Peter Lorre

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Peter Lorre

Peter Lorre in M (1931)
Born László Löwenstein
June 26, 1904 (1904-06-26)
Rózsahegy, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia)
Died March 23, 1964 (aged 59)
Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Celia Lovsky (1934-1945)
Kaaren Verne (1945-1950)
Annemarie Brenning (1953-1964) 1 child

Peter Lorre (June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964), born László Löwenstein, was a Hungarian[1] - Austrian - American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.

He made an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M. Later he became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries, notably alongside Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, and as the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.

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[edit] Biography

Lorre was born into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy/Rosenberg, Kingdom of Hungary, part of Austria-Hungary, now Ružomberok, Slovakia. When he was a child his family moved to Vienna where Lorre attended school. He began acting on stage in Vienna where he worked with Richard Teschner, then moved to Breslau, and Zürich. In the late 1920s the young 5' 5" (1.65 m) actor moved to Berlin where he worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, most notably in his Mann ist Mann. He also appeared as Dr. Nakamura in the infamous musical Happy End by Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, alongside Brecht's wife Helene Weigel and other impressive co-stars such as Carola Neher, Oskar Homolka, and Kurt Gerron. 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, 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 (1934). When he arrived in Great Britain, his first meeting was with Hitchcock and by smiling and laughing as Hitchcock talked, Lorre was able to bluff the director about his 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, beginning with Mad Love (1935), directed by Karl Freund. 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 -- and twisted his shoulder during a stunt in Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation -- but they were lucrative for the studio and gained Lorre many new fans. In 1939, Peter was picked to play the role that would eventually go to Basil Rathbone in Son of Frankenstein. Lorre had to decline the role due to illness.

In 1940, Lorre co-starred with fellow horror actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the Kay Kyser movie You'll Find Out. 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 portrayed the character 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.

Lorre played Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace (filmed in 1941, released 1944). In 1946 he starred with Sydney Greenstreet and Geraldine Fitzgerald in Three Strangers, a suspense film about three people who are joint partners on a winning lottery ticket.

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 spoof-film version of Casino Royale, Ronnie Corbett comments that SPECTRE includes among its agents not only Le Chiffre, but also "Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi.") Also in 1954, Lorre starred alongside Kirk Douglas and James Mason in the hit-classic 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. In the early 1960s he worked with Roger Corman on several low-budgeted, tongue-in-cheek, and very popular films.

[edit] Marriages

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. Catharine probably was the only person to survive an intended assault 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. She died in 2006 from the diabetes she'd been born with. In the 1970s an actor appeared on the scene billing himself as "Peter Lorre, Jr.," but he was in fact no relation, merely someone trading in on the fact that he slightly resembled the actor.

[edit] Death

Overweight and never fully recovered from his addiction to morphine, Lorre suffered many personal and career disappointments in his later years. When he died in 1964 of a stroke he was 59 years old. Lorre's body was cremated and his ashes interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood. Vincent Price read the eulogy at his funeral.

[edit] Legacy

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

It is noted on the album sleeve of The World/Inferno Friendship Society album 'Addicted to Bad Ideas' that it was 'inspired by the novel Pandaemonium by Leslie Epstein and greatly informed by the biography 'The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre' by Stephen D. Youngkin'. Subtitled "Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century", the release is a concept album inspired by the life and films of Lorre. The song titles "'M' is for Morphine" and "With a Good Criminal Heart", along with the album's cover art, are all references to M, one of Lorre's most significant films. In addition, the album's lyrics are often taken from movie dialogue, notable Lorre quotes, and from the biography The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin.

[edit] Imitating Lorre

Lorre's distinctive Viennese-meets Middle American accent and large-eyed face has been a favorite target of comedians and cartoonists, to the point where Lorre has become far more familiar with the public in caricature form than for his actual performances.

[edit] Books and comics

In the early 1940s, the adventures of Batman and Robin appeared in daily newspapers. One story, The Two-Bit Dictator of Twin Mills, drawn by Batman co-creator Bob Kane, featured a hitman called Jojo who was, according to writer Al Schwartz, made to look like Lorre [2]. Jojo is a highly skilled gunman who, whatever the distance or the circumstances, always hits his target. A mildly eccentric character, he refers to his hits (objects or people) as "flinks". Even Batman, who is used to taking on armed men, hesitates in dealing with this particular gunman head-on or face-to-face. A later story was The Karen Drew Mystery, written by Jack Schiff and drawn by Jack Burnley. This one featured villains drawn to resemble Lorre's occasional co-stars: Sydney Greenstreet as gang leader Mr Wright and Humphrey Bogart as his henchman Merry.

