Veteran actor, Pink Panther’s Dreyfus
Herbert Lom, the Czech-born actor best known as Inspector Clouseau’s long-suffering boss in the comic Pink Panther movies, died Thursday, his son said. He was 95.
Alec Lom said his father died peacefully in his sleep at home in London.
Herbert Lom’s handsomely lugubrious look and rich, resonant voice were suited to comedy, horror and everything in between. It served him well over a six-decade career in which rolesincluded Napoleon Bonaparte - whom he played twice - and the Phantom of the Opera.
Lom was most famous for playing Charles Dreyfus, the increasingly unhinged boss to Peter Sellers’ befuddled detective Clouseau in the popular Pink Panther series.
Born Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevic ze Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917, Lom went to Britain just before World War II and began his career as a radio announcer with the BBC’s Czechlanguage service.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/28/2012