feature film that established him in the role
• Evil Under the Sun (1982) — another theatrical Poirot
• Thirteen at Dinner (1985) — a television movie for CBS
• Dead Man’s Folly (1986) — television
• Murder in Three Acts (1986) — television
• Appointment with Death (1988) — feature film, directed by Michael Winner

His Poirot was not David Suchet’s Poirot. It was warmer, more physically comic, less neurotic, and perhaps more obviously in on the joke. He provided his own voice for the French language versions of most of these films — because he spoke French — and dubbed himself in German for Evil Under the Sun. He was, in other words, genuinely multilingual enough to play the Belgian detective in the detective’s own language.

Director and Adapter — Billy Budd, Lady L, and Romanoff and Juliet

Ustinov directed a body of films that demonstrated genuine directorial intelligence: Billy Budd (1962), Romanoff and Juliet (1961), and Lady L (1965) — the last starring Sophia Loren and Paul Newman and generally considered his best-received directorial effort. He also directed the darkly comic Hammersmith Is Out (1972), with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. His screenplay for Hot Millions (1969) earned him an Oscar nomination for writing — making him one of the rare individuals to have been nominated for both performing and writing Academy Awards.

The Voice of Prince John in Disney’s Robin Hood

In Walt Disney’s 1973 animated feature Robin Hood, Ustinov provided the voice of Prince John — the whining, thumb-sucking lion who rules England in Richard’s absence. He also voiced King Richard in the same film. His vocal versatility, his gift for comic characterisation, and his ability to make a cartoon lion both ridiculous and genuinely menacing made the dual performance one of the most memorable voice characterisations in Disney animation history.

The Peter and the Wolf Grammy — His Most-Heard Performance

Among Peter Ustinov’s extraordinary collection of accolades, one stands out for its unlikely category: he won a Grammy Award for his narration of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The work — in which a narrator voices the roles of a young boy and his animal companions as they confront a wolf — is perhaps the most beloved piece of classical music education ever written, and Ustinov’s narration became one of its definitive recordings. It’s likely that more people have encountered Ustinov’s voice through this recording than through any of his films.

Television, Travel, and the Art of the Conversation

Russia (1986) and the Praise of Nelson Mandela

In 1986 and 1987, Ustinov presented Russia, a BBC television series in which he travelled over 100,000 miles and visited more than 30 Russian cities. The series was praised for its even-handedness at a time when Cold War tensions made any sympathetic portrayal of the Soviet Union politically risky. He received a remarkable tribute for it from Nelson Mandela, who told him: “I was amazed by your even-handed approach to the Russians at a time when that attitude was not popular, and I took great courage from that.” From Nelson Mandela. It’s not a small compliment.

Ustinov Aboard the Orient Express

His 1992 television special Ustinov Aboard the Orient Express combined his love of travel, history, and storytelling into a distinctive format that played to all his strengths simultaneously. He was, as a television presenter, exactly what people wanted: learned without being pompous, curious without being intrusive, funny without trying too hard.

The Chat Show Raconteur Who Could Hold Any Room

For decades, Peter Ustinov was the definitive guest on chat shows across Britain, America, and Europe. He had what very few people have: unlimited material. Because he had done everything — films, plays, opera, novels, travel, academia, diplomacy — and because everything he had done had produced stories, he could sit down with any interviewer and produce twenty minutes of dazzling, connected, unhurried storytelling without apparent effort.

Director Michael Winner, who directed him as Poirot, noted: “He was a very good actor but he wasn’t used as an actor as much as he should have been because he became famous as Peter Ustinov.” It was astute. The persona — the enormous, bear-like, warm, impossibly entertaining presence — had swallowed the actor. Most people forgot he had two Oscars because they were too busy being entertained by him.

Peter Ustinov and UNICEF — 35 Years of Service to the World’s Children

How Leon Davico Recruited Him

The story of how Peter Ustinov became UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador is itself a perfect Ustinov story. Leon Davico, a young man beginning his career at UNICEF, attended a performance of one of Ustinov’s plays and was struck by the warmth and humanity radiating from the stage. He approached Ustinov afterwards and asked whether he would consider serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations children’s agency.

Ustinov said yes. He always said yes.

That was 1969. He served until his death in 2004 — 35 years of travel, advocacy, fundraising, and personal presence on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable children.

What He Actually Did as a Goodwill Ambassador

He didn’t just lend his name to the organisation. He worked. He travelled to disaster zones, refugee camps, and developing communities. He used his fame and his unparalleled ability to command attention to raise awareness of children’s issues at the highest levels. In 1993, UNICEF awarded him its Medal for Distinguished Service — recognition that this was not a celebrity attachment but a genuine commitment.

