Herbert Lom

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Herbert Lom is an international film actor. He was born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich ze Schluderpacheru in Prague to upper-class Jewish parents on September 8, 1917. Lom's film debut was in the Czech film Zena pod krízem (1937). His early films roles included supporting roles, but also the occasional top billing.

He moved to Britain in 1939 and made many appearances in British films throughout the 1940s, usually in villainous roles, although he later appeared in comedies as well. He managed to escape being typecast as a European heavy by securing a diverse range of castings, including as Napoleon Bonaparte in The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) (and again in the 1956 version of War and Peace). In a rare starring role Lom played twin trapeze artists in Dual Alibi (1946). He continued into the 1950s with roles opposite Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers in The Ladykillers, and opposite Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon and Rita Hayworth in Fire Down Below (1957).

Leonard Maltin's film biography writes: “At one time considered a British counterpart to Charles Boyer (whom he resembled), Lom didn't get as many starring assignments as he rated, but makes a lasting impression in character parts.”

1 The 1960s
2 The Pink Panther
3 Writing
4 Quotes
5 Trivia
6 Selected films
7 External links

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The 1960s

The 1960s was an outstanding decade for Lom, securing him a wide range of assignments, starting with Spartacus in 1960, El Cid, and the role of Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island, both in 1961. Finally he returned to top billing again in Hammer Films' production of The Phantom of the Opera. Lom's English is noted for a precise, elegant delivery. The phantom mask in this version is a full face mask, which made casting an actor with his vocal talents a wise choice.

"It was wonderful to play such a part, but I was disappointed with the picture," Lom says. "This version of the famous Gaston Leroux story dragged. The Phantom wasn't given enough to do, but at least I wasn't the villain, for a change. Michael Gough was the villain."

Hammer Films produced endless low-budget horror films. Lom recalled in one interview how producers expected actors to throw themselves into their work: "For one of my scenes, the Hammer people wanted me to smash my head against a stone pillar, because they said they couldn't afford one made of rubber," Lom reveals. "I refused to beat my head against stone, of course. This caused a 'big crisis,' because it took them half a day to make a rubber pillar that looked like stone. And of course, it cost a few pennies more. Horror indeed!"

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The Pink Panther

He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Charles Dreyfus, Inspector Clouseau's long-suffering superior in Blake Edwards's Pink Panther films. Lom's Dreyfus is eventually driven mad by the incompetent antics of Clouseau, and reduced to a sputtering, inchoate wreck, with a twitching eye. Sellers was a comic giant; nevertheless, Lom's full-body performance, coupled with his intelligent, well-spoken delivery manages to stand on equal footing with Sellers's.

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Writing

Lom has also written two historical novels, one on the playwright Christopher Marlowe (Enter a Spy: The Double Life of Christopher Marlowe, 1971) and another on the French Revolution (Dr. Guillotin: The Eccentric Exploits of an Early Scientist, 1992). The movie rights to the latter have been purchased but no film to date has been produced.

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Quotes

"Peter Sellers was always a mixed-up guy, a childish fellow. But if you're fond of children, you're also fond of childish men. He was always very helpful to me. After he was famous, and when I was still in trouble with the US embassy, he wrote a letter in support of me which was magnificent. But it is true that he was very cruel to his children. He was so hurt by the way children treat you when you're their father. I have been hurt by my children. But he was not in possession of a proper brain when it came to these things." (source unattributed)
"You know, I always do my best, no matter the quality of the film," Lom reflects. "One thing I hate is when directors come to me before shooting a take and say: 'Herbert, give me your best!' And I think: 'But it's my job to give my best. I can't give anything else!' Whether it is good enough for those who sit in the cinema is quite another matter."

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