Writer and director Blake Edwards is best known for helming the "Pink Panther" comedies of the 1960s and 1970s, but his contributions to entertainment stretch far beyond those wildly popular slapstick tales of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. He made a name for himself as a “modern cinema” original by combining a colorful visual style with a knack for layered jokes and subtle blend of high and low humor in films like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), “The Pink Panther” (1963) and “A Shot in the Dark” (1964) and as the creator of the stylish detective series “Peter Gunn” (NBC, 1958-60, ABC