Peter Lorre was born 118 years ago today.
An Austrian-born American actor of Jewish descent, Lorre caused an international sensation with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the 1931 German film, M, directed by Fritz Lang.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Lorre took refuge first in Paris and then London, where he was noticed by Ivor Montagu, associate producer for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), who reminded the film's director, Alfred Hitchcock, about Lorre's performance in M.
They first considered him to play the assassin in the film, but wanted to use him in a larger role despite his limited command of English at the time, which Lorre overcame by learning much of his part phonetically. Lorre soon settled in Hollywood, where he specialized in playing sinister foreigners, beginning with Mad Love (1935), directed by Karl Freund.
The Maltese Falcon (1941), his first film with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, was followed by Casablanca (1942). Lorre and Greenstreet appeared in seven other films together.
Frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner, his later career was erratic. Lorre was the first actor to play a James Bond villain as Le Chiffre in a TV version of Casino Royale (1954).
Lorre starred in a series of Mr. Moto movies, a parallel to the better known Charlie Chan series, in which he played John P. Marquand's character, a Japanese detective and spy. Initially positive about the films, he soon grew frustrated with them. "The role is childish," he once asserted, and eventually tended to angrily dismiss the films entirely. He twisted his shoulder during a stunt in Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939), the penultimate entry of the series.
Frustrated by broken promises from the Fox studio, Lorre had managed to end his contract. He went freelance for the next four years.
In 1940, Lorre appeared as the anonymous lead in the B-picture, Stranger on the Third Floor, reputedly the first ever film noir. The same year, he co-starred with horror actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the Kay Kyser movie, You'll Find Out.
In 1941, Lorre became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Writing in 1944, film critic Manny Farber described what he called Lorre's "double-take job," a characteristic dramatic flourish "where the actor's face changes rapidly from laughter, love or a security that he doesn't really feel to a face more sincerely menacing, fearful or deadpan."
Lorre had suffered for years from chronic gallbladder troubles, for which doctors had prescribed morphine. He became trapped between the constant pain and addiction to morphine to ease the problem. It was during the period of the Mr. Moto films that Lorre struggled with and overcame his addiction.
Having quickly gained 100 pounds and not fully recovering from his addiction to morphine, Lorre suffered personal and career disappointments in his later life.
He died at age 59 in 1964 of a stroke.