Lionel Atwill
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1885-02-27
Day of Death
1946-04-22 (61 years old)
Place of Birth
Croydon, London, England, UK
Lionel Atwill
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lionel Atwill (1 March 1885 – 22 April 1946) was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England.
He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most famous for his U.S. horror roles in the 1930s. His two most memorable parts were as the crazed, disfigured sculptor in Mystery of the Wax Museum (Warner Brothers, 1933), and as Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein (1939), memorably sent up by Kenneth Mars in Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein (1974).
When he was not cast in macabre roles, Atwill often appeared in the 1930s as righteous-minded authority figures. For example, in 1937's less memorable The Wrong Road for RKO, investigator Atwill persuades a young, bank-robbing ingenue played by Helen Mack and her boyfriend Richard Cromwell to return their ill-gotten $100,000 and give up a life of crime. Two of Atwill's other notable non-horror roles were opposite his contemporary Basil Rathbone in films featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes, including a role as Dr. James Mortimer in 20th Century Fox's 1939 film rendition of the Conan Doyle novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, and the 1943 Universal Studios film Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, in which he played Holmes' archenemy and super-villain, Professor Moriarty.
Atwill remained a stalwart of the Universal horror films until his career flagged in the 1940s because of a widely publicized sex scandal in 1941, during the investigation of which he was charged in 1942 with perjury at a trial in which Atwill had been accused of staging a sex orgy at his home.
He died while working on the 1946 film serial Lost City of the Jungle. His ashes were once inurned in Chapel of the Pines Crematory.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Lionel Atwill, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Known For
Acting
(2007)
Terror in the Pharaoh's Tomb
as Dr. Xavier (archive footage)
(1998)
The Wolfman's Cure
as Inspector Holtz
(1996)
(1991)
Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
as Doctor Bohmer / Krogh (archive footage)
(1983)
The Horror of It All
as Dr. Otto von Niemann (archive footage)
(1979)
The Horror Show
as (archive footage)
(1966)
Doom of Dracula
as Arntz, Police Officer (archive footage)
(1946)
Lost City of the Jungle
as Sir Eric Hazarias
(1946)
Genius at Work
as Latimer Marsh / The Cobra
(1945)
Fog Island
as Alec Ritchfield
(1945)
House of Dracula
as Police Inspector Holtz
(1945)
Crime, Inc.
as Pat Coyle
(1944)
Lady in the Death House
as Charles Finch
(1944)
House of Frankenstein
as Inspector Arnz
(1944)
Captain America
as Cyrus Maldor
(1944)
Raiders of Ghost City
as Erich von Rugen, alias Alex Morel
(1944)
Secrets of Scotland Yard
as Waterlow
(1943)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
as Mayor of Vasaria
(1942)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
as Professor Moriarty
(1942)
To Be or Not to Be
as Rawitch
(1942)
The Ghost of Frankenstein
as Dr. Bohmer
(1942)
Pardon My Sarong
as Varnoff
(1942)
Night Monster
as Dr. King
(1942)
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
as Dr. Fish
(1942)
Junior G-Men of the Air
as The Baron
(1942)
Cairo
as Teutonic Gentleman
(1942)
Dead End Kids Go To War
as The Baron
(1942)
The Mad Doctor of Market Street
as Dr. Ralph Benson, posing as Graham
(1941)
Man-Made Monster
as Dr. Paul Rigas
(1940)
Boom Town
as Harry Compton
(1940)
Johnny Apollo
as Jim McLaughlin
(1940)
Charlie Chan in Panama
as Cliveden Compton
(1940)
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
as Dr. Suderman
(1940)
The Great Profile
as Dr. Bruce
(1940)
Girl in 313
as Russell aka Henry Woodruff
(1939)
The Hound of the Baskervilles
as Dr. James Mortimer
(1939)
Son of Frankenstein
as Inspector Krogh
(1939)
The Gorilla
as Walter Stevens
(1939)
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
as Prof. Roger Chauncey Hildebrand
(1939)
The Sun Never Sets
as Hugo Zurof
(1939)
The Three Musketeers
as De Rochefort
(1939)
Balalaika
as Professor Marakov
(1939)
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
as Paul Messenger
(1939)
The Mad Empress
as General Bazaine
(1938)
Three Comrades
as Breuer
(1938)
The Great Waltz
as Count Anton 'Tony' Hohenfried
(1937)
The Last Train from Madrid
as Col. Vigo
(1937)
The Great Garrick
as M. Beaumarchais
(1937)
The Road Back
as Prosecutor
(1937)
The Wrong Road
as Mike Roberts
(1937)
The High Command
as Maj. Gen. Sir John Sangye
(1937)
Lancer Spy
as Col. Fenwick
(1936)
Absolute Quiet
as Gerald A. Axton
(1936)
Till We Meet Again
as Ludwig
(1936)
Lady of Secrets
as Mr. Stephen Whittaker
(1935)
Mark of the Vampire
as Inspector Neumann
(1935)
Captain Blood
as Colonel Bishop
(1935)
The Murder Man
as Captain Cole
(1935)
Rendezvous
as Maj. William Brennan
(1935)
The Devil Is a Woman
as Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar
(1934)
Stamboul Quest
as Herr Von Sturm
(1934)
Beggars in Ermine
as John 'Flint' Dawson aka John Daniels
(1934)
The Firebird
as John Pointer
(1934)
One More River
as Brough
(1934)
Nana
as Colonel André Muffat
(1934)
The Man Who Reclaimed His Head
as Henry Dumont
(1934)
The Age of Innocence
as Julius Beaufort
(1933)
The Sphinx
as Jerome Breen
(1933)
The Vampire Bat
as Dr. Otto von Niemann
(1933)
Mystery of the Wax Museum
as Ivan Eigor
(1933)
The Song of Songs
as Baron von Merzbach
(1933)
Murders in the Zoo
as Eric Gorman
(1933)
The Secret of Madame Blanche
as Aubrey St. John
(1933)
Secret of the Blue Room
as Robert von Helldorf
(1933)
The Solitaire Man
as Inspector Wallace
(1932)
Doctor X
as Dr. Jerry Xavier
(1932)
The Silent Witness
as Sir Austin Howard
(1929)
The Knife
as The Surgeon
(1921)
The Highest Bidder
as Lester
(1919)
The Marriage Price
as Kenneth Gordon
(1918)
Eve's Daughter
as Courtenay Urquhart