This Halloween 1996 edition of A&E's Biography pays tribute to Peter Lorre, the first in depth video biography of the actor since his 1964 death at age 59 from a fatal heart attack, abetted by Stephen D. Youngkin, coauthor of the 1982 publication "The Films of Peter Lorre." Aspiring to the stage from a young age, his disapproving martinet father soon relented once he saw how dedicated his eldest offspring was, relocating to 1920s Berlin for a bohemian lifestyle that earned plaudits from his debut. Playwright Bertolt Brecht made him a household name in Germany, while director Fritz Lang's 1931 feature "M" achieved international success that soon saw Lorre making the rounds in Hollywood, first under contract at Columbia ("Crime and Punishment") then 20th Century-Fox, where the Mr. Moto series established his versatility as a mysterious globetrotting figure who could take out enemies with his prowess at judo. His happiest years were spent at Warners opposite good friends Humphrey Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet, all gathered together under first time director John Huston for 1941's "The Maltese Falcon," but by decade's end personal and financial setbacks forced him to accept just about anything, his once lauded skills now reduced to self parody as simply 'making faces.' Lorre felt that the best actors had to be adept psychologists to achieve the utmost in characterization, and remained on good terms with his first two wives, Celia Lovsky best remembered as Vulcan matriarch T'Pau in STAR TREK's "Amok Time" (she died in 1979).
Review of Peter Lorre: The Master of Menace
