Actor Peter Lorre was born in 1904 in Hungary. His father, a bookkeeper, didn’t approve of Peter’s early interest in acting. At the age of seventeen, Lorre ran away from home and joined an amateur Viennese theatrical troupe. Acting didn’t pay the bills, so he eventually found a job as a bank clerk, but it didn’t last. Lorre struggled to get to work on time after spending his evenings out late performing.
Lorre eventually moved to Poland, where he succeeded in landing a role as a paid actor. He traveled through Europe, acting on stage in Switzerland and Germany before being cast in the film M, directed by Fritz Lang. Lorre starred as the villain in M and was the most talked about newcomer in moving pictures at the time. Before long, he was making films in London, taking on English speaking roles by learning his lines phonetically.
Lorre made the move to Hollywood, where, after a time, he had success as a movie actor.
Learn more by reading the Stephen D. Youngkin Research Files on Peter Lorre at UW’s American Heritage Center.