Peter Lorre was a Hungarian actor whose large round eyes, and distinct whispery, Easter European accented voice meant he could never be mistaken for anyone else, and cut a swathe of scene stealing roles through the 30's and 40's and later in the horror genre. An accomplished actor often cast in villainous, skittish, or sleazy roles, he became a favorite of Robin Williams to impersonate, and Williams knew all of Lorre's lines from The Maltese Falcon. He also used Lorre's voice for Mork's 'Fear'.
About Peter Lorre[]
Lorre was born László Löwenstein (Hungarian: Löwenstein László) on June 26, 1904, the first child of Alajos Löwenstein and his wife Elvira Freischberger, in the Hungarian town of Rózsahegy in Liptó County (German: Rosenberg; Slovak: Ružomberok, now in Slovakia). After his mother's death when he was 4 and before the outbreak of the first World War, his father moved his three sons to Vienna. Lorre began acting on stage in Vienna aged 17. In the late 1920s, the actor moved to Berlin, where he worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, including a role in Brecht's Man Equals Man and as Dr. Nakamura in the musical Happy End.
He became much better known after director Fritz Lang cast him as child killer Hans Beckert in M which got him noticed in Britain and the U.S. 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. On July 18, 1934 he set sail for New York a day after shooting had been completed on The Man Who Knew Too Much, having gained visitor's visas to the United States.
After making movies at Fox and RKO, Lorre settled into a contract with Warner Brothers, where he made probably some of his most well known films. including nine with Sydney Greenstreet counting The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, a team which came to be called "Little Pete-Big Syd". Other movies included Passage to Marseille (1944), The Mask of Dimitrios (1944); The Conspirators (1944, with Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid); Hollywood Canteen (1944); Three Strangers (1946), a suspense film about three people who are joint partners on a winning lottery ticket, with third-billed Lorre cast against type by director Jean Negulesco as the romantic lead, also co-starring Geraldine Fitzgerald; and Greenstreet and Lorre's final film together, suspense thriller The Verdict (1946).
Lorre returned to comedy with the role of Dr. Einstein in Frank Capra's version of Arsenic and Old Lace (released in 1944), and starring Cary Grant and Raymond Massey. 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's last film for Warner was The Beast with Five Fingers (1946).
After WWII his career took a downturn, and his latter years were marked by a turn to the horror genre. And In Lorre's last years, he worked with Roger Corman on several low-budget films, including two of the director's Edgar Allan Poe cycle: Tales of Terror (1962) with Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone; and The Raven (1963), again with Price, as well as Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson. He again worked with Price, Karloff and Rathbone in the Jacques Tourneur-directed The Comedy of Terrors (1963) all of which have become cult classics.
Mork Multiple References[]
Mork took delight in impersonating Peter Lorre, to the point that his subconscious assigned Lorre's voice to his emotion of 'Fear' when his emotions break free of him.
- To Tell the Truth - Mork does an impression of Peter Lorre, while talking guiltily to his sandwich about eating it.
- Mork the Gullible - Mindy returns Mork's favorite Peter Lorre 'Don't Be Afraid' line to him when leading him by the hand to the window to experience snow for the first time.
- Mork's Mixed Emotions - Mork's Fear sounds exactly like Peter Lorre
- Looney Tunes and Morkie Melodies - Mork's Mr. Weasel that co-hosts the kids show with him, has Peter Lorre's voice
- Dueling Skates - Mork imitates Peter Lorre singing Roy Roger's & Dale Evan's theme song Happy Trails, and tells Mindy' "You're very Pretty" in his voice.
- Present Tense - On Mindy's return to Mork's Moroccan Evening, he impersonates Lorre, telling her that if she's very nice to him he'll return her passport to her.