As a youth Peter Lorre ran away from home, worked as a bank clerk, and after stage training in Vienna made his acting debut in Zurich. He remained unknown, traveling for seven years acting in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, until Fritz Lang cast as the psychopathic child killer in M. After several more films in Germany, Lorre left as the Nazis came to power, going to Paris, London and, in 1935, Hollywood. He played Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and a series of Mr. Moto movies during the late 1930s. He began his pairing with Sydney Greenstreet as Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon, continued in Casablanca and seven other films during the early 1940s. In Germany he wrote, directed and starred in Verlorene, Der. After that, somewhat heavier, he played in a string of not-so-stellar efforts, one exception being his role as a clown in The Big Circus. He died the year he made his last movie, playing a stooge in Jerry Lewis' The Patsy.


Beat the Devil (1953): $15,000
Casablanca (1942): $500

According to Vincent Price, when he and Peter Lorre went to view Bela Lugosi's body during Bela's funeral, Lorre, upon seeing Lugosi dressed in his famous Dracula cape, quipped, "Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?" Was the very first James Bond villain; he played Le Chiffre in a 1954 version of Casino Royale on the TV show "Climax!" (1954). Daughter: Catharine Lorre, born 1953. She passed away on May 7, 1985. Hobby: Sketching Spike Jones had a hit record with his wacky cover version of "My Old Flame" with voice actor Paul Frees doing a Lorre impression for the vocal. When Lorre appeared on Jones' radio show he had to learn the "Paul Frees" way of being Peter Lorre, as Peter himself was not quite the madman that Paul had made him out to be. Also imitated by Mel Blanc in a handful of Warner Bros. cartoons, and the vocal inspiration for the character Flat Top in "The Dick Tracy Show" (1961). In the early 1990s, his famous accent was parodied yet again in the cartoon show "Mega Man" (1995) as the robot henchman Cutman (possibly a wordplay on Sydney Greenstreet's Gutman in The Maltese Falcon (1941)). As a young man in Vienna, he was a student of the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. He established his own production company, Lorre Incorporated. The company was mismanaged and Lorre filed for backruptcy. Lorre suggested to Harry Cohn of Columbia that they make a film version of Crime and Punishment (1935/I) with him in the role of Raskolnikov. Cohn agreed to the project if Lorre would agree to be loaned out to MGM for Mad Love (1935). It was reportedly Josef Goebbels himself who warned Lorre to flee Germany. Is the subject of a stage show and album by the World/Inferno Friendship Society called Peter Lorre's 20th Century: Addicted to Bad Ideas. The music is meant to outline Lorre's life, and the show is narrated with monologues and dialog between band members. He convinced Humphrey Bogart to marry Lauren Bacall, despite the age difference. He did so by saying, "Five good years are better than none!" Lorre's speech and mannerisms provided the inspiration for the villainous 'Rocky Rococo' character in the Firesign Theater's 1968 radio play "The Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye". His performance as Hans Beckert in M (1931) was ranked at #94 on Premiere Magazine's list of 100 Greatest Film Performances of All Time (April, 2006 issue). Subject of a 1986 Jazz Butcher Conspiracy song. Mentioned in the lyrics of Al Stewart's 1976 hit song "Year of the Cat". He was sought for a role in "The Black Sleep," but when the cost-conscious producers deemed his salary request too high, he was replaced by Akim Tamiroff.