Herbert Lom | "Pink Panther" actor, 95

But Mr. Lom was most famous for playing Charles Dreyfus, the increasingly unhinged boss to Peter Sellers' befuddled detective Clouseau in the popular "Pink Panther" series. The two actors starred together from A Shot in the Dark in 1964 until Sellers' death in 1980, and Lom continued in the series until Son of the Pink Panther in 1993.

Alec Lom said his father was forever grateful to director Blake Edwards for offering him a comic role after years of being cast as "the suave Eastern Bloc gangster with the dark looks."

Born Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevic ze Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917, Mr. Lom came to Britain just before World War II and began his career as a radio announcer with the BBC's Czech-language service.

Adopting the shortest stage name he could think of, Mr. Lom had his first major movie role as Napoleon in 1942's The Young Mr. Pitt. Horror roles included the title character in Hammer Studios' The Phantom of the Opera in 1962, and Van Helsing in 1970's Count Dracula, opposite Christopher Lee.

A postwar American career was stymied when Mr. Lom was denied a visa though he later appeared on U.S. TV series. - AP