“He was a lovely, lovely man”.
The words are those of Huddersfield hotelier and businessman Joe Marsden, paying tribute to former Hollywood actor Burt Kwouk, who died this week.
Mr Marsden and his brother John run the Central Lodge Hotel and that provided a base for Kwouk and other members of the Last of the Summer Wine cast when they were filming in the Holme valley.
Mr Marsden has many memories of Kwouk, who shot to fame playing Kato in the blockbuster Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers.
“He had a jacket with the Pink Panther emblazoned on it and loved to remind ne and all that he had worked in Hollywood,” said Mr Marsden.
“But he had no airs or graces; he told me many times how he loved filming Summer Wine and thought of himself as an honorary Holmfirth man.”
Kwouk has died aged 85.
As well as seven Pink Panther films, the Manchester-born actor also appeared in three Bond films and BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, playing Entwistle.
His agent said he died “peacefully” on Tuesday.
Later in his career, Kwouk would join Harry Hill’s eponymous TV show and become the face of Channel 4’s gaming show Banzai.
But he memorably returned to the small screen in Summer Wine as Chinese electrician Entwistle, from 2003 until its end in 2010.
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Born in Manchester in 1930, he was raised in Shanghai, China, until he was 17, when he moved to the United States. He married Caroline Tebbs in 1961 and the couple had a son together. He was honoured with an OBE for his services to drama in the 2011 New Year’s Honours list.
His family will be having a private funeral but there will be a memorial service at a later date.
Mr Marsden said: “The Wine cast would stay with us for five or six weeks in June and July, while they were filming in Holmfirth, and then return in September for a couple more weeks.
“We got to know them all so well and Burt was a lovely, lovely man.
“I can still picture him in our lounge, reading a newspaper”.
