Horseback riding, sketching, acting, ping pong and tennis, and trying not to let the studios typecast me as simply a horror actor. My main passion was being on the stage, I love the theater and doing radio work as well.
Celia and I enjoying our new villa
Music
Anything with which to relax at the end of the day.
Movies
The Comedy of Terrors (1964),
The Raven (1964)
Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962),
Tales of Terror (1962),
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961),
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) ,
Congo Crossing (1956) ,
Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956) (uncredited)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954),
Beat the Devil (1953),
Verlorene, Der (1951) ... aka The Lost One ,
Quicksand (1950) ,
Double Confession (1950)
Rope of Sand (1949) ,
Casbah (1948) ,
My Favorite Brunette (1947) ,
The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
The Verdict (1946) ,
The Chase (1946),
Black Angel (1946) ,
Three Strangers (1946),
Confidential Agent (1945) ,
Hotel Berlin (1945),
The Conspirators (1944) ,
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) ,
.
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) ,
Passage to Marseille (1944),
The Cross of Lorraine (1943) ,
Background to Danger (1943) ,
The Constant Nymph (1943),
Casablanca (1942) ,
The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942),
Invisible Agent (1942),
All Through the Night (1942) ,
The Maltese Falcon (1941),
They Met in Bombay (1941) ,
Mr. District Attorney (1941) ,
The Face Behind the Mask (1941),
You'll Find Out (1940) ,
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Island of Doomed Men (1940),
I Was an Adventuress (1940),
Strange Cargo (1940) ,
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939) ,
Danger Island (1939),
Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939),
Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938),
I'll Give a Million (1938) ,
Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938),
Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938) ,
Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937),
Lancer Spy (1937) ,
Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937),
Nancy Steele Is Missing! (1937) ,
Crack-Up (1936) ,
Secret Agent (1936),
Crime and Punishment (1935/I) ,
Mad Love (1935)
... aka The Hands of Orlac (UK) ,
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934),
Unsichtbare Gegner (1933)
Was Frauen träumen (1933) .... Otto Fuessli
,
Du haut en bas (1933) .... Beggar
,
Requins du pétrole, Les (1933) .... Henry Pless,
F.P.1 antwortet nicht (1932) .... Johnny, a reporter
... aka F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (USA)
... aka F.P.1 Fails to Reply (UK) ,
Stupéfiants (1932) .... Hunchback,
Schuß im Morgengrauen (1932) .... Klotz
... aka A Shot at Dawn,
Fünf von der Jazzband (1932) .... Car thief
... aka Five of the Jazzband ,
Weiße Dämon, Der (1932) .... Hunchback
,
Koffer des Herrn O.F., Die (1931) .... Stix
Bomben auf Monte Carlo (1931) .... Pawlitschenk
M (1931) .... Hans Beckert,
Mann ist Mann (1931) ,
Weiße Teufel, Der (1930) ,
Verschwundene Frau, Die (1929)
Television
The Red Skelton Show, The Jack Benny Program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Henry Fonda Show. Also did a number of radio broadcasts for Suspense on tuesdays along with Mystery in the Air among guest appearances on Abbott and Costello and Amos and Andy.
<img src="http://www.coutant.org/celebs/lorre.jpg"
Books
The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre By Stephen D. Youngkin
Mr. Lorre's personal favorites: Complete works (in german) of Edgar Allen Poe, Edgar Wallace and Jack London
Peter was a very private man and never let too many people get to close to him and would use his humor as his defense mechanism to let someone's laughter make them forget what it was they had just asked him. In honor of his privacy i've included the basic known facts. I need to revise the rest but for right now it is what it is. I won't defile the wishes of a wonderful man and you can find all sorts of different accounts of who he was on any site in the world. The only problem is, which is true? Peter would make up a lot of answers to interviewers to keep his private life safe so now here we are, forty some odd years later and the man is still smiling knowing that he still continues to mess with the people who love him.
..
Peter Lorre was a great jokester and prankster his entire life. From wiggling his ears at his employer to get fired from a job he hated to making up his own lines in his later films. When interviewed Peter never really liked to share his personal accounts and especially his past. He was very private and would joke a lot of the times when asked questions just so he could avoid talking about it. He knew people, he knew how their minds works and he knew how to manipulate them. He loved psychology so at this point, the only facts that one can have about his life are any recorded documents and accounts from his friends.
