Burt Kwouk, best known for his role in the "Pink Panther" movies as Inspector Clouseau's manservant, Cato Fong, died Tuesday at age 85.
"Beloved actor Burt Kwouk has sadly passed peacefully away. The family will be having a private funeral but there will be a memorial at a later date," said a statement issued by his agent,
BBC News reported.
Kwouk played the Cato role in seven "Pink Panther" films opposite actor Peter Sellers. Sellers himself died in 1980 at age 54.
Kwouk, of Asian descent, was born in Manchester but raised in Shanghai. He was awarded a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or OBE, in the New Year Honors List in 2011.
"I loved how dry Burt's humor was," British comedian Harry Hill
wrote for The Guardian. "In particular he loved to joke about the clichéd roles he took on as a Chinese actor, particularly in the '60s when he was one of the only Chinese actors in the business.
"I remember him telling us how he'd played Japanese commandants and soldiers, Chinese soldiers, even Koreans. 'You know Harry, I sometimes wonder if the second world war was fought just to keep me in work!' he'd say," Hill continued.
Kwouk's first film was the Ingrid Bergman movie "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" in 1957 and he would go on to perform in two James Bond films – "Goldfinger" and "You Only Live Twice,"
noted The New York Times.
He appeared in the 1975 science-fiction film "Rollerball" and "Empire of the Sun" in 1987. Kwouk was also a regular on the British sitcom "Last of the Summer Wine" from 2002 to 2010.
Many fans shared their condolences and memories on social media following Kwouk's passing.
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