Herbert Lom
Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru (11 September 1917 – 27 September 2012), known professionally as Herbert Lom (), was a Czech-British actor with a career spanning over 60 years. His cool demeanour and precise, elegant elocution saw him cast as criminals or suave villains in his younger years, and professional men and nobles as he aged. Highly versatile, he also proved a skilled comic actor in The Pink Panther franchise, playing the beleaguered Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in seven films. Lom’s other notable films included The Ladykillers (1955), War and Peace (1956), Spartacus (1960), El Cid (1961), Mysterious Island (also 1961), The Phantom of the Opera (1962), and The Dead Zone (1983). He also originated the role of the King of Siam in the original West End production of The King and I, and starred on the 1960s television drama The Human Jungle. Early life and education Lom was born in Prague to Karl Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru and Olga Gottlieb. His mother was of Jewish ancestry. His ancestor, Christian Schluderpacher, a burgher of Bozen, was ennobled in 1601. Lom's family were comfortable, but not grandly aristocratic. His grandfather owned property in Prague and the Bohemian Forest, with his income deriving mainly from two restaurants and a guest house. Lom's father, as a younger son, inherited little, supporting his family by variously running a printing business, a car repair shop, and trying to establish himself as an art agent. The family lived at various Prague city quarters: Žižkov before moving to Vysočany, subsequently lived at Vinohrady, then New Town, where Lom attended a famous German grammar school. He studied philosophy for some time at the German University in Prague, but ceased his studies to become an actor. Career Lom's film debut was in the Czech film Žena pod křížem ("A Woman Under Cross", 1937) followed by the Boží mlýny ("Mills of God", 1938). His early film appearances were mainly supporting roles, with the occasional top billing. At this time he also changed his surname to Lom ("quarry" or "breakage" in Czech) because it was the shortest he found in a local telephone directory. Due to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, Poland and Hungary in 1938–39, Lom immigrated to Britain in 1939. He made numerous appearances in British films throughout the 1940s, usually in villainous roles, although he later appeared in comedies as well. Despite his mother's Jewish ancestry, Lom's parents survived to join him in England. Despite Lom's accent, he managed to escape being typecast as a European heavy by securing a diverse range of casting, including as Napoleon Bonaparte in The Young Mr. Pitt (1942), and again in the King Vidor version of War and Peace (1956). He secured a seven-picture Hollywood contract after World War II, but was unable to obtain an American visa for "political reasons". In a rare starring role, Lom played twin trapeze artists in Dual Alibi (1946). Lom starred as the King of Siam in the original London production of Rodgers and