“He was not just a writer and actor,” Davico said after his death. “He was someone who really tried to help. He was not only the funniest person I’ve ever met, but the most intelligent. He was an attentive citizen of the world.”

Near the end of his life, when sciatica made walking painful and diabetes had reduced his vision to 30 percent, Ustinov still attended UNICEF events — in a wheelchair, but attending.

Kofi Annan’s Joke About a Succession Plan

His long service led UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to make a joke that had more than a grain of truth: that Ustinov was the man to succeed him. It was the kind of tribute that, coming from the head of the United Nations, says something specific about how seriously Peter Ustinov was taken as a humanitarian figure, not merely as an entertainer with good intentions.

The Academic — Rector of Dundee, Chancellor of Durham, and the College Named After Him

In 1968, Peter Ustinov was elected the first Rector of the University of Dundee — a position that at many universities is largely ceremonial. At Dundee, he took it further, moving from figurehead to active political mediator, negotiating between student protesters and university administration during one of higher education’s most turbulent decades.

In 1992, he became Chancellor of Durham University — a position he held until his death in 2004. In 2003, the year before he died, Durham University renamed its Graduate Society “Ustinov College” in his honour, recognising the significant contributions he had made over more than a decade as chancellor. The college carries his name to this day.

The Knighthood and the Ceremony He Turned Into a Story

Peter Ustinov was knighted in 1990 — appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, KBE. He was also made CBE in 1975. He accepted the knighthood with the graciousness expected and the anecdote that was inevitable.

The formal invitation to his knighting ceremony asked him, in the customary fashion, to “Delete whichever is inapplicable: I can kneel — I cannot kneel.” Ustinov’s observation: “But there was nothing for those who can kneel but not get up.” By the time of the ceremony, his enormous frame had made kneeling and re-rising into a genuine logistical challenge. He made it into a story instead. He always made it into a story.

Peter Ustinov’s Marriages and Family

Isolde Denham — His First Marriage

Ustinov married Isolde Denham in 1940, when he was 19 years old. They had one daughter together. The marriage lasted a decade and was dissolved in 1950. He remained characteristically discreet about its breakdown.

Suzanne Cloutier — Canada, Switzerland, and Three Children

In 1954, Ustinov married the Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier, whom he had met in the film world. They had two daughters and a son, Igor. It was during this marriage that the family relocated to Switzerland in 1971 — to a château in Bursins, in the Swiss vineyards overlooking Lake Geneva, which would remain his home until the end of his life. The marriage was dissolved in 1971, the same year as the move.

Hélène du Lau d’Allemans — His Final Partnership

In 1972, Ustinov married Hélène du Lau d’Allemans, a French woman who was his companion and wife for the remaining 32 years of his life. She survived him, along with his four children from his previous marriages.

His Final Years — Health, Humour, and Never Stopping

Ustinov treated ageing the way he treated everything else — as material. When he turned 60, he was asked whether he intended to slow down. “I only feel 59,” he replied. “But what really surprises me is that I don’t say many different things now than I did when I was 20. The only difference is that having white hair means that people tend to listen now while they never did before.”

By the end of his life, he had sciatica that made walking difficult and diabetes that had reduced his vision to approximately 30 percent. He used a wheelchair at UNICEF events. He was in pain and could barely see. He attended anyway.

His last film appearance was in the 2003 television movie Winter Solstice, in which he played himself. He had also recently appeared as the voice of Babar the Elephant and as the Walrus in a television adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in 1999. He was still working at 82, still thinking, still telling stories.

How Peter Ustinov Died — March 28, 2004

Peter Ustinov died of heart failure on the night of Sunday, March 28, 2004, at the Genolier Clinic near his home at Bursins, in the Swiss vineyards above Lake Geneva. He was 82 years old.

The clinic was close to the château where he had lived since 1971 — the Swiss home he had adopted as his permanent base, the place above the lake where he had written, worked, entertained, and grown old with characteristic grace and humour. He was surrounded by his world. He died two weeks and 19 days before his 83rd birthday.

His friend Leon Davico — the UNICEF colleague who had recruited him to the cause 35 years earlier — was among the first to confirm the news. “He was a great man,” Davico said. “He was a human being. He was a unique person, someone you could really count on. He was a giver, throughout everything, and a warm, wonderful human being.”

