Veteran actor, Pink Panther’s Dreyfus

LONDON — Herbert Lom, the Czech-born actor best known as Inspector Clouseau’s long-suffering boss in the comic Pink Panther movies, died Thursday, his son said. He was 95.

Alec Lom said his father died peacefully in his sleep at home in London.

Herbert Lom’s handsomely lugubrious look and rich, resonant voice were suited to comedy, horror and everything in between. It served him well over a six-decade career in roles that included Napoleon Bonaparte — whom he played twice — and the Phantom of the Opera.

The London-based star appeared in more than 100 films, including Spartacus and ElCid, acted alongside film greats including Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas, and worked for such directors as Stanley Kubrick and David Cronenberg.

But Lom was most famous for playing Charles Dreyfus, the increasingly unhinged boss to Peter Sellers’ befuddled detective Clouseau in the popular PinkPanther series. The two actors starred together from AShotintheDark in 1964 until Sellers’ death in 1980, and Lom continued in the series until Son ofthePink

Panther in 1993. Born Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevic ze Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917, Lom went to Britain just before World War II and began his career as a radio announcer with the BBC’s Czech-language service.

Lom is survived by his sons Nicholas and Alec, and his daughter Josephine — named after Napoleon’s wife.