Inspector Clouseau of the character. The film also introduces two of the series regular characters: his superior, Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who is driven mad by Clouseau's blundering of the investigation; and his long-suffering Chinese man servant, Cato (Burt Kwouk), who is expected to improve Clouseau's martial arts skills by attacking him at random. Sellers stepped away from playing the character following this movie, but returned in "The Return of the Pink Panther" (1975) and its sequels. When the character returned for the film "Inspector Clouseau" (1968), he was portrayed by American actor Alan Arkin; Edwards was not involved in this production.
Trail of the Pink Panther in the fashion of Jack Lemmon's Professor Fate). When Sellers died, United Artists tried to get Dudley Moore to play Clouseau in the Sellers-penned "Romance of the Pink Panther". Moore wouldn't do it without Edwards and was only willing to play Clouseau once as a tribute to Sellers (knowing "Romance" was to have ended the series, according from a LA Times interview with Moore in 1980). United Artists wanted the series to continue, but Edwards wouldn't use another actor as Clouseau, no doubt remembering the negative reception that "Inspector Clouseau" suffered upon release in 1968 (a production which featured Alan