8. Peter Sellers
The Great Actor: Everyone remembers Peter Sellers for his role as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series although it's far from his best performance. Only one year after he first played Clouseau, he took on a triple-role in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (originally it was going to be four) and, even though it was a studio-mandated decision (it was the only way Kubrick could get the film financed), it ended up being the film's ace.
The Terrible Final Role: Dennis Nayland Smith/Dr. Fu Manchu - The Fiendish Plot Of Dr. Fu Manchu Near the end of his life Sellers almost steered away from the roles that made him, but all that was undone by his final film, The Fiendish Plot Of Dr. Fu Manchu. Based on a series of books, but diverging sharply from them, the film is an incoherent mess, no doubt helped by the star's control on the project meaning production was woefully troubled. Interestingly, one thing not criticised at the time was Sellers playing one of the roles in yellow face. Trail of the Pink Panther, which was the last film in the series in which Sellers starred, was released after Fu Manchu, but as it was made up of deleted scenes from previous films it doesn't count as a final role.