The 1964 movie directed by Stanley Kubrick stars Peter Sellers as, among other roles, the president of the United States and the title role, a doctor who is a former Nazi but now is a member of the US government. The plot follows the US government's attempt to deal with the crisis after a rogue general orders an attack on Russia and the end of the world becomes a possibility.
According to one of the screenwriters, , it was the movie's production studio Columbia Pictures that asked that Sellers play multiple roles, believing that the 1962 movie "Lolita" had done well because Sellers' character dressed as multiple people. Columbia asked that Sellers play four characters, but the actor ended up taking on three, declining to play a general with a Southern accent. "Am having serious difficulty with the various roles," Sellers wrote Kubrick via telegram, according to Southern. "Now hear this: there is no way, repeat, no way, I can play the Texas pilot, 'Major King Kong.' I have a complete block against that accent... Please forgive."
