Born Laszlo Lowenstein, 26 June, 1904. Died 23 March, 1964. In between, there was a whole lotta living.
Born in Hungary, he began acting at age seventeen. He first found success onstage, working with
Bertolt Brecht. His
breakout role came in 1931 when
Fritz Lang cast him as the child killer in
M. Against all odds Lorre made the character quite sympathetic (if not admirable), marking the first of many sad monsters he would play throughout his career. 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.
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".
He was close friends and occasionally co-starred with
Vincent Price, who read the eulogy at his funeral. Counseled
Humphrey Bogart to marry
Lauren Bacall, despite their age difference, by telling him "five good years are better than none!"
The speech pattern of Ren C. Hoek from
The Ren & Stimpy Show is a
Shout Out to Lorre, as is
The Firesign Theatre's Rocky Rococo, likewise Agent X Two Zero in
Gerry Anderson's
Stingray 1964, and
the Genie briefly impersonates him in
Aladdin. The
Woody Allen Gag Dub spy movie
Whats Up Tiger Lily gives a Lorre voice to a villain, who at one point complains that "this Peter Lorre impression is
keeeeling my throat!"
Spike Jones's spoof version of the song "My Old Flame" features a vocal parody that Jones wanted to call "Peter Gory" until the record company vetoed the idea. The
Quest for Glory series of computer games has Ugarte, Lorre's character in
Casablanca, as a minor recurring character alongside
Sydney Greenstreet's Signor Ferrari. Lorre's life and career are the subject of
Addicted to Bad Ideas, a musical by
The World Inferno Friendship Society. Lastly, Tom Smith has a song dedicated to him named "I Want to Be Peter Lorre".
In
Kim Newman's
Drachenfels, an eerie actor cast to play the eponymous villain is named... Laszlo Lowenstein.
Starred in (among other movies):
Peter Lorre displays examples of:
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!; Never played Igor, but for some reason modern depictions of the character often make him distinctly Lorre-esque.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He was typecast as this, after his breakout performance in M.
- Fake Nationality/Not Even Bothering with the Accent : 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 Hungarian accent for any of these roles.
- Not to mention his playing a Japanese agent, Mr. Moto, who occasionally impersonates a German. With surprising success.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Cartoons today are still parodying him.
- The Woobie: invokedHe was typecast as this, probably due to his "sad eyes." Usually a Villain Woobie, or a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
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