Herbert Lom, chief inspector in Pink Panther movies, dies at 95
He was not on the list.
Czech-born film star Herbert Lom, best known as the deranged Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the "Pink Panther" comedies, has died, according to British media. He was 95.
His agent was not immediately able to confirm the reports that Lom died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday. They did not specify where, but he had been based in London.
Born into a poor aristocratic family in Prague in 1917, he shortened his complicated name to Lom and appeared in a handful of locally made movies before emigrating to Britain before the outbreak of World War Two and making his home there.
There he built a career that spanned over 100 films and included more than its fair share of villains.
"In English eyes all foreigners are sinister," he was quoted as saying resignedly in 1991.
He portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte twice, including in "War and Peace" in 1956 alongside Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn, and the King of Siam in the first London production of the stage musical "The King and I" in 1953.
Two years later he collaborated with Peter Sellers in the dark comedy "The Ladykillers", and they would work together again in the 1960s and 1970s on the Pink Panther series.
In them Lom played the increasingly crazed Dreyfus alongside Sellers' hapless Inspector Clouseau, and the success of his character owed much to Lom's own improvisations. Lom starred in his only regular TV series, the British drama The Human Jungle (1963–64), playing a Harley Street psychiatrist for two seasons.
In an interview with the Independent newspaper in 2004, Lom recalled that it was him who invented Dreyfus's nervous twitch that became his trademark gesture.
"I started winking out of nervousness, and couldn't stop," he said. "It wasn't in the script but (director) Blake Edwards loved it. But it became a problem. I made those films for 20 years, and after 10 years they ran out of good scripts.
"They used to say to me, 'Herbert, wink here, wink.' And I said, 'I'm not going to wink. You write a good scene and I won't have to wink.'"
He also wrote two novels, "Enter A Spy" published in 1971 and "Dr Guillotine" in 1993. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato.
His agent was not immediately able to confirm the reports that Lom died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday. They did not specify where, but he had been based in London.
Born into a poor aristocratic family in Prague in 1917, he shortened his complicated name to Lom and appeared in a handful of locally made movies before emigrating to Britain before the outbreak of World War Two and making his home there.
There he built a career that spanned over 100 films and included more than its fair share of villains.
"In English eyes all foreigners are sinister," he was quoted as saying resignedly in 1991.
He portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte twice, including in "War and Peace" in 1956 alongside Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn, and the King of Siam in the first London production of the stage musical "The King and I" in 1953.
Two years later he collaborated with Peter Sellers in the dark comedy "The Ladykillers", and they would work together again in the 1960s and 1970s on the Pink Panther series.
In them Lom played the increasingly crazed Dreyfus alongside Sellers' hapless Inspector Clouseau, and the success of his character owed much to Lom's own improvisations. Lom starred in his only regular TV series, the British drama The Human Jungle (1963–64), playing a Harley Street psychiatrist for two seasons.
In an interview with the Independent newspaper in 2004, Lom recalled that it was him who invented Dreyfus's nervous twitch that became his trademark gesture.
"I started winking out of nervousness, and couldn't stop," he said. "It wasn't in the script but (director) Blake Edwards loved it. But it became a problem. I made those films for 20 years, and after 10 years they ran out of good scripts.
"They used to say to me, 'Herbert, wink here, wink.' And I said, 'I'm not going to wink. You write a good scene and I won't have to wink.'"
He also wrote two novels, "Enter A Spy" published in 1971 and "Dr Guillotine" in 1993. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato.
Selected filmography
Žena pod křížem
(1937) as Gustav, Hodan's son
Boží mlýny (1938)
as Chasník
The Young Mr Pitt
(1942) as Napoleon
Secret Mission
(1942) as Medical Officer
Tomorrow We Live
(1943) as Kurtz
The Dark Tower
(1943) as Stephen Torg
Hotel Reserve
(1944) as Andre Roux
The Seventh Veil
(1945) as Dr. Larsen
Night Boat to
Dublin (1946) as Keitel
Appointment with
Crime (1946) as Gregory Lang
Dual Alibi (1947)
as Jules de Lisle / Georges de Lisle
Snowbound (1948)
as Keramikos
Good-Time Girl
(1948) as Max Vine
The Brass Monkey
(1948) as Peter Hobart
Portrait from Life
(1948) as Fritz Kottler Hendlmann
The Lost People
(1949) as Guest (uncredited)
Golden Salamander
(1950) as Rankl
Night and the City
(1950) as Kristo
State Secret
(1950) as Karl Theodor
The Black Rose (1950)
as Anthemus
Cage of Gold
(1950) as Rahman
Hell Is Sold Out
(1951) as Dominic Danges
Two on the Tiles
(1951) as Ford
Mr. Denning Drives
North (1952) as Mados
Whispering Smith
Hits London (1952) as Roger Ford
The Ringer (1952)
as Maurice Meister
The Man Who
Watched Trains Go By (1952) as Julius de Koster, Jr.