He was born on June 26, 1904 under the name of Ladislav Loewenstein with a military father who served in the Austro-Hungarian Army and a mother who died shortly of blood poisoning after giving birth to her third son. After Laszlo's father remarried his late wife's best friend, Laszlo started to become rather distant from the family. When applied he would excel in his studies but rather than play with his brothers he would sit in his room and express himself through his creativity.
After getting a job as a professional applauder placed into theatre audiences, he became obsessed with being on stage with the people he watched. After confiding to his parents his dreams were shot down. His family felt that as the eldest he needed to make an example for his younger siblings and being an actor just wasn't going to do it. To appease his father, Laszlo took up a job in a bank promising him not to quit. And he didn't quit, he let himself be fired by being late and joking around with his employer. He then left home with a theater troupe and began to get work as an actor. Money was scarce and little laszlo (actually who was now 17 at this point) would return home and his siblings would offer him money and some of their lunches before they left for school. During the times when he worked on stage he had adopted the name Peter Lorre; the name's origin has never been certain.
Lorre always felt that his looks lended to lighter, more comedic roles and that's what Fritz Lang thought as well when he cast him as the child killer in "M"; Lorre made the perfect candidate for the tormented soul because he looked like the picture of innocence. "M" made Lorre and destroyed him. He was from then on seen as the movie monster and the man in the shadows. He would be pelted with stones on the streets of Germany because his portrayal was so convincing that people took it rather seriously. The nazis also considered the performance convincing so they included in into their pro-nazi propoganda movie: The Eternal Jew. Seeing his image used like that, Lorre fled Germany (some say on the warning of Goebbels) with is friends Billy Wilder and Berthold Brecht.
Peter picked english up very well, after reading his lines phonetically for "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and then spending late hours perfecting the language. Lorre already knew French and German fluently so taking on another language came easily. During filming of TMWKTM, Peter married his sweetheart, Celia Lovsky, in full make up and costume after asking to receive a short break from the film. Peter's career started looking up, however, he was still distraught with being type-cast. When he was freed of his contract, Peter went on to Twentieth-Century Fox under the promise that they would change his "bad guy" image. They did but they just gave him another type cast: Mr. Moto. Now he went from being pelted with stones to being bowed to, spoken to in broken english and even being addressed as "Mr. Moto". A decent change indeed, but not what an actor of Lorre's ability wanted.
He was soon starting to get work with the major studios with the major names where he went on to make a number of films with Humphrey Bogart and even more films with Sydney Greenstreet. Peter and Bogart became very close friends and even took each other into their homes when their respective wives were fighting with them. Eh, what are friends for than to save you from your wife?
However, after making his first picture with Bogart and Greenstreet a slight discreption crept up and Lorre was never again allowed to be billed before Greenstreet no matter what. Peter took it outwardly in stride but inward it was just another thing adding to his depression.
Finally considered a top draw, Lorre was able to display his talent for comic timing in such hits as "Arsenic and Old Lace" with Cary Grant, a film scripted by "Casablanca" screenwriter Julius Epstein, and the Bob Hope comedy "My Favorite Brunette". Able to make light of his sinister screen personas, Lorre voiced over Warner's "Bugs Bunny" films, and even made light of the McCarthy House Un-American Activities Committee. When called to the stand during the hearings and asked if he knew of anyone who may have or have ever had sympathies for Communist causes, Lorre answered that he did- and proceeded to name everyone he knew. Everyone. From his childhood in Hungary, until he was finally thrown off the stand.
Lorre returned to Germany after the war to direct and star in "The Lost One" before returning to work in more American films, radio and television. Lorre appeared on several episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", was featured on radio serials "Suspense" and "Mystery In The Air", and did a hilarious send-up of Jackie Gleason's "Honeymooners" on Red Skelton's variety show. Lorre served as the first James Bond villain in the made-for-television adaptation of "Casino Royale" his role later parodied on the big screen by a bigger actor, Orson Welles. Lorre married a 3rd time, to Anne Marie Brenning. With Brenning, the actor finally added fatherhood to his resume, as well as the Disney big budget adaptation of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
Resigned to his status as a horror film icon, Lorre gave himself over to the genre in the 1950s and 60s, starring frequently with his longtime friend Vincent Price and Boris Karloff in a number of tongue-in-cheek thrillers for director Roger Corman, including the popular Edgar Allen Poe tales. Lorre injected his own distinctive humor into such hits as "The Raven" and had completed "The Comedy of Terrors" with Price, Karloff, and Basil Rathbone when he suffered a stroke the day he would have finalized his 3rd divorce. Peter Lorre died March 23rd, 1964 in Los Angeles, California, leaving his last works, "Comedy of Terrors" and "The Patsy" to be released posthumously.
