Inspector Clouseau
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- This article is about the character. For the film of this title, see Inspector Clouseau (1968 film).
He is also the inspiration of the main character in a series of animated shorts inspired by the titles of the feature films. Though the character in the animated The Inspector was never given a name, he is clearly based on Clouseau.
In many countries, such as Greece, this character's name has become synonymous with policemen who keep making ludicrous assumptions and are utterly unable to crack even the easiest case.
The character has an illegitimate son also named Jacques Clouseau who was played by Roberto Benigni in the film Son of the Pink Panther.
Steve Martin's rendition of Clouseau in the 2006 film is considered to be a rebooting of the character. The film gives an origin to his role as an inspector: originally an inept police officer, he is hired by Chief Inspector Dreyfus to look bad and give Dreyfus the glory to solve the case himself. However the new film is set in a different continuity: His Clouseau is considerably older than Sellers' version, even though the 2006 film takes place prior to the events of the first Pink Panther film, although the time frame has been advanced to the present day.
Sellers said in several interviews that the secret of Clouseau's character was his tremendous ego. His favorite example of Clouseau's ego was whenever someone said, "Phone call for Inspector Clouseau", Clouseau would reply, "Ah yes, that would be for ME." Sellers maintained that Clouseau's ego is what made the character's klutziness funnier because of his quest to remain elegant and refined while causing chaos everywhere he turned.
As portrayed by Sellers, Clouseau's French accent became steadily more exaggerated in successive films (for example, pronouncing "Pope" as "Peup"). The accent may originally have been inspired by a comment by a French film director, in which he pronounced "house" as "'arse", to Sellers's fellow Goon, Michael Bentine, at a dinner party.
Filmography
- The Pink Panther (1963)
- A Shot in the Dark (1964)
- Inspector Clouseau (1968)
- The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
- The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
- Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
- The Romance Of The Pink Panther (Only two script drafts. Scrapped after Sellers's death.)
- Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)
- Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
- Son of the Pink Panther (1993)
- The Pink Panther (2006)
See also
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