Peter Lorre (born László Löwenstein; 26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actor.
Born to a Jewish family in what is now northern Slovakia and raised in Vienna, Lorre began his acting career at age seventeen. He first found success onstage, working with the acclaimed German playwright Bertolt Brecht. His breakout role in film came in 1931, when Fritz Lang cast him as a child killer in M. Against all odds Lorre made the character quite sympathetic (if not admirable), and the first of many sad monsters he would play throughout his career. Lorre appeared in several more German movies, mostly comedies, before fleeing Germany after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.
Lorre initially relocated to Paris, then London. He faked his way through an interview with Alfred Hitchcock by watching him closely, and laughing hysterically whenever he thought that Hitch had told the punchline of a joke, as Peter didn't speak English yet. He was then cast in The Man Who Knew Too Much, and learned his part phonetically. Lorre soon moved to Hollywood, where despite his initially limited English, he became widely respected for both his talent and playful sense of humor.
Throughout his career, Lorre battled typecasting. Hollywood predictably wanted him to play villains and varying shades of The Woobie, epitomized not only by Lorre's best-known films like The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca but also many lesser works. Lorre especially disliked his association with horror movies; he appreciated Psychological Horror such as by Edgar Allan Poe greatly, but those weren't the works being brought to the screen. Horror that relied on scary makeup and shock value was something he objected to. That said, Lorre did have a sense of humor about his typecasting: he once quipped that "with occasional interruptions, I've been killing my way through life." Filming Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Lorre expressed surprise that a mechanical squid played the role usually reserved for him!
Lorre did, however, get to play heroic roles in the Mr. Moto films, Passage to Marseille and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, comedic characters in Arsenic and Old Lace and Silk Stockings, even a romantic lead in Three Strangers. In 1951 he made his only directorial effort, Der Verlorene or The Lost One, produced in West Germany. Though Lorre's performance (as a guilt-ridden Nazi scientist) received acclaim, the film drew mixed reviews and flopped at the box office.
Sadly, Lorre spent much of his life battling a morphine addiction, which he never kicked despite repeated attempts to quit. In the late '50s he gained a huge amount of weight and suffered a massive decline in health. Onscreen, Lorre was reduced to television appearances and self-lampooning roles in B movies, though his collaborations with Roger Corman and Vincent Price on Tales of Terror and The Raven became well-regarded. He died of a stroke in 1964, at the age of 59.
He was married three times. His first wife, and lifelong best friend, was Celia Lovsky, a classically trained actress who is probably best remembered as T'Pau in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time". She had worked with Fritz Lang on several projects, and brought Lorre to Lang's attention for M.
He was close friends with his occasional costar Vincent Price, who read the eulogy at his funeral.note He also counseled Humphrey Bogart to marry Lauren Bacall despite their age difference, telling him "five good years are better than none!"
Lorre's distinct appearance and voice have made him incredibly popular for other creators to regularly imitate, reference, and parody him, even decades after his death. It was the subject of a book called The Animated Peter Lorre, as well as inspiring a trope on This Very Wiki called Lorre Lookalike.
Peter Lorre on TV Tropes:
- M (1931)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
- Mad Love (1935)
- Secret Agent (1936)
- Strange Cargo (1940)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- All Through the Night (1941)
- Casablanca (1942)
- The Constant Nymph (1943)
- Passage to Marseille (1944)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
- The Man with the Head of Glass (1944)
- Hotel Berlin (1945)
- The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
- Black Angel (1946)
- My Favorite Brunette (1947)
- Casbah (1948)
- Quicksand (1950)
- Double Confession (1950)
- Beat the Devil (1953)
- Casino Royale (1954 episode of the CBS anthology series Climax!)
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
- Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
- The Sad Sack (1957)
- Silk Stockings (1957)
- Tales of Terror (1962)
- The Raven (1963)
- The Comedy of Terrors (1963)
Peter Lorre's performances display examples of:
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Never played The Igor, but for some reason modern depictions of the character often make him distinctly Lorre-esque, perhaps due to his oily voice and amalgamating Lorre's association with both horror roles and villainous lackeys. Also, his speaking voice is nowhere near as raspy as impersonators let on.
- Camp Straight: He was by all accounts straight, but had an effete acting style which got him cast as Ambiguously Gay in Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and Arsenic and Old Lace. In any case, The Mask of Dimitrios is considered by some viewers to practically revolve around gay subtext.
- Creator Backlash: Regretted his role on M because it typecast him as a creepy character.
- Fake Nationality:
- He played "creepy foreigners" from all different countries: German (M and Arsenic and Old Lace), Greek (The Maltese Falcon), Italian (Casablanca), French (Passage to Marseille), and Dutch (The Mask of Dimitrios). He never bothered changing his accent for any of these roles.
- Although Lorre technically was born in Hungary (in a town that is now part of Slovakia), being Jewish, German was his primary language. He attended a German-speaking school and his family moved to Vienna when he was 9 years old. His stage career began in Vienna, and he also worked in Breslau, Hamburg and Zurich before he came to Berlin.
- Not to mention his playing a Japanese agent, Mr. Moto, who occasionally impersonates a German. With surprising success.
- Though he does do a nice American accent in the '50s Casino Royale film, sounding similar to his close friend Humphrey Bogart.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He was typecast as this, after his breakout performance in M. In Jean Negulesco's 1946 noir Three Strangers, he even played the romantic lead.
- Lorre Lookalike: He's a very popular subject for cartoon parodies, from countless Looney Tunes, to the hanging lamp in The Brave Little Toaster, to Maggot in Corpse Bride, to name a few. As of 2021, a caricature of him is a supporting character in The Patrick Star Show.
- Pop Culture Osmosis: An unfortunate side effect is that more modern audiences recognize the caricature than the man himself. Tim Burton even admitted that he didn't even know Lorre by name when he wrote the above-mentioned Corpse Bride character.
- Playing Against Type: His role in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was this, where he played the roly-poly Conseil, instead of any of the villains. And he makes it work.
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: Lorre was a comedian before M.
- The Woobie: He was typecast as this, probably due to his "sad eyes." Usually of either the villainous kind or a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
