Herbert Lom

Herbert Lom was born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich ze Schluderpacheru on September 11, 1917 in Prague, Austria-Hungary.

He is best known as playing Inspector Clouseau's insane boss, Commissioner Charles Dreyfus in seven of Blake Edwards Pink Panther films.

Herbert Lom made his filmd debut in the Czech film Zena pod krizem (1937). In 1939, he moved to Great Britain and made many appearances in British films throughout the 1940s, usually in villainous roles, although he later appeared in comedies as well.

His career picked up in the 1940s and he played, among other roles, Napoleon Bonaparte in The Young Mr. Pitt (1942). He would play Napoleon Bonaparte a second time in War and Peace (1956). In a rare starring role, Lom played twin trapeze artists in Dual Alibi (1946).

During the 1950s, he was in The Lady Killers (1955) with Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. In 1957, he wasin Fire Down Below with Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon and Rita Hayworth.

However, his career took off in the 1960s when he was cast as Commissioner Charles Dreyfus in A Shot in the Dark (1964). He would play Commissioner Dreyfus in six more Pink Panther films. The last time being in 1983 in Son of the Pink Panther.

He also appeared in The Phantom of the Opera (1962), Mysterious Island (1961), El Cid (1961) and Spartacus (1960).

Herbert Lom continued to work steadily through the mid 1990s. Appearing in such films as Asylum (1972), Ten Little Indians (1974), Hopscotch (1980), and The Dead Zone (1983).

His final appearance was in 2004 in television's Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage.