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.

His absent-mindedness and extreme clumsiness almost always lead to destruction of property: while interviewing witnesses in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, he falls down a set of stairs, gets his hand caught in a medieval knight's gauntlet, then in a vase; knocks a witness senseless and voiceless, destroys a priceless piano, and accidentally causes a Scotland Yard superintendent to be shot in the buttocks, all within nearly five minutes.

While Clouseau is generally oblivious to his own ineptitude and genuinely believes he possesses superior expertise and intelligence, he occasionally appears to recognize his limitations.

Sellers maintained that Clouseau's oversized ego made his klutziness even funnier, particularly in his regular attempts to remain dignified, elegant, and refined while causing comic chaos.

Jacques Clouseau makes his first appearance as the Inspector in the 1963 film The Pink Panther, which was released in the United States in March 1964.

The movie is centered on David Niven's role as Sir Charles Lytton, the infamous jewel thief nicknamed "the Phantom", and his plan to steal the Pink Panther diamond from a vacationing princess.

The film's opening credits, animated by TVC London for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, feature their Inspector character from the series of cartoon shorts under that title.

According to DVD liner notes for The Return of the Pink Panther, Sellers and Edwards originally planned to produce a British television series centered on Clouseau, but this film was made instead.

Biographies of Sellers such as Peter Sellers—A Celebration reveal that he was involved in the pre-production of another Clouseau film, Romance of the Pink Panther, at the time of his death.

Neither Trail nor Curse were box office moneymakers, and the series was retired for about a decade due to a lengthy period of litigation between Edwards and MGM over the film's release date.

Despite the failure of Curse, Edwards attempted to revive the series a decade later with Son of the Pink Panther, in which it is revealed that Clouseau had illegitimate children by Maria Gambrelli (played by Elke Sommer in A Shot in the Dark, although recast in this film as Claudia Cardinale, who played the Princess in The Pink Panther).

Although foolish, Martin's Clouseau is generally more intelligent and competent than Sellers' version, as he is able to locate the Pink Panther diamond and solve the case by knowledge, and observation, of obscure data.