Photograph by Allan Warren Derivative by Keraunoscopia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Built a career on vanishing into other people rather than playing himself — he voiced multiple characters a week on BBC radio's The Goon Show before doing the same trick on film, playing three roles in Dr. Strangelove and turning Inspector Clouseau's incompetence into a decade-spanning franchise. His range extended past comedy to Lolita and other dramatic parts, though it was the fumbling, unplaceable-accented Clouseau that became his signature.