Peter Lorre, seen here in a 1936 portrait, was born László Löwenstein in Hungary in 1904. Like his frequent co-star Sidney Greenstreet, Lorre was a character actor who became a beloved star. His work in the Thirties, especially in Fritz Lang’s M, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Karl Freund’s Mad Love (1935),was excellent and at times, as in M, heartbreaking. But it was for the persona he developed in The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and Arsenic and Old Lace that American audiences embraced him. Though in poor health for most of his life, he worked steadily up until his death in 1964. His last years on film and on television were spent parodying his popular image, often with other stars from the Thirties like Boris Karloff. It might seem sad to see him in such reduced circumstances, yet he was never pathetic, never pleading for our approval. He was a working actor, still well-known and well-loved by the American public.
