Unsure of the origin of the name, many have postulated inspiration from the children’s book character Struwwilpeter. The group manager gave him the name Peter Lorre. In 1921, Laszlo joined The German Theatrical Group as a bit player. He traveled through Switzerland and Germany, looking for a break into the acting world. He began dreaming of a way to break free of his situation and his dreams flew in the direction of the stage.Īt 16 years old, he ran away from home in pursuit of his dreams. Of course, this attempt failed and young Laszlo felt trapped in an unhappy and stressful family. As Laszlo grew, he and his stepmother clashed more often than not, so to appease his father and stepmother, he took a job as a bank clerk to help support the family. They traveled through Romania, Vienna, and Yugoslavia looking for a place to support the family. Alajos was soon jobless and moved his combined family around to find work. She married Alajos for the betterment of her children and didn't care much about her stepsons.

Melanie Klein was Elvira's best friend and had young children of her own to provide for. Alajos was left with 3 young sons to care for and soon remarried. Laszlo was a 4-year-old little boy when his mother passed away. Peter Lorre was born Ladislav 'Laszlo' Lowenstein in Rozsahegy, Hungary, on June 26th, 1904, to a Jewish couple, Alajos Lowenstein and Elvira Freischberger-Lowenstein. And then, one day, I was watching an old movie on television and found out that he was definitely a real person! After all, this was a cartoon…he probably wasn't even a real person.

As a child, I didn't give it much thought. The short villain came on the screen laughing that wicked laugh and speaking with an accent that I had never heard before.

I think I was watching 'Scooby-Doo' with Vincent Price. I was young and watching Saturday morning cartoons. From the first time I heard Peter's voice, I was captivated.

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