Cover:  'The Lost One:  A Life of Peter Lorre' by Stephen D. Youngkin

  The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre
By Stephen D. Youngkin

Peter's Family Album
 
         
 
Page Updated:
Dec. 25, 2007



Home


Table
of
Contents


Excerpt:
Chapter 3


Peter Lorre's
Credits
(A Sample)
Updated


Peter Lorre:
Biographical
Sketch


Peter Lorre
FAQ


Peter Lorre
On DVD


Peter Lorre
Photos
Updated


Peter Lorre
Poster Art
Updated


Critics Are
Saying . . .


Interview
With
The Author
 


In The Lost One, I separated the person of Peter Lorre from his screen persona. Continuing that theme for this website, I suggested including photos (most of which belonged to Lorre himself) that pictured a happy, healthy man at odds with his sinister image as a movie menace. There are many images here that would have made the book but for space limitations and/or poor resolution. Nonetheless, these shots (and more to come) show rather than tell his many-sided story behind the camera.




Except where noted, all photos are from the collection of Stephen Youngkin.
For a larger image, click on the thumbnail. A new window will open.


Andrew Lorre, Peter's younger brother, c. 1931.

Andrew “Bundy” Lorre looked a great deal like his famous brother. Often told that he also talked just like Peter Lorre, he would reply, “Yes, but he is getting paid for it.” Circa 1931.

Peter Lorre and brother Francis Lorant at lunch in Berlin, 1932.

Peter Lorre and brother Francis Lorant, who later emigrated to Australia, lunching in Berlin, 1932. Lorre’s head is shaved for his role as a humpbacked drug dealer in Der weisse Dämon (The White Demon).

Celia Lovsky, Peter Lorre's first wife, c. 1925.

Celia Lovsky, circa 1925. Lovsky was already well established on the Vienna and Berlin stages when Lorre met her in 1929. He was mesmerized by her beauty, she by his talent.

Portrait of Celia Lovsky, the first Mrs. Peter Lorre,  taken in 1927.

Celia Lovsky, circa 1927. Peter Lorre told friends he didn't know how he attracted such beautiful women. Some female admirers found his menacing and mysterious screen image appealing. His wives, however, shared something else in common: an unqualified belief in his talent.

Peter Lorre and Celia Lovsky on holiday in the Black Forest, December 1929.

On a winter holiday in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany, December, 1929. Peter proposed to Celia at Christmas that year.

Peter Lorre and Celia Lovsky take a ride in a motorboat, 1932.

Peter and Celia motor-boating on der Wannsee, a popular area for swimming and boating in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. 1932.

Celia Lovsky cuddles a lion cub at a Berlin petting zoo, 1932.

After Peter and Celia divorced, she was seldom without one or more cats. When I knew her, she had four felines, all tabbies and all very spoiled. Here she is at a petting zoo with a tiger cub in her lap. Berlin, circa 1932.

Peter Lorre and film editor Paul Falkenberg study a filmstrip, 1933.

Peter Lorre and Paul Falkenberg in a Paris editing room, 1933. Falkenberg, who edited M (1931), became a good friend of Lorre's, even lending him money to take a cure for his drug addiction.

Lotte Lenya embraces Peter Lorre in the play 'Frühlings Erwachen' ('Spring's Awakening'), 1929.

Peter Lorre, as the angelically simple "Moritz Steifel" in Frank Wedekind’s Frühlings Erwachen (Spring’s Awakening), resists the sexual overtures of the nymphomanical Ilse (Lotte Lenja), Volksbühne, Theater am Bülowplatz, Berlin, October 1929. Taken by photographer Lotte Jacobi.

Kurt Gerron and Peter Lorre in the play 'Die Unüberwindlichen' ('The Unconquerable'), 1929.

Kurt Gerron plays the shady profiteer "Camillioni" to Peter Lorre as the corrupt Vienna press czar "Barkassy" in Karl Kraus' Die Unüberwindlichen (The Unconquerable, October 1929). At the Volksbühne, Theater am Bülowplatz, Berlin.

Otto Wallburg and Peter Lorre in the play 'Der Kandidat' ('The Candidate'), 1930.

Otto Wallburg and Peter Lorre (as "Bach", editor of The People's Voice) in Carl Sternheim's comedy Der Kandidat (The Candidate), Deutsches Kammerspiele, Berlin, January 1930. Said theater critic Fritz Engel in the Berliner Tageblatt: "He has a personal enchantment, not one of beauty; one is strongly moved and cannot pull himself away from Lorre."

Heinz Rühmann, Hilde Körbe and Peter Lorre in the play 'Die Quadratur des Kreises' ('Squaring the Circle'), 1930.

Heinz Rühmann and Hilde Körbe opposite Peter Lorre, as "Wasja", a fanatical member of the League of Communist Youth, in Valentine Katayev's Die Quadratur des Kreises (Squaring the Circle). The satire, set against Russia's housing shortage, premiered at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin, in December 1930.

Peter Lorre, Carola Neher, and Fritz Kampers in the play 'Der Dompteur' ('The Lion Tamer'), Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin, 1931.

Whether distancing himself from a character or absorbing himself in a role, Lorre called himself a “face-maker.” As Vincent Price said, “It was his definition of acting.” Lorre first played the funnyman ("Pipi the Clown") in Der Dompteur (The Lion Tamer) on the Berlin stage in March 1931, with Carola Neher and Fritz Kampers.

Peter Lorre and Ilse Fürstenberg in the play 'Nebeneinander' ('Side by Side'), September 1931.

Director Tay Garnett felt that Lorre called himself a “face-maker” because he wanted no one to know how seriously he took his art. Once again, as "the Pawnbroker" in Georg Kaiser’s Nebeneinander (Side by Side, September 1931), his facial expressions gave, according to one reviewer, “good insight into one driven by demons.” With Ilse Fürstenberg.




Prev Page | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Next Page



The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen Youngkin -- now in its second printing and winner of the Rondo Award for "Best Book of 2005" -- is available in bookstores everywhere, as well as these on-line merchants.

The Films of Peter Lorre (1982), also by Youngkin, is out of print, but copies may be purchased through Amazon and Barnes & Noble below. Interested in Lorre's radio and television performances? Check out Radio Showcase and Movies Unlimited. Netflix has Lorre movies for rent.

University Press of Kentucky
Powell's Books
Overstock.comicon

The Lost One:
A Life of
Peter Lorre

Barnes & Noble
Bookstores



Deep Discount

US fans:
Amazon.com

Canadian fans:
Amazon.ca

UK fans:
Amazon.uk

The Films of
Peter Lorre

Barnes & Noble
Bookstores


US fans:
Amazon.com


Radio Showcase

Try Netflix for Free!


Find Peter Lorre movies at MoviesUnlimited.com.
Movies Unlimited



US fans: Purchase an Amazon Gift Certificate



Canadian fans: Purchase an Amazon Gift Certificate





Have a comment or question? We'd love to hear from you! Please contact us at:
Webmaster@PeterLorreBook.com

Copyright © 2005-2008 by Ghillie Web Design - Cheryl Morris. All Rights Reserved.