The Pink Panther characters

Inspector Jacques Clouseau, later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical The Pink Panther series. Clouseau's immense ego, eccentricity, exaggerated French accent, and prominent mustache are all a parody of Hercule Poirot, the fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. He is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and also by Alan Arkin in the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau and, in a cameo, by Roger Moore (credited as Turk Thrust II) in the 1983 film Curse of the Pink Panther. In the 2006 reboot and its 2009 sequel, Clouseau is portrayed by Steve Martin. Clouseau's likeness also appears in the Pink Panther animated cartoon shorts and segments, where he is known as simply "the Inspector".

The Little Man is an old regular character, who has appeared in the original Pink Panther shorts created by David DePatie and Friz Freleng. He is considered the main antagonist of the Pink Panther series.

The Pink Panther is a fictional animated character who appears in the opening or closing credit sequences of every film in The Pink Panther series except for A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau. In the storyline of the original film, the "Pink Panther" is the name of a valuable pink diamond named for a flaw that shows a "figure of a springing panther" when held up to the light in a certain way; in the credits this was translated to an animated pink panther. Only the first Pink Panther film and its third sequel, The Return of the Pink Panther, featured the diamond.