Inspector Clouseau is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and by Alan Arkin in the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau and, in a cameo, by Roger Moore in the 1983 film Curse of the Pink Panther.
12 Facts About Inspector Clouseau
2.
Inspector Clouseau is an inept and incompetent police detective in the French Surete, whose investigations quickly turn to chaos.
3.
Inspector Clouseau is promoted to Chief Inspector over the course of the series, and is regarded in other countries as France's greatest detective, until they encounter him directly.
4.
Inspector Clouseau's incompetence, combined with his luck and his occasionally correct interpretations of the situation, frustrate his direct superior, former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus so intensely, Dreyfus is eventually driven to insanity.
5.
Inspector Clouseau is a patriotic Frenchman; later films reveal he had fought in the French Resistance during the Second World War.
6.
Inspector Clouseau is repeatedly perplexed by transvestites, to the extent that he addresses them as "Sir or Madam".
7.
Inspector Clouseau has been prone to infatuation ever since the first film, in which his antagonist cuckolds him.
8.
Sellers maintained that Inspector Clouseau's ego made the character's klutziness funnier, in the attempt to remain elegant and refined while causing chaos.
9.
The Inspector Clouseau character was a supporting, comedic role as Lytton's incompetent and oblivious antagonist.
10.
The film introduces two of the series' regular characters: his superior, Commissioner Dreyfus, who is driven mad by Inspector Clouseau's blundering in the investigation; and his long-suffering Chinese manservant, Cato, who is expected to improve Inspector Clouseau's martial arts skills by attacking him at random.
11.
The plot centers on Inspector Clouseau seeking to retrieve the stolen Pink Panther diamond.
12.
The immediate sequel to Trail, Curse of the Pink Panther, reveals that Inspector Clouseau underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance; the character appears on screen briefly in the form of a joke cameo appearance by Roger Moore, billed as "Turk Thrust II".