Friday, September 28, 2012

HERBERT LOM [11 Sep, 1917-27 Sep, 2012]

HERBERT LOM PASSES INTO HISTORY AT 95

Herbert Lom

Herbert Lom was a familiar face on the big screen for more than 60 years, playing a variety of exotic characters, most notably Chief Inspector Dreyfus, long-suffering boss of Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films.
He was born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich  ze Schluderpacheru, in Prague in 1917, of aristocratic parents.
He grew up in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and was educated at the city's university.
Lom began acting on stage and screen in what had by now become Czechoslovakia. He left his homeland for England at the start of World War II where he undertook additional training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
His English language debut came in the 1940 feature, film Mein Kampf - My Crimes, with barely a hint of a Czech accent.
He was offered a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox and began securing leading roles including Napoleon Bonaparte in The Young Mr Pitt (1942) and the same character again in War and Peace in 1956.
In a rare starring role he played twin trapeze artists in Dual Alibi (1946).
By the 1950s Lom was considered a British counterpart to the screen idol Charles Boyer, whom he resembled.
He did not get the same number of starring roles as Boyer, though he developed a growing reputation as a character actor.
He played opposite Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers in Ealing comedy The Ladykillers (1955), and opposite Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon and Rita Hayworth in Fire Down Below (1957).
Exotic features Later he became a familiar face on British TV in the 1960s when he starred as Dr Roger Corder in the series The Human Jungle.
More notable cinema roles came as Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island in 1961, a pirate in Spartacus (1960) and Ben Yusuf in El Cid (1961).
In 1962 he was the Phantom in the Hammer Films production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Herbert Lom (second from left) with the rest of the Ladykillers cast 
 Lom (second from left) first appeared with Peter Sellers (left) in The Ladykillers
 
Lom's exotic features and manic eyes made him ideally suited for horror movies and saw him play doctors, vampire hunters, witchfinders, murderers and all manner of obsessive characters.
One controversial film - Mark of the Devil, in which he starred - was acclaimed both as a work of genius and denounced for its inclusion of a litany of medieval torture techniques.
"It's my job to give my best," he said.
 "I can't give anything else."
Sick bags were given out to members of the audience during the film's opening run.
When asked about his various roles in low-budget movies, he said he felt it was better to be miscast than not be cast at all.
It was Lom's depiction of various madmen that persuaded director Blake Edwards to give him his most famous role, as Inspector Clouseau's boss Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movies.
Although he was not in the 1963 original, he appeared in all the subsequent Pink Panther movies up to Son of the Pink Panther in 1993.
Lom's manic depiction of the man frustrated and literally driven mad by Clouseau's incompetence, resulting in the familiar nervous twitch, became one of the highlights of the Panther movies.
"It was a godsend when I was offered the part", he once said. "But it did become a double-edged sword as people started to associate me with Dreyfus and I lost a number of dramatic parts as a result of it."
In 1983 Lom worked with director David Cronenberg in The Dead Zone opposite Christopher Walken in one of the more successful adaptations of a Stephen King novel.
Lom was married to Dina Schea in 1948 and divorced in 1971. In the meantime he had a long relationship with the celebrated potter, Brigitte Appleby, with whom he had a daughter, Josephine.
As well as acting, Lom wrote two novels Enter A Spy (1971) and Dr Guillotine (1993).
The actor once grumbled at directors who asked him to give it his best. "It's my job to give my best," he said. "I can't give anything else."


HIS FILMOGRAPHY
Herbert Lom 
Herbert Lom (left) as Dreyfus and Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976).



1994 The Detectives (TV series)
Van der Dyck
Dutch Cops (1994) … Van der Dyck
 
1991 The Pope Must Diet
Vittorio Corelli
 
1991 La setta
Moebius Kelly
 
1989/II Masque of the Red Death
Ludwig
 
1989 River of Death
Colonel Ricardo Diaz
 
1988 Skeleton Coast
Elia
 
1988 Whoops Apocalypse
Gen. Mosquera
 
1988 The Crystal Eye
 
1987 Going Bananas
MacIntosh
 
1987 Scoop (TV movie)
Mr. Baldwin
 
1985 King Solomon's Mines
Colonel Bockner
 
1984 Memed My Hawk
Ali Safa Bey
 
1984 Lace (TV movie)
Monsieur Chardin
 
1982 BBC Play of the Month (TV series)
Dr. Görtler
 
1981 Peter and Paul (TV movie)
Barnabas
 
1980 Hopscotch
Yaskov
 
1980 Sam Marlow, Private Eye
Mr. Zebra
 
1977 Charleston
Inspector Watkins
 
1973 -- And Now the Screaming Starts!
Henry Fengriffen
 
1973 Dark Places
Prescott
 
1972/I Asylum
Dr. Byron (segment 4 "Mannikins of Horror")
 