Lorre was cremated and interred at the Cathedral Mausoleum at what was then the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, his eulogy delivered by his friend and coworker, Vincent Price. Peter Lorre was survived at his death by his daughter, Catharine Lorre
My personal thoughts:
Peter Lorre was one of the most talented actors in Hollywood and Germany. He had an aire to him that is unmatched, today or in yesteryear. His on-screen persona was so unmistakable that he has been imitated for years to come. Hollywood did not realize the treaure they had on their hands and did not utilize Mr. Lorre to his full advantage by typecasting him in the same type of role. Even though Mr. Lorre was typecast he never played the same character twice, each charcater has its own personality and mannerism that made that character uniquely his own.
As a compliment to his incredible ability (though not a compliment to him) after making "M" he was walking into a cafe and people would stare at him and call him a murderer! He was said to have stated to his friend: "this is terrible, Emil, they all recognize me, lets go inside" He was such a convincing actor that people couldn't differentiate between his characters and the real man. Mr. Lorre was nothing like he portrayed onscreen. He was a prankster on the set and a fun-loving comical man. Though with these typecast roles he would always be remembered as the "bad man of the movies" even though he fought for so long to not be remembered as such.
This page is for the man in the way (i hope) he would like to be remembered. I grew up watching his movies since i was 8 but never realized the magnitute of his talent until i was in my 20's. He deserves so much more than to be considered a "horror movie" actor or simply a "villian". His talent is so much more than that and i just wish hollywood could have seen that and given him what he deserved: a chance to show how talented he really was.
His daughter Catharine was abducted by the hillside strangler but after finding a picture of her father in her wallet the killer let her go. Even in death this man was there for his child. "We, too, must keep a closer watch on our children"
The man could turn a character out on a dime. One minute off screen being one way and everything would vanish the second the cameras would begin to roll. Rarely using make-up and prosthetics, Mr. Lorre would say that make-up is hiding the fact that you can't act. He would make the character purely out of his soul and intellect. He had an unbridled talent that could rival any of his peers. He could create a child-killer, an obsessive sadistic doctor, a nazi, to a sheriff, coroner, mayor combo....the only thing he couldn't do? whistle.
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He was born on June 26, 1904 under the name of Ladislav Loewenstein with a military father who served in the Austro-Hungarian Army and a mother who died shortly of blood poisoning after giving birth to her third son. After Laszlo's father remarried his late wife's best friend, Laszlo started to become rather distant from the family. When applied he would excel in his studies but rather than play with his brothers he would sit in his room and express himself through his creativity.
Lorre always felt that his looks lended to lighter, more comedic roles and that's what Fritz Lang thought as well when he cast him as the child killer in "M"; Lorre made the perfect candidate for the tormented soul because he looked like the picture of innocence. "M" made Lorre and destroyed him. He was from then on seen as the movie monster and the man in the shadows. He would be pelted with stones on the streets of Germany because his portrayal was so convincing that people took it rather seriously. The nazis also considered the performance convincing so they included in into their pro-nazi propoganda movie: The Eternal Jew. Seeing his image used like that, Lorre fled Germany (some say on the warning of Goebbels) with is friends Billy Wilder and Berthold Brecht.
Finally considered a top draw, Lorre was able to display his talent for comic timing in such hits as "Arsenic and Old Lace" with Cary Grant, a film scripted by "Casablanca" screenwriter Julius Epstein, and the Bob Hope comedy "My Favorite Brunette". Able to make light of his sinister screen personas, Lorre voiced over Warner's "Bugs Bunny" films, and even made light of the McCarthy House Un-American Activities Committee. When called to the stand during the hearings and asked if he knew of anyone who may have or have ever had sympathies for Communist causes, Lorre answered that he did- and proceeded to name everyone he knew. Everyone. From his childhood in Hungary, until he was finally thrown off the stand.
Resigned to his status as a horror film icon, Lorre gave himself over to the genre in the 1950s and 60s, starring frequently with his longtime friend Vincent Price and Boris Karloff in a number of tongue-in-cheek thrillers for director Roger Corman, including the popular Edgar Allen Poe tales. Lorre injected his own distinctive humor into such hits as "The Raven" and had completed "The Comedy of Terrors" with Price, Karloff, and Basil Rathbone when he suffered a stroke the day he would have finalized his 3rd divorce. Peter Lorre died March 23rd, 1964 in Los Angeles, California, leaving his last works, "Comedy of Terrors" and "The Patsy" to be released posthumously.
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