The Net (1953) as
Dr. Alex Leon
Rough Shoot (1953)
as Sandorski
The Love Lottery
(1954) as André Amico
Star of India
(1954) as Vicomte de Narbonne
Beautiful Stranger
(1954) as Emile Landosh
The Ladykillers
(1955) as Louis
War and Peace
(1956) as Napoleon
Fire Down Below
(1957) as Harbour Master
Hell Drivers
(1957) as Gino Rossi
Action of the
Tiger (1957) as Trifon
Chase a Crooked
Shadow (1958) as Police Commissar Vargas
I Accuse! (1958)
as Major du Paty de Clam
Intent to Kill
(1958) as Juan Menda
The Roots of
Heaven (1958) as Orsini
Passport to Shame
(1958) as Nick Biaggi
No Trees in the
Street (1959) as Wilkie
The Big Fisherman
(1959) as Herod Antipas
North West
Frontier (1959) (aka Flame Over India) as Peter van Leyden
Third Man on the
Mountain (1959) as Emil Saxo
I Aim at the Stars
(1960) as Anton Reger
Spartacus (1960)
as Tigranes Levantus (pirate envoy)
Mr. Topaze (1961)
as Castel Benac
Mysterious Island
(1961) as Captain Nemo
The Frightened
City (1961) as Waldo Zhernikov
El Cid (1961) as
Ben Yusuf
The Phantom of the
Opera (1962) as The Phantom
Tiara Tahiti
(1962) as Chong Sing
Treasure of the
Silver Lake (1962) as Colonel Brinkley
The Horse Without
a Head [fr] (1963, TV film) as Schiapa
The Human Jungle
(1963-1964, TV series, 26 episodes) as Dr. Roger Corder
A Shot in the Dark
(1964) as Police Commissioner Charles Dreyfus
Uncle Tom's Cabin
(1965) as Simon Legree
Return from the
Ashes (1965) as Dr. Charles Bovard
Our Man in
Marrakesh (1966) as Mr. Casimir
Gambit (1966) as
Ahmad Shahbandar
The Karate Killers
(1967) as Randolph
Die Nibelungen:
Kriemhild's Revenge (1967) as King Etzel (Attila)
Villa Rides (1968)
as General Huerta
Eve (1968) as
Diego
Assignment to Kill
(1968) as Matt Wilson
99 Women (1969) as
Governor Santos
Doppelgänger
(1969) as Dr Kurt Hassler
Mark of the Devil
(1970) as Lord Cumberland
Mister Jerico
(1970, TV film) as Rosso
Count Dracula
(1970) as Van Helsing
Dorian Gray (1970)
as Henry Wotton
Murders in the Rue
Morgue (1971) as René Marot
Hawaii Five-O
("Highest Castle, Deepest Grave", 1971, TV) as Mondrago
Asylum (1972) as
Dr. Byron (segment: "Mannikins of Horror")
Dark Places (1972)
as Prescott
And Now the
Screaming Starts! (1973) as Sir Henry Fengriffin
And Then There
Were None (1974) as Dr. Edward Armstrong
The Return of the
Pink Panther (1975) as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus
The Pink Panther
Strikes Again (1976) as Former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus
Charleston (1977)
as Inspector Watkins
Revenge of the
Pink Panther (1978) as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus
The Lady Vanishes
(1979) as Dr. Hartz
The Man with
Bogart's Face (1980) as Mr. Zebra
Hopscotch (1980)
as Yaskov
Peter and Paul
(1981) as Barnabas
Trail of the Pink
Panther (1982) as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus
Curse of the Pink
Panther (1983) as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus
The Dead Zone
(1983) as Dr. Sam Weizak
Lace (1984, TV
miniseries) as Monsieur Chardin
Memed, My Hawk
(1984) as Ali Safa Bey
King Solomon's
Mines (1985) as Colonel Bockner
Scoop (TV film,
1987) as Mr. Baldwin
Master of
Dragonard Hill (1987) as Le Farge
Going Bananas
(1987) as Captain Mackintosh
Skeleton Coast
[it] (1988) as Elia
Whoops Apocalypse
(1988) as General Mosquera
River of Death
(1989) as Colonel Ricardo Diaz
Ten Little Indians
(1989) as General Romensky
The Devil's
Daughter (1991) as Moebius Kelly
The Pope Must Die
(US: The Pope Must Diet!, 1991) as Vittorio Corelli
Son of the Pink
Panther (1993) as Police Commissioner Charles Dreyfus
Agatha Christie's
Marple, episode "Murder at the Vicarage" (2002), as Augustin Dufosse
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