What the World Said When He Was Gone

The tributes poured in from every professional and humanitarian world Ustinov had touched:

• Michael Winner (director): “He was a marvelous man, a great wit, a great raconteur, a man of the world. He was a very good actor but he wasn’t used as an actor as much as he should have been because he became famous as Peter Ustinov. He was forever imitating people and telling jokes, so he sometimes forgot to learn the lines, which was annoying. I always enjoyed being with him.”
• Leon Davico (UNICEF): “He was not only the funniest person I’ve ever met, but the most intelligent. He was an attentive citizen of the world.”
• Steve Kennis (manager): “He always saw the bright side of everything.”
• Kofi Annan (UN Secretary-General) had previously joked that Ustinov was the natural successor to the UN Secretary-Generalship — a tribute that reflected how seriously the humanitarian world took his contribution.

The Most Quotable Man in the Room — His Best Aphorisms

Peter Ustinov left behind a body of quotations that stand independent of any biography — observations about life, politics, humanity, and himself that deserve to live:

• “I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilized music in the world.”
• “I rather think of myself as ethnically filthy — and proud of it.”
• “At school we were asked to name a Russian composer. I put Rimsky-Korsakov and was upbraided in front of the whole school for showing off.”
• “I only feel 59. The only difference is that having white hair means that people tend to listen now while they never did before.”
• On his army service: “I had a preference for tanks — because you can go into battle sitting down.”
• On his school report: “He shows great originality which must be curbed at all costs” (with obvious, lifelong delight).

Peter Ustinov Quick Facts

Frequently Asked Questions About Peter Ustinov

Who was Peter Ustinov and what was he famous for?

Sir Peter Ustinov (16 April 1921 — 28 March 2004) was a British actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, director, and humanitarian, widely regarded as one of the most versatile and entertaining figures in 20th-century cultural life. He was famous for winning two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor — for Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964) — for playing Hercule Poirot in six films between 1978 and 1988, for his 35 years as UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador, and for being one of the most celebrated raconteurs and mimics of his generation. He was also a successful playwright, the author of numerous novels, the director of films and operas, and the Chancellor of Durham University.

What films did Peter Ustinov win Oscars for?

Peter Ustinov won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice. He won his first Oscar for Spartacus (1960), directed by Stanley Kubrick, in which he played Batiatus — the owner and operator of the gladiatorial school. He won his second Oscar for Topkapi (1964), directed by Jules Dassin, in which he played Arthur Simpson, a small-time English con man caught up in an elaborate jewel heist in Istanbul. He was also nominated for his role as Emperor Nero in Quo Vadis (1951).

Why was Peter Ustinov’s ancestry so unusual?

Peter Ustinov came from one of the most extraordinarily mixed family backgrounds in entertainment history. His father was of Russian, German, Polish, Ethiopian, and Jewish descent — his paternal grandfather was a Russian baron, while further back in the family tree were Jewish refugees from Kraków who had married into German-Ethiopian missionary families. His mother was a French painter. Ustinov also claimed Swiss, Italian, and further French ancestry. He delighted in this mixture throughout his life, calling himself “ethnically filthy — and proud of it” and noting that despite being born in London, he could claim almost no specifically English blood.

What did Peter Ustinov do for UNICEF?

Peter Ustinov served as UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador from 1969 until his death in 2004 — 35 years of continuous service. He was recruited to the role by UNICEF official Leon Davico, who had seen him perform on stage and recognised his combination of fame, warmth, and genuine intelligence as uniquely valuable to the cause. Ustinov used his public profile to draw attention to children’s issues around the world, travelling extensively and advocating at the highest levels. He received UNICEF’s Medal for Distinguished Service in 1993. Near the end of his life, when his health had significantly deteriorated, he still attended UNICEF events in a wheelchair.

What was Peter Ustinov’s cause of death?

Peter Ustinov died of heart failure on the night of Sunday, March 28, 2004, at the Genolier Clinic in Switzerland, near his home at Bursins overlooking Lake Geneva. He was 82 years old. His health in his final years had been complicated by sciatica (which affected his mobility) and diabetes (which had reduced his vision to approximately 30 percent), but he had remained active and working until close to the end — his last film appearance was in a 2003 television movie.

How many times was Peter Ustinov married?

Peter Ustinov was married three times. His first marriage was to actress Isolde Denham (1940–1950); they had one daughter. His second marriage was to Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier (1954–1971); they had two daughters and a son, Igor. His third and final marriage was to Hélène du Lau d’Allemans in 1972; she survived him. He had four children in total, and was survived by all four along with his third wife at the time of his death.

What is Ustinov College at Durham University?

In 2003, Durham University renamed its Graduate Society “Ustinov College” in honour of Sir Peter Ustinov’s contributions as Chancellor of the university from 1992 until his death in 2004. Ustinov College continues to bear his name and serves as Durham’s graduate college, reflecting the significant investment he made in the university’s life and governance over more than a decade. He had previously served as the first Rector of the University of Dundee from 1968 to 1973.