LONDON–Burt Kwouk, perhaps best remembered as Inspector Clouseau’s manservant Cato Fong in seven of Blake Edwards’ “Pink Panther” movies, has died here. He was 85.
Other movie appearances in his five-decade career included James Bond films “Goldfinger” and “You Only Live Twice,” as well as Fred Schepisi’s “Plenty,” Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun” and Roger Spottiswoode’s “Air America.”
MSTies will remember that he appeared in the movie The Brides of Fu Manchu (his character’s name in that movie was Feng), scenes from which were reused in the movie in episode 323- CASTLE OF FU MANCHU.
Thanks to Timmy for the heads up.
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I knew him as Entwistle from Last of the Summer Wine. Very sad to hear about this. He will be missed.
Not to mention the episode refs of “Ca-toooo?” every time a character wanders about a dark room.
(And it has to be spelled with a C, because Blake Edwards was a friend of Bruce Lee and put the running gag in the Panther movies as a deliberate Green Hornet in-joke, but the obvious parties complained.)
“You wanted to honor me with this…this Chinese nookie factory?!”
– Peter Sellers in Revenge of the Pink Panther
First saw him in the BBC series Tenko. Very strong performance with great depth.
Cato fights Clouseau again.
Burt said something regarding Peter Sellers that always amused me. As most people may know Peter Sellers was often known for being an egotistical jerkass (although Herbert Lom and David Niven both stated he was often a nice guy too), and Burt was once asked about this and he responded something along the lines of, “Hey, we ALL go to the toilet at least once a day”, implying that yeah Sellers had his bad moments, but really everyone does.
Cato?
Man, this is so sad. I am a huge fan of the Pink Panther movies, and Cato was always my favorite. I still peak my head around the corners of my house intoning “Ca-toooo?”, to the bewildered looks of my family. I’ve seen his name pop up in numerous movies over the years, usually during the end credits. My next words are always “What? Cato was in this?! WHERE WAS HE?!”.
Rest in peace, Burt. Say hi to peter, David, and Herbert for me. :-)
He also had a brief role in Peter Sellers’ last movie. The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu. Which means, he was in two different Fu Manchu movies, one serious, one comedic.
Cato,you were enjoyed and want to thank you for the laughter you gave me in my childhood..RIP sir.
Well, one intentionally comedic, and the other…
ha, that was the first thing that came to mind for me… Clouseau walking into his apartment/house(?), noting the silence (“it was quiet…too quiet” ha) …then calling out, “Cato?”
was also in 2 very underrated movies:
The Chairman (1969) with Gregory Peck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chairman
and
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) with Anthony Quinn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shoes_of_the_Fisherman
was also in an episode of
Lovejoy with Ian McShane
and for you Monty Python fans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG1PlkURjxE
he the Chinese voice over
First thing I thought was when the phone would ring, they stop the fight and Cato would answer “Inspector Clouseau’s resident… it’s for you…” then Cato would hand the phone to Clouseau, turn his back to leave and Clouseau would drop him with a hi-yah! chop behind his back.