A new Pink Panther movie is on the way, with a familiar face taking center stage.

Everyone knows the animated Pink Panther character, but when it comes to Pink Panther movies it’s usually the bumbling French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau, leading the way. The role was originally and most notably played by the late great Peter Sellers, and more recently (and less popularly) by Steve Martin. Now it’s the animated character taking over for a live-action/CGI hybrid movie, the popular way to bring classic cartoon characters to new generations seen in titles like The Smurfs, Garfield, and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Herbert Lom, the Czech-born film and television actor best known to modern audiences for playing the long-suffering Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the successful Pink Panther movies for United Artists, has passed away less than three weeks after celebrating his 95th birthday.

Born Herbert Karel Angelo Kuchacevič ze Schluderpacheru on September 11, 1917 in Prague to parents of Austrian nobility, Lom started out acting in mostly supporting roles (with an occasional lead) in the Czech cinema, but was forced to flee to England in 1939 due to the country’s invasion by the Nazis. After training at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he began appearing in British comedies and dramas throughout the following decade and made his American film debut in Jules Dassin’s 1950 film noir classic Night and the City. Five years later he first appeared alongside future on-screen adversary Peter Sellers in the great Ealing Studios comedy The Ladykillers (awkwardly remade by the Coen Brothers in 2004). After the smashing success of the first Pink Panther movie, UA gave the green-light for a sequel – a practice that was hardly as common in the film industry as it is today – and in 1964 Lom made his debut as the harried Inspector Dreyfus in the Blake Edwards-directed A Shot in the Dark. The actor’s gift for red-faced bluster made the inspector an invaluable addition to the series. He would go on to play the role in each subsequent sequel ending with 1993’s Son of the Pink Panther, which had Italian comic actor Roberto Benigni taking over the role of perennial pain in Dreyfus’ backside since Sellers had died in 1980 and which would also be Lom’s final feature film.

The t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel is “The Pink Panthro” which mashes up Thundercats with The Pink Panther

The tee, by artist Captain_RibMan, went on sale at RIPT today, Wednesday, March 23, 2011, at midnight CST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore.

Famed Hollywood writer and director Blake Edwards died yesterday at a health care center in Santa Monica, California. Edwards passed away due to complications from pneumonia with his family close by, including his wife, Julie Andrews. He was 88 years old.

Edwards actually started out as an actor, appearing in many different films of the 1940s, but it’s his work as a writer and director for which he’s best known and will be remembered forever. Most notably, he both wrote and directed the late Peter Sellers in 1963’s The Pink Panther, which turned into a franchise with sequels in 1975, 1976, and 1978 — all involving Edwards and Sellers. Not to mention the many spin offs, adaptations, and remakes that have made the character a pop culture icon over the years.

Though the Pink Panther films are his most identifiable works, in no way did they define his career. From westerns to dramas and romances to wars, Edwards set his stories in whatever genres complimented them the best.