This actor has character….
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…..would you give your money to this man?
A lot of people did and for good reason….he was their bank clerk!
But Peter didn’t stay at that job too long before becoming one of the “starving artists” who traveled around Germany, Austria and Switzerland looking for acting jobs. Then, in 1931, German director Fritz Lang cast him as the psychopathic child killer in “M”. His chilling performance quite possibly made it dangerous for him to even go to the bank!
 "M" in 1931 |
Peter was born Lazslo Loewenstein on Rozsahhegy, Hungary (now Ruzomberok, Slovakia) on June 26,1904 to Alois and Elvira Loewenstein but after Elvira died in 1908, the family moved to Moedling, Austria. After Lazslo graduated from high school, he attended business school in Vienna where he was a banking clerk by day and an actor in improvisational theater by night. It was at Jacob Moreno’s Theater of Spontaneity where Lazslo was given his new stage name “Peter Lorre” because of his resemblance to a unkempt character in German children’s stories “Struwwelpeter”. In 1924 Peter moved to Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) and then to Zurich. He later claimed he was probably the only actor who really had “scurvy’.
Peter returned to Vienna by 1925 but in 1928 he moved to Berlin where he met poet-dramatist Bertolt Brecht (a friendship that would cause him trouble later) and made his stage debut in “Pioniere in Ingostadt” playing the village idiot. Two other life-changing events also occurred that year. Peter met the woman who would become his first wife, actress Celia Lofsky. He also became seriously ill and underwent major surgery resulting in life-long health problems and an addiction to morphine.
 ..with Leslie Banks and Alfred Hitchcock on the set of
"The Man Who Knew Too Much"
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But it was “M” that catapulted him to fame and stamped him forever as a character actor (ironically it was a picture of Lorre as “M” that the Nazis later used on the front cover of their propaganda pamphlet “The Eternal Jew”). Peter and Celia fled Germany in February, 1933 joining other émigrés in Paris. Later that year he accepted Alfred Hitchcock’s invitation to go to England for “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934) and he married Celia there. Peter played a fiendish terrorist in a cast that included Leslie Banks and Edna Best. But he always wanted to do comedy and was already tired of the villain parts. Peter decided to take the contract offered by Columbia and left England for Hollywood in July, 1934.
 ...as "Mr. Moto" |
But Columbia, and Hollywood in general, couldn’t seem to see beyond the roles of his past. His first picture for Columbia was instead for MGM. He was loaned out to do “Mad Love” as the demented Dr. Gogol. But the studio did allow him to play the role of Raskolnikov in “Crime and Punishment” the film version of the Dostoyevsky classic. Then Peter went back to London for Hitchcock’s “Secret Agent”. When he returned from London Peter signed with 20th Century Fox to do his first comedy…the role of Colonel Gimpy in “Crack-up. But it was his second film that took his career in a different direction. Lorre became “Mr. Moto” the Japanese detective created by John Marquand but he gave Moto a dark edge that separated this character from all the other Oriental detectives in films at the time. The Moto series lasted until 1939 but Peter’s penchant for dark humor would color most of his future roles. He became a Hollywood icon with his roles in “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) and “Casablanca” (1942).
 ...with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet in
"The Maltese Falcon"
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However it was Peter’s practical jokes that kept Hollywood on edge. On the set of “Casablanca” Peter had director Michael Curtiz in his sights. Curtiz was a known womanizer and set up a convenient little love nest off the set for afternoon dalliances. Peter hid a microphone there one day and it wasn’t long before every loving sound was heard all over the set. The cast collapsed in laughter but of course no one breathed a word to Curtiz.
 John Barrymore |
 Errol Flynn |
Another legendary escapade was at the expense of Errol Flynn and it became legend in filmdom. It seems John Barrymore had just died. John had been a frequent guest at Errol’s digs, often uninvited and always very drunk. So Peter and his “Casablanca” cohorts collected about $300 together and paid off a mortuary caretaker to smuggle out John’s body. They took it to Errol’s and properly seated John in a chair, a drink clutched in a very stiff hand. When Errol arrived home and turned on the light, the shock was palpable and when he touched the body and immediately recoiled it was classic. Flynn forgave them after they all had a few drinks but refused to help them take the body back.
 Peter with Celia |
 Peter and Karen's wedding day. |
In 1941 Peter became a naturalized citizen but at home his marriage to Celia was falling apart and they were living separate lives. Peter met Karen Verne on the set of “All Through the Night” their first and only film together and married her after his divorce from Celia in 1945. Karen was 13 years his junior. In the beginning it was like a story-book romance but the marriage ended in 1950. Peter often said he wondered how he managed to be loved by such beautiful women.
 ..on the set of "The Verdict" |
Peter’s health problems surged up again on the set of “The Verdict” in 1946. The back lot sets didn’t fit the film’s Victorian period so it was decided to use fog as a cover. The fog was created with dry ice, burning cans of charcoal and vaporizing mineral oil. Peter was in such agony from inhaling the fumes he returned to using narcotic drugs to ease the pain.
 Goofing off with John Garfield .... |
 ...and with Sydney Greenstreet. |
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After WWII, film roles became scarce and Peter added more radio and stage work to his schedule. He also went to Germany to do “The Lost One” in 1951, a critically acclaimed film that he also co-wrote and directed. By the mid fifties spoofing the horror genre became the fad and he did several films like that with pals Vincent Price and Sydney Greenstreet. He was the first James Bond villain as Le Chiffre in “Casino Royale”. But then the ugly blacklists raised their heads and Lorre’s friendship with admitted communist Bercholt was questioned. The HUAC asked Lorre to give them the names of anyone else he had met since he came to this country that seemed “odd”. In true Lorre fashion, Peter obliged with the name of everyone he knew. While he was never actually on a blacklist, Peter said being “gray-listed’ was just as bad.
 Annemarie, Peter and Catherine |
In 1953 Peter married Annemarie Brenning and the marriage gave him his first and only child, Catherine. “She looks like me but it looks better on her”. But while Catherine was Peter’s only child, Eugene Weigand wanted to be known as Peter’s son. He even wanted his name changed to Peter Lorie, Jr. In 19l3 Eugene went to court to have his name legally changed and Peter went to court to stop him. But when Peter died the following year Eugene went back to being Peter Lorie, Jr.
Peter Lorre died of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 23,1964 at the age of 59. He was cremated and his ashes taken to Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Even though his marriage to Annemarie was essentially over when he died, Annemarie’s ashes were mingled with his at her death and they are buried together.
He left behind over 84 films to mark his passage here and most of them are regarded as classics today.
 The picture in Catherine's wallet. |
Note: The Hillside Stranglers, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Bruno, posing as police officers, stopped Catherine Lorre one night in 1977 with the intent of killing her. When they asked to see her driver’s license, one of them noticed she also had picture of herself on her father’s knee and realized she was Peter Lorre’s daughter. In fear of the publicity her death would incur, they drove off. Catherine never knew how close she came to death until the pictures of these killers were published later. Catherine died in 2006 of complications from diabetes.