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27/09/2012
By William Schupbach | From the Collections
In The return of the Pink Panther (1975), Lom, playing the role of Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, had on his desk a miniature guillotine used for cutting the rounded ends off his cigars, but which accidentally causes the enraged police commissioner to cut off the tip of his thumb. At that time, the full-sized guillotine was still in use as the instrument of capital punishment in France. (And smoking in offices was normal.)
Whether it was the role which started his interest in Guillotin or vice versa Lom did not reveal, but he would settle in the Wellcome Library’s Biography Room and gather around him the Library’s extensive resources on the subject, which include portraits and historical prints, books, articles and autograph letters.
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