Peter Ustinov

Sir Peter died at his home in Switzerland yesterday.

His manager told Sky News: "The world has lost a great artist and a great humanitarian." Steve Kennis said Sir Peter had returned from holiday in Thailand at the end of January with a mystery illness and he never recovered.

A well-known actor of stage and screen (both large and small), he starred in numerous films including Spartacus (1960) - for which he won one of his two best supporting actor Oscars - and Topkapi (1964), for which he won the other.

More recently he starred in The Bachelor (1999) with Renee Zellweger and Chris O'Donnell.

Paying tribute to Sir Peter, Mr Kennis added: "He would always see the bright side of something."

And he said: "He was a giver throughout everything and a very wonderful warm human being."

His biographer, John Miller, described him as "one of they funniest men I've ever met". And Mr Miller added: "He always said that he acted for a living and he wrote because he must."

Ustinov was known to proudly say: "I have Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Ethiopian blood in my veins."

He was also fluent in French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and English, and could get by in Turkish and Greek.

Knighted in 1990, he was also a goodwill ambassador for Unicef since 1971.