RIP Burt Kwouk

[Robert]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3606786/Burt-Kwouk-starred-Inspector-Clouseau-s-hapless-sidekick-Cato-Pink-Panthers-films-dies-aged-85.html

[Pcdunn]

That's too bad. I enjoyed the original Pink Panther films very much. Burt outlived Peter quite a long stretch, didn't he?

[Robert]

Yes, I'm sure if it had been the other way round it would just have been Burt trying to catch Peter off guard.

[caz]

What a guy! What a quirky sense of humour. He will be sadly missed.

Do you remember Burt from the Harry Hill Show?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Z0xc8VfRo

Also, check out the Kwouk Forecast, it's hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwNIsLX-vE

Love,

Caz
X

[lynn cates]

versatile

Hello Robert. Indeed. I recall his role on "Goldfinger."

Quite versatile.

Cheers.
LC

[Robert]

Actually, the North Korean item is weirdly plausible, because Kim Jong-Il was a big western film enthusiast, and Norman Wisdom was a cult figure in Albania - mobbed everywhere he went.

[Phil Carter]

That's too bad. I enjoyed the original Pink Panther films very much. Burt outlived Peter quite a long stretch, didn't he?

Hello Pcdunn,

Ummm.. actually, Burt wasnt in the original Pink Panther film...which was titled..

The Pink Panther from 1963.

The next film was a year after.. in 1964...

A Shot in the Dark (my personal favourite) which DID feature Burt Kwouk as Cato... but spelled "Kato" in A Shot in the Dark.

Inspector Clouseau..released in 1968, is also a Mirsch film, but featured Alan Arkin as Clouseau. Cato Fong was not in this one either.

It was not until 1975..

The Return of the Pink Panther

that the Cato Fong we all know and love comes to the fore.

He is in the next 4 films..

The Pink Panther strikes again
Revenge of the Pink Panther
Trail of the Pink Panther (released after the death of Sellers)...
and
The Curse of the Pink Panther.

After 10 years..and the fact that the last film was critically panned ..the series continued with

Son of the Pink Panther (1993) This was the last film featuring Burt Kwouk.

followed by..

The Pink Panther (2006)

The Pink Panther (2009)



Phil

[Mayerling]

That's too bad. I enjoyed the original Pink Panther films very much. Burt outlived Peter quite a long stretch, didn't he?

Sellers had a major heart attack in the mid-1960s, which caused his being dropped from one film (Billy Wilder's "Kiss Me Stupid" - he was replaced by Ray "My Favorite Martian" Walston, and the picture was a bomb). He recovered, but one wonders if his health was ever the same - still the bulk of his film work was after the heart attack.

Jeff

[Pcdunn]

Kwok's character's name may have needed changing because "Kato" was also the name of the Green Hornet's side-kick, wasn't it?

I believe Peter Sellers' last film was "Being There", which was a critical success.

My parents and myself were in Ireland when we learned of Sellers' passing from the lady at the Bed and Breakfast. That was after my graduation, so likely very early 1980s.

[Mayerling]

Kwok's character's name may have needed changing because "Kato" was also the name of the Green Hornet's side-kick, wasn't it?

I believe Peter Sellers' last film was "Being There", which was a critical success.

My parents and myself were in Ireland when we learned of Sellers' passing from the lady at the Bed and Breakfast. That was after my graduation, so likely very early 1980s.

He did die in 1981. His last film (at least released in his lifetime) was "The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu", which was not in the same critical class as his work as "Chance the Gardiner"/"Chauncey Gardiner" in "Being There".

[Phil Carter]

He did die in 1981. His last film (at least released in his lifetime) was "The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu", which was not in the same critical class as his work as "Chance the Gardiner"/"Chauncey Gardiner" in "Being There".

Indeed it was his last film.. and.. in a rather neat way, brings us back to Burt Kwouk..who made a cameo appearance.

In the film "The Fiendish plot of Dr. Fu Manchu".. said to be set in around 1933, the Sellers character(apparently 168 years old) meets Kwouk's character, a servant who destroys Fu's elixir of life.
This causes Sellers to quip.. "Your face is familiar...".

More stuff..connected...

Sellers recorded a Goon show in 1955 called "The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu-Manchu", is set in 1895. In this Fu insists friends call him "Fred" and that he had once been the groundsman at Eton. Fred is a name Sellers often connected to his work during his career. He regarded it as a "lucky" name to use.

The film itself was totally re written.. once by Sellers himself, when he added in a load of Goon Show like "sketches". The film didn't gel and was again rewritten to give it some coherence.

However, all that said, "Fu" was not his last piece of work. Sellers did a series of three advertisements for Barclays Bank. Filmed in April 1980 in Ireland, he played Monty Casino, a Jewish con-man. There was to be a fourth but illness caused the fourth to be scrapped. But more problems apparently occured. Supposed anti-Semitism. The Monty Casino character was apparently criticised thus, and Barclays themselves made the decision to cancel the commercial, although, according to them, it was done as a mark of respect upon his death. It is a little unsure as to whether this is entirely true or not.

As an additional fact, sad though it is, when Sellers died aged 54, the date of his passing was July 26th 1984. His son, Michael, died on exactly this date 24 years later, during an operation. Cause of death was a heart attack. Michael was 52.


just a few add ons that may interest some.



Phil

[Pcdunn]

Thank you to both Jeff and Phil for interesting facts and additional tidbits.