1971 Murders in the Rue Morgue
Rene Marot
 
1971 Hawaii Five-O (TV series)
Mondrago
Highest Castle, Deepest Grave (1971) … Mondrago
 
1970 Mister Jerico (TV movie)
Victor Russo
 
1970 Mark of the Devil
Lord Cumberland
 
1969 Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
Doctor Hassler
 
1969 99 Women
Governor Santos
 
1968 Assignment to Kill
Matt Wilson
 
1968 Eve
Diego
 
1968 Villa Rides
General Huerta
 
1967 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV series)
Randolph
The Five Daughters Affair: Part II (1967) … Randolph
The Five Daughters Affair: Part I (1967) … Randolph
 
1966 Gambit
Shahbandar
 
1966 Bang! Bang! You're Dead!
Mr. Casimir
 
1965 Return from the Ashes
Dr. Charles Bovard
 
1963-1964 The Human Jungle (TV series)
Dr. Roger Corder
The Man Who Fell Apart (1964) … Dr. Roger Corder
The Quick and the Dead (1964) … Dr. Roger Corder
Heartbeats in a Tin Box (1964) … Dr. Roger Corder
Ring of Hate (1964) … Dr. Roger Corder
Enemy Outside (1964) … Dr. Roger Corder
 
1962 Tiara Tahiti
Chong Sing
 
1961 El Cid
Ben Yussuf
 
1961 The Frightened City
Waldo Zhernikov
 
1961 I Like Money
Castel Benac
 
1960 I Aim at the Stars
Anton Reger
 
1959 Third Man on the Mountain
Emil Saxo
 
1959 North West Frontier
Van Leyden
 
1959 No Trees in the Street
Wilkie
 
1958 Room 43
Nick Biaggi
 
1958 The Roots of Heaven
Orsini
 
1958 Intent to Kill
Juan Menda
 
1958 Chase a Crooked Shadow
Police Commissar Vargas
 
1957 Action of the Tiger
Trifon, Albania Bandit
 
1957 Hell Drivers
Gino Rossi
 
1957 Fire Down Below
Harbour Master
 
1956 The Errol Flynn Theatre (TV series)
Professor Hahnemann / Steve
The Sealed Room (1956) … Professor Hahnemann
The Girl in Blue Jeans (1956) … Steve
 
1956 Afternoon Film Festival (TV series)
 
1955 The Ladykillers
Louis (a.k.a. 'Mr. Harvey')
 
1954 Twist of Fate
Emil Landosh
 
1954 Star of India
Narbonne
 
1954 The Love Lottery
André Amico
 
1953 Shoot First
Sandorski
 
1953 Project M7
Dr. Alex Leon
 
1952 The Paris Express
Julius de Koster, Jr.
 
1952 Mr. Denning Drives North
Mados
 
1951 BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (TV series)
Dr. Kurt Fischer
Night of the Fourth (1951) … Dr. Kurt Fischer
 
1951 Two on the Tiles
Ford
 
1951 Hell Is Sold Out
Dominic Danges
 
1950 Cage of Gold
Rahman
 
1950 The Black Rose
Anthemus
 
1950 The Great Manhunt
Karl Theodor
 
1950 Night and the City
Kristo
 
1950 Golden Salamander
Rankl
 
1949 The Lost People
Guest (uncredited)
 
1948 Brass Monkey
Peter Hobart
 
1948 Lost Daughter
Fritz Kottler Hendlemann
 
1948 Good-Time Girl
Max Vine
 
1948 Snowbound
Von Kellerman, alias Keramikos
 
1948 Dual Alibi
Jules de Lisle/Georges de Lisle
 
1946 Appointment with Crime
Gregory Lang
 
1945 The Seventh Veil
Dr. Larsen
 
1944 Hotel Reserve
Andre Roux
 
1943 The Dark Tower
Stephen Torg
 
1943 At Dawn We Die
Kurtz
 
1942 Secret Mission
Medical Officer
 
1938 Bozí mlýny
 
1937 Zena pod krízem
Gustav, jeho syn

No comments: