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Peter Lorre

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Peter Lorre, 1946, by Yousuf Karsh
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Peter Lorre, 1946, by Yousuf Karsh

Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born Ladislav (László) Löwenstein, was a stage and screen actor of Austrian descent especially known for playing roles with sinister overtones in Hollywood crime films and mysteries.

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Background

Lorre was born into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy/Rosenberg, Austria-Hungary, now Ružomberok, Slovakia. He began acting on stage in Vienna, Breslau, and Zürich. In the late 1920s he moved to Berlin where he worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht. The German-speaking actor became famous when Fritz Lang cast him as a child killer in his 1931 film M.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, the Jewish Lorre took refuge first in Paris and then London where he played a charming villain in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. When he arrived in Great Britain, his first meeting was with Hitchcock and by smiling and laughing as Hitchcock talked, the director was unaware that Lorre had a limited command of the English language. During the filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much, Lorre learned much of his part phonetically.

Eventually, he went to Hollywood where he specialized in playing wicked or wily foreigners. He starred in a series of Mr. Moto movies, a parallel to the better known Charlie Chan series, in which he played a Japanese detective and spy created by John P. Marquand. He did not much enjoy these films but they were lucrative both for the studio and for Lorre himself.

Lorre enjoyed considerable popularity as a featured player in Warner Bros. suspense and adventure films. Lorre played the role of Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and played the role of "Ugarte" in the film classic Casablanca (1942). It was Lorre's character who introduced the "letters of transit" (there was no such thing in reality) which became, in some ways, the dramatic center of the film. But Hollywood never fully tapped Lorre's creative powers.

In 1941, Peter Lorre became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

After World War II Lorre's acting career in Hollywood experienced a downturn, whereupon he concentrated on radio and stage work. In Germany he co-wrote, directed and starred in Der Verlorene (The Lost One) (1951), a critically acclaimed art film in the film noir style. He then returned to the United States where he appeared as a character actor in television and feature films, often spoofing his former "creepy" image. In 1954, he had the distinction of becoming the first actor to play a James Bond villain when he portrayed Le Chiffre in a television adaptation of Casino Royale, opposite Barry Nelson as an American James Bond. In the early 1960s he worked with Roger Corman on several low-budgeted, tongue-in-cheek, and very popular films.

It was his appearance in the TV version of Casino Royale, as well as his quip at the funeral of Bela Lugosi (see below) that caused Ronnie Corbett to quip in the spoof-film version of Casino Royale that S.P.E.C.T.R.E included among its agents not only Le chiffre, but 'Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi'.

Overweight and at times addicted to morphine, Lorre's later years were not always happy ones. When he died in 1964 of a stroke he was only 59. Lorre's body was cremated and his ashes interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.

Lorre has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6619 Hollywood Boulevard.

Lorre enjoyed pulling pranks and, with Humphrey Bogart, once rolled an enormous safe out of Chasen's restaurant and left it standing in the middle of Beverly Boulevard.

According to Vincent Price, when he and Peter Lorre went to view Bela Lugosi's body during Bela's funeral, Lorre, upon seeing Lugosi dressed in his famous Dracula cape, quipped, "Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?"

He was married three times: Celia Lovsky (1934 - 13 March 1945) (divorced); Kaaren Verne (25 May 1945 - 1950) (divorced) and Annemarie Brenning (21 July 1953 - 23 March 1964) (his death). Annemarie bore his only child, a daughter, Catharine, in 1953.

His daughter, Catharine Lorre, was once almost abducted by The Hillside Stranglers. She was stopped by the Stranglers, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, imitating policemen. When they found out she was Lorre's daughter, they let her go. She didn't realize that they were killers until after they were caught.

Lorre is the subject of songs by several bands, notably The World/Inferno Friendship Society, and is mentioned in the song "It's a Pose," on Nellie McKay's debut album Get Away from Me.

Lorre was a character in the novel Thank You For Smoking. He appears as Nick Naylor's kidnapper.

Emulating Lorre

The practice of emulating Peter Lorre's unforgettable voice, look, and mannerisms is quite notable throughout television and cinema, dating from impersonations in various cartoons such as Looney Tunes and characters such as Ren from Ren and Stimpy, Morocco Mole from Secret Squirrel, Mr. Gruesome from The Flintstones, Staring Herring from Beany and Cecil, from Fraggle Rock, Doctor N. Gin from the Crash Bandicoot series, Beavis from "Beavis and Butt-head" and the hanging lamp from The Brave Little Toaster even the character of Cosmos in Generation One Transformers animated series, was based on Lorre's mannerisms. The script for Godspell includes a line which is suggested as being done in the style of Peter Lorre. Even today, films show his distinct characteristics in characters, such as the maggot in Corpse Bride.

Filmography

External links

 

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