orig. Richard Henry Sellers
born Sept. 8, 1925, Southsea, Hampshire, Eng.
died July 24, 1980, London
British film actor.
The son of vaudeville performers, he acted from childhood in his parents' comedy act. In the early 1950s he performed on radio in the popular comedy series The Goon Show . He began appearing in the movies in the mid-1950s; his performances in The Mouse That Roared (1959), I'm All Right, Jack (1959), Lolita (1962), and Dr. Strangelove (1964), in which he played three characters, were especially well received. He was enormously popular as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the comedy The Pink Panther (1964) and its sequels, and he later won acclaim for his role as a simpleminded gardener in Being There (1979). His large range of characters earned him international stardom at a time when rigid typecasting was usual.