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.
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