Actor Herbert Lom Dead at 95

Though best known for playing Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, the Herbert Lom PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for Hammer Studios in 1962  is the version I grew up and the actor had a ton of  cult and horror credits including as Captain Nemo in MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961) and as Van Helsing in Jess Franco’s COUNT DRACULA (1970). Born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917, he began performing on stage and screen in Czechoslovakia, before leaving for England at the start of World War II. He made his film debut in 1937 and entertained us all throughout eight decades of sterling work, appearing in over 100 films.

From The BBC News:

Actor Herbert Lom, best known for playing Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 95. The Czech-born, London-based actor starred opposite Peter Sellers in several films as Inspector Clouseau’s irritable boss. Lom appeared in more than 100 films during his 60-year acting career, including such classics as The Ladykillers, Spartacus and El Cid. His family said he died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday. Lom also portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte on two occasions. One of them came in the 1956 screen adaptation of Tolstoy’s War And Peace, also starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. He first appeared as police chief Dreyfus in 1964′s A Shot In The Dark, a character who became increasingly mentally unstable as a result of Clouseau’s incompetence as the films went on.

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