“Forgotten Hollywood”- Pink Panther Actor is Gone…

Posted on September 28, 2012 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

    Herbert Lom, the fabulous co-star in the Pink Panther motion picture-series, has died. He played the long-suffering Police Chief Charles Dreyfus in seven movies, beginning in 1964 with A Shot in the Dark.

HERBERT LOM             PETER SELLERS  

   As a young adult, Lom became a serious dramatic actor.  He escaped to England in January, 1939 because of an impending Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. His first role was in 1942 in The Young Mr. Pitt. He worked for the next six decades.

   Lom’s early movie career included British faire, and a couple of stints at Hammer Studios. Notable parts were assigned in The Seventh Veil, Night and the City, Whispering Smith Hits London, War and Peace, and The Ladykillers. When Hollywood finally beckoned, Lom  already settled into playing richly villainous character roles. Lom appeared in Fire Down Below (starring Robert Mitchum, Rita Hayworth, and Jack Lemmon), Mysterious Island, El Cid, and Spartacus. Herbert worked opposite Christopher Lee as vampire hunter Van Helsing in Count Dracula.

   Herbert Lom starred as the King of Siam in the original London production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical The King and I. His singing voice is heard on the cast recording.

   He spent his last years crediting the late Peter Sellers for prolonging his career. The Dreyfus character was so durable, Herbert continued after the troubled English actor’s death in 1980. Herbert’s final  appearance was in the seventh Pink Panther film in 1993.

   Herbert Lom died peacefully in his sleep, with his legacy firmly in tact. He was 95.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2012 at 12:02 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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