The Pink Panther portrayed by David Niven, Peter Sellers's performance was so popular that the resulting series was built on the Clouseau character, rather than the Phantom character. Niven's and Sellers's co-stars included Capucine, Robert Wagner, and Claudia Cardinale. Released less than a year after "The Pink Panther". Clouseau returns to muddle his way through a murder investigation. This marks the first appearance of Herbert Lom's Commissioner Dreyfus, his assistant François (portrayed by André Maranne), and Clouseau's manservant, Cato (portrayed by Burt Kwouk). Co-starring Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Graham Stark and Tracy Reed. This film stars Alan Arkin as Clouseau, and does not
The Pink Panther "Return.") The plot of the first film is based on the theft of this diamond. The diamond reappears in several later films in the series, "The Return of the Pink Panther," "Trail of the Pink Panther," and "Curse of the Pink Panther." It also appears in the revival of the Inspector Clouseau character in the much later Steve Martin films "The Pink Panther" (2006), and its sequel "The Pink Panther 2" (2009). The name "the Pink Panther" became attached to Inspector Clouseau in much the same way that "Frankenstein" has been used in film titles to refer to Dr. Frankenstein's