By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt

Actor Herbert Lom who appeard in over 100 films, but was beloved for his role as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films, passed away on Thursday in his sleep. The popular actor was 95.

Lom was born Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevic ze Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917, but changed his last name to Lom when he began appearing in motion pictures in the late 1930s. Lom escaped Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia for England in 1939, and began appearing in small roles in British films in the 1940s. His breakthrough role came in 1942 when he was cast as Napoleon Bonaparte in The Young Mr. Pitt.

In 1955, Lom starred opposite Alec Guinness and legendary actor Peter Sellers in The Ladykillers. Lom would go on to form a great friendship with Sellers by appearing in the Pink Panther films together, in which Sellers played the bumbling French detective Inspector Jacques Clouseau and Lom played his Chief Inspector, Charles Dreyfus.

NewzBreaker extends our deepest condolences to the Lom family in their time of grief….