The Kwouk and the Dead

Or

Cato Killin’

Herbert Tsangtse "Burt" Kwouk, best remembered as Inspector Clouseau’s long-suffering manservant Cato, has died of cancer at the age of 85. The running gag through 6 of the Pink Panther movies was that Cato was supposed to attack the Inspector when he least expected it in order to keep Clouseau alert. The ensuing brawl would trash the apartment, only to be interrupted by a ringing phone, which Cato would calmly answer "Inspector Clouseau's residence," before handing the phone to Clouseau and then getting whacked. The two referenced this relationship in The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu with Sellers saying to Kwouk, "Your face is familiar," in the film’s opening scene. He also played the leader of a group of robot Chinese Mandarins developed by the alien Monarch to study human behavior in the Doctor Who serial Four to Doomsday. In keeping with the movie industry’s malleable understanding of Asia, he played a Chinese nuclear expert in Goldfinger, a Japanese operative of SPECTRE in You Only Live Twice, and a Vietnamese general in Air America.