Site Updated:
Nov. 9, 2008

"A first-class job of introspective writing."   —   Billy Wilder

"It is an outstanding work: well-researched, insightfully written, a significant contribution to film biography and film history."   —   Patrick McGilligan, author of Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast (1997) and Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003).

"This is the most comprehensive, accurate biography on Lorre in his European and American context – nothing like it."   —   James K. Lyon, author of Bertolt Brecht in America (1980).

"Wow! What a stunning achievement! The Lost One is, well, beyond definitive regarding the life and career of beloved actor Lorre (who died in 1964)."   —   David McDonnell, editor, Starlog Magazine; Nov. 2005.

"Perhaps the best word to describe Stephen D. Youngkin's Peter Lorre bio, 'The Lost One,' is 'exhaustive.' It's deep and detailed . . . the capstone to years of research into the actor's life, films, family and psyche."   —   Marty Baumann, The Astounding B Monster; Nov. 2005.

"A truly remarkable achievement: a quintessential biography that gets inside the inimitable, ever-mysterious Lorre and the movie industry that couldn't get enough of him – yet never quite figured out how to tap his peculiar genius. Riveting, heartbreaking, and endlessly illuminating, The Lost One reveals the talents and torments of an authentic motion-picture original. Youngkin deftly traces Lorre's on-screen achievements, from M and Mr. Moto, to the noir masterworks during his glory days at Warner Bros., to his sad, slow descent into addiction, chronic melancholy, and second-rate roles. Dead center throughout is Lorre himself, who is somehow sustained by his acerbic wit, his oddly heroic sensibility, and his incessant commitment to his art."   —   Thomas Schatz, author of The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era (1989).