Godspeed, Herbert. May you finally find your nose.
September 27, 2012 8:12 AM   Subscribe

News has come in today of the passing of Herbert Lom, best known for his role of Chief Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films. He was 95.
posted by stannate (31 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Clouseau!

The Pink Panther movies were some of my favorites as a kid. And Lom was great in Night and The City, one of my favorite film noirs. Rest in Peace.
posted by dortmunder at 8:18 AM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


He was a much more subtle actor (usually) than one would suppose from his Pink Panther work. I particularly enjoyed him in Gambit, The Ladykillers, and as Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island.

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posted by ubiquity at 8:19 AM on September 27, 2012


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eye twitch
posted by zippy at 8:25 AM on September 27, 2012 [6 favorites]


Every day and in every way, I am getting better, and better.

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posted by jazon at 8:27 AM on September 27, 2012 [4 favorites]


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"...I seem to have stabbed myself with the letter opener."
posted by aught at 8:30 AM on September 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


Merci, Sheef Inspector Deyfus.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:30 AM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


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posted by Smart Dalek at 8:31 AM on September 27, 2012


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posted by jeffkramer at 8:32 AM on September 27, 2012


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posted by jquinby at 8:37 AM on September 27, 2012


Had just come to see if a post about this had happened yet.

He was so masterful at a lot of what he did. He will, of course, be best remembered for Dreyfus, but there was a lot more to his career than just that. I hope TCM will do a day full of his movies as a retrospective.

95 is a great age to live to, and he had a remarkable career.

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posted by hippybear at 8:41 AM on September 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


"After the war, Lom was denied a visa to the US, and with it the chance of a Hollywood contract – presumably, in the febrile anti-communist atmosphere his Czech origins had become a problem." Herbert Lom: a career in clips
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:43 AM on September 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


Was his eye the last thing to go?

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posted by sonascope at 8:44 AM on September 27, 2012 [5 favorites]


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Listened to an interview with him on the radio not too long ago, talking about his life. Came over as a really interesting guy.

Although he'll probably always be remembered for the Pink Panther he was great in Ladykillers, Night And The City and the utterly brilliant Hell Drivers
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:52 AM on September 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


If we'd just given him ten men like Clouseau he could have destroyed the world.
posted by delfin at 8:57 AM on September 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


We just watched Night and the City! The Pink Panther movies were, in many ways, very much over my child's head, but I loved his character.

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posted by computech_apolloniajames at 9:16 AM on September 27, 2012


The final scene in Return of the Pink Panther.


posted by zarq at 9:21 AM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


As much as I love the original Pink Panther movies, my first and favorite exposure to Herbert Lom was in the basically-a-clip-show Trail of the Pink Panther, released after Peter Sellers' death, in which a pre-Patsy Joanna Lumley plays a French reporter interviewing everyone connected to Clouseau.

My parents didn't believe in things like "cable" or "fun." One of the very few VHS tapes we owned in the late 1980s had a taped-from-TV version of The Secret Garden that apparently overlapped TotPP (where they'd taped THAT, I'll never know). Consequently, we watched this tape all. the. time. I've never actually seen the opening. I didn't even know it was about the Pink Panther gem getting stolen again.

In (what we viewed as) the opening scene, Herbert Lom had some of the most ridiculous quotes, the kind that appealed directly to 8- and 10-year-olds whose only other option for entertainment was a 30-minute Michael Jordan "Come Fly With Me" video. Quotes like, "He had the brain of a retarded clam" and "You think you're safe... and suddenly up behind you comes... 'Puke-a-byoo!'"

So I will head over to my brother's Facebook page today, with a long and resigned sigh, and post an article about Herbert Lom's passing. And you had better believe that I will label it "Puke-a-byoo!"
posted by Madamina at 9:48 AM on September 27, 2012 [4 favorites]


It got to the point that my father's face started turning red and he was holding back howls of laughter the SECOND he saw Lom's face on the screen in a Pink Panther. I always associate my dad laughing with this guy.
posted by jscott at 9:59 AM on September 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


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posted by Gelatin at 10:18 AM on September 27, 2012


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My dad took me to the movies to see Revenge of the Pink Panther when I was barely old enough to keep the theater seat from flipping back up under my 5 year-old self.
posted by PuppyCat at 10:20 AM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


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I always remember him as the journalist from North West Frontier. I thought he was great in that movie.
posted by antiwiggle at 11:19 AM on September 27, 2012


Herbert L'homme? He's the Man...
posted by hwestiii at 12:11 PM on September 27, 2012


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posted by Lynsey at 12:45 PM on September 27, 2012


He had a great face. Was a great heavy in many movies. He did a rather tamely made-up Phantom of the Opera that I liked when I was a kid.
posted by Trochanter at 12:49 PM on September 27, 2012


Lom's Phantom. It's a pretty cool take on the mask, actually.
posted by Trochanter at 12:52 PM on September 27, 2012


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posted by Halloween Jack at 1:39 PM on September 27, 2012


"He is on his way to Gstaad."
"Gstaad?"
"Yes, today a paradise in the Swiss Alps. Tomorrow a wasteland."
posted by TomSophieIvy at 2:46 PM on September 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


His eye! He was in some spy thing - sorry I don't remember the name - but he had a camera built into one eye in order to record secret documents. He removed the eye/camera and set it on a sink.
posted by Cranberry at 3:56 PM on September 27, 2012


One of the funniest funerals in movie history. R.I.P.
posted by Ber at 6:49 PM on September 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


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posted by wrapper at 6:50 PM on September 27, 2012


I preferred the earlier, Dreyfus-light Pink Panther movies, but I don't think it was Lom's fault. More a matter of shoddy writing- "How do we get laughs? Let's center on Clouseau driving Dreyfus nuts!".
posted by dunkadunc at 7:52 PM on September 28, 2012


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