Line #18 Creator/PeterLorre


1	%%
2	%%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16702667990.74666800
3	%%Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
4	%%
5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peterlorre2.png]]
6	%%
7	->''"I don't act. I just make faces."''
8
9	Peter Lorre (born László Löwenstein; 26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actor.
10
11	Born to a Jewish family in what is now northern UsefulNotes/{{Slovakia}} and raised in Vienna, Lorre began his acting career at age seventeen. He first found success onstage, working with the acclaimed German playwright Creator/BertoltBrecht. His [[StarMakingRole breakout role]] in film came in 1931, when Creator/FritzLang cast him as a child killer in ''Film/{{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 UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler took power in 1933.
12
13	Lorre initially relocated to Paris, then London. He faked his way through an interview with Creator/AlfredHitchcock 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 ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooMuch'', 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.
14
15	Throughout his career, Lorre battled typecasting. Hollywood predictably wanted him to play villains and varying shades of TheWoobie, epitomized not only by Lorre's best-known films like ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941'' and ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' but also many lesser works. Lorre especially disliked his association with horror movies; he appreciated PsychologicalHorror such as by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe 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 [[SelfDeprecation a sense of humor]] about his typecasting: he once quipped that "with occasional interruptions, I've been killing my way through life." Filming Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'', Lorre expressed surprise that a mechanical squid played the role usually reserved for him!
16
17	Lorre did, however, get to play heroic roles in the ''Mr. Moto'' films, ''Film/PassageToMarseille'' and ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'', comedic characters in ''Film/ArsenicAndOldLace'' and ''Film/SilkStockings'', 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.
18
19	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 Creator/RogerCorman and Creator/VincentPrice on ''Tales of Terror'' and ''Film/{{The Raven\|1963}}'' became well-regarded. He died of a stroke in 1964, at the age of 59.
20
21	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 ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Amok Time". She had worked with Fritz Lang on several projects, and brought Lorre to Lang's attention for ''M''.
22
23	He was close friends with his occasional costar Creator/VincentPrice, who read the eulogy at his funeral.[[note]]It was long claimed that the two attended the funeral of fellow horror icon Creator/BelaLugosi, where Lorre asked Price if they should "[[Film/Dracula1931 drive a stake through [Lugosi]'s heart just to be safe,]]" but this turned out to be false.[[/note]] He also counseled Creator/HumphreyBogart to marry Creator/LaurenBacall despite their age difference, telling him "five good years are better than none!"
24
25	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 Website/ThisVeryWiki called LorreLookalike.
26
27	----
28	!!Peter Lorre on TV Tropes:
29	* ''Film/{{M}}'' (1931)
30	* ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooMuch'' (1934)
31	* ''Film/MadLove'' (1935)
32	* ''Film/{{Secret Agent\|1936}}'' (1936)
33	* ''Film/StrangeCargo'' (1940)
34	* ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon\|1941}}'' (1941)
35	* ''Film/AllThroughTheNight'' (1941)
36	* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' (1942)
37	* ''Film/TheConstantNymph'' (1943)
38	* ''Film/PassageToMarseille'' (1944)
39	* ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace'' (1944)
40	* ''Theatre/TheManWithTheHeadOfGlass'' (1944)
41	* ''Film/HotelBerlin'' (1945)
42	* ''Film/TheBeastWithFiveFingers'' (1946)
43	* ''Film/{{Black Angel\|1946}}'' (1946)
44	* ''Film/MyFavoriteBrunette'' (1947)
45	* ''Film/{{Casbah}}'' (1948)
46	* ''Film/{{Quicksand}}'' (1950)
47	* ''Film/DoubleConfession'' (1950)
48	* ''Film/BeatTheDevil'' (1953)
49	* ''Film/{{Casino Royale\|1954}}'' (1954 episode of the Creator/{{CBS}} anthology series ''Climax!'')
50	* ''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' (1954)
51	* ''[[Film/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays1956 Around the World in 80 Days]]'' (1956)
52	* ''Film/TheSadSack'' (1957)
53	* ''Film/SilkStockings'' (1957)
54	* ''Film/TalesOfTerror'' (1962)
55	* ''Film/{{The Raven\|1963}}'' (1963)
56	* ''Film/TheComedyOfTerrors'' (1963)
57
58	----
59	!!Peter Lorre's performances display examples of:
60	* BeamMeUpScotty: Never played TheIgor, 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 [[LostInImitation as impersonators let on]].
61	* CampStraight: He was by all accounts straight, but had an effete acting style which got him cast as AmbiguouslyGay in ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon\|1941}}'', and ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace''. In any case, ''The Mask of Dimitrios'' is considered by some viewers to practically revolve around gay subtext.
62	* CreatorBacklash: Regretted his role on ''M'' because it typecast him as a creepy character.
63	* FakeNationality:
64	** He played "creepy foreigners" from all different countries: German (''Film/{{M}}'' and ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace''), Greek (''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon\|1941}}''), Italian (''Film/{{Casablanca}}''), French (''Film/PassageToMarseille''), and Dutch (''The Mask of Dimitrios''). He never bothered changing his accent for any of these roles.
65	** 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.
66	** Not to mention his playing a Japanese agent, Mr. Moto, who occasionally impersonates a German. With surprising success.
67	** Though he does do a nice American accent in the '50s ''Casino Royale'' film, sounding similar to his close friend Humphrey Bogart.
68	* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: He was typecast as this, after his breakout performance in ''Film/{{M}}''. In Jean Negulesco's 1946 noir ''Three Strangers'', he even played the romantic lead.
69	* LorreLookalike: He's a very popular subject for cartoon parodies, from countless ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'', to the hanging lamp in ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'', to Maggot in ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'', to name a few. As of 2021, a caricature of him is a supporting character in ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow''.
70	* PopCultureOsmosis: An unfortunate side effect is that more modern audiences recognize the caricature than the man himself. Creator/TimBurton even admitted that he didn't even know Lorre by name when he wrote the above-mentioned ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'' character.
71	* PlayingAgainstType: His role in ''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' was this, where he played the roly-poly Conseil, instead of any of the villains. And he makes it work.
72	* TomHanksSyndrome: Lorre was a comedian before ''M''.
73	* TheWoobie: [[invoked]] He was typecast as this, probably due to his "sad eyes." Usually of either the villainous kind or a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.

Context Creator / PeterLorre