Dennis Selinger

Dennis Selinger was one of Britain's most powerful theatrical agents who numbered among his clients such stars as David Niven, Peter Sellers, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Bob Hoskins and Ben Kingsley. Selinger was born in Brighton in 1921, the youngest child of an entrepreneur, and his eldest sister became a kind of surrogate mother to him. She married the theater agent Monty Lyons and Selinger went to work in the Lyons office at the age of 14. When Lyons retired Selinger formed a new agency with Lew and Leslie Grade which eventually became ICM (International Creative Management). During World War Two he served as a gunner in Burma and it was there that he spotted the young Peter Sellers who he encouraged to try a career in show business. He took Sellers on as a client when he opened his first office in London. Peter Sellers remained with Selinger throughout his whole career. Selinger was noted for looking after his clients in a personal way and was always willing to help them both in their professional and private lives. His name was a byword for expertise within show business. Among the many American performers that he represented at ICM were Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Harold Lloyd and Barbra Streisand. He married Deborah Winchester in 1988 but the couple later divorced.