A Lorre-like character (with strong admixtures of Max Schreck) is the focus of Brock Brower's novel The Late, Great, Creature.

Science-fiction writer Howard Waldrop wrote a short story entitled "The Effects of Alienation" which includes Peter Lorre as the main character.

[edit] Animated series

Most persons doing impressions of Lorre's voice are actually imitating Warner Brothers' Mel Blanc doing his Lorre impression[not specific enough to verify] (Blanc is much broader and louder than Lorre generally was, and the cartoons are seen much more often than Lorre's actual work. The most obvious being the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Racketeer Rabbit"). This can be noticed in characters such as:

[edit] Films, television, music and video games

A 1942 Warner Brothers, Merrie Melodies cartoon adaptation of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hatches the Egg includes a fish caricature of Peter Lorre who shoots himself in the head after seeing Horton on the boat (this gag has been edited out on most television channels, particularly Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT),

A 1967 episode of the sitcom Get Smart, "Maxwell Smart, Private Eye", features an extended parody of The Maltese Falcon, with actors Barry Kroeger and Phil Roth portraying two men named Mr. Sidney and Mr. Peter who strongly resemble Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Just to make things slightly more complicated, the Peter Lorre imitator (played by Roth) is the one named Mr. Sidney, and the Greenstreet imitator is Mr. Peter.

The stop motion film Mad Monster Party?, made in 1969, featured a zombie manservant called Yetch who was made to look and sound like Lorre. Yetch was voiced by Allen Swift. Lorre's fellow horror star Boris Karloff provided the voice of Baron Frankenstein.

Singer-songwriter Al Stewart immortalized the actor, and his close association with Bogart, in the opening lines of his 1976 hit, "The Year Of The Cat": "In the morning from a Bogart movie/In a country where they turn back time/You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre/Contemplating a crime..."

Musician and Filker Tom Smith won a Pegasus award for Best Classic Filk Song in 2006 entitled "I Want to be Peter Lorre".

In the 1987 animated film The Brave Little Toaster, a character Hanging Lamp bears a strong resemblance, both physically and audibly, to Lorre.

The title song to the 1981 Jon & Vangelis release "The Friends of Mr. Cairo" includes spoken dialogue that imitates the distinctive voice of Peter Lorre as well as that of his frequent costar Sidney Greenstreet.

The script for Godspell includes a line which is suggested as being done in the style of Peter Lorre. Also, Rob Schneider ably played Lorre's character in the Saturday Night Live sketch "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

The stop motion film Corpse Bride features "The Maggot", a small green worm who lives inside the title's character head. His features and voice (provided by Enn Reitel) are caricatures of Peter Lorre.

On September 11, 2007 Brooklyn-based punk band The World/Inferno Friendship Society released a full-length album about Peter Lorre called Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century on the Chunksaah Records label. The lyrics trace Lorre's film career, drug addiction, and death. It has been performed at the world-famous Spiegeltent.

Even today, films and video games show his distinct characteristics in some characters. These include:

[edit] Recordings

Firesign Theater's various comedy routines of Nick Danger involve a Peter Lorre-sounding villain named Rocky Rococco.

In a version of The Damned song "Grimly Fiendish", the title words are spoken during the song as a Peter Lorre impersonation, adding his stereotypical menace .

There is a concept album by The World/Inferno Friendship Society entitled "Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century", based on the life and films of the actor.

Tom Smith has composed and performed a song called "I Want To Be Peter Lorre", on his filk album "Homecoming: MarCon 2005", which includes his vocal impersonation of the actor.[3]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Listen to

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ University Press of Kentucky
  2. ^ Batman: The Dailies 1944-1945, ISBN-10: 0878161309, ISBN-13: 978-0878161300
  3. ^ Tom Smith Online - Lyrics: I Want To Be Peter Lorre

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Persondata
NAME Lorre, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Löwenstein, László
SHORT DESCRIPTION actor
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Ružomberok, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia)
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1964
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles, California