Lionel Atwill
Encyclopedia
Lionel Atwill 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
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
stage and film actor born in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
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
Son of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal Studios' Frankenstein series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Béla Lugosi as Ygor. It is a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein....
(1939), memorably sent up by Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
in Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
's Young Frankenstein
Young Frankenstein
Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The supporting cast includes Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard...
(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
The Wrong Road
- Cast :*Richard Cromwell as Jimmy Caldwell*Helen Mack as Ruth Holden*Lionel Atwill as Mike Roberts*Horace McMahon as Blackie Clayton*Russ Powell as Chief Ira Foster*Billy Bevan as McLean*Marjorie Main as Martha Foster*Rex Evans as Victor J...
for RKO, investigator Atwill persuades a young, bank-robbing ingenue played by Helen Mack
Helen Mack
Helen Mack was an American actress. Mack started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving on to Broadway plays, and touring the vaudeville circuit. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s...
and her boyfriend Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (actor)
Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh , was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again...
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
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
in films featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
character Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, including a role as Dr. James Mortimer in 20th Century Fox's
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
1939 film rendition of the Conan Doyle novel The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an...
, and the 1943 Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
film Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films.- Plot :Sherlock Holmes pretends to be a Nazi spy to aid scientist Dr. Franz Tobel and his new invention, a bombsight, in escaping a Gestapo trap in Switzerland...
, in which he played Holmes' archenemy and super-villain, Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
.
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
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
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
Lost City of the Jungle
Lost City of the Jungle is a Universal movie serial.-Cast:* Russell Hayden as Rod Stanton, United Peace Foundation operative* Jane Adams as Marjorie Elmore* Lionel Atwill as Sir Eric Hazarias, villain acting under the pseudonym Geoffrey London...
. His ashes were once inurned in Chapel of the Pines Crematory
Chapel of the Pines Crematory
Chapel of the Pines Crematory is a crematory and columbarium located at 1605 South Catalina Street Los Angeles, California, in the historic West Adams District a short distance southwest of Downtown...
.
Private life
He married four times:- Phyllis Ralph in 1913 and divorced in 1919. In 1941 their son, John Arthur Atwill, was killed in actionKilled in actionKilled in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
aged 26. - American actress Elsie MackayElsie Mackay (actress)For the English aviator and actress known as 'Poppy Wyndham' please see Elsie MackayElsie Mackay was an American actress on Broadway and films in the 1920s and 1930s.-Private life:...
in 1919 (with whom one source claims he had a son, John). In 1925 Atwill had detectives raid an apartment on Manhattan's 68th Street, where Mackay was found with actor Max Montesole. A divorce was finally granted in March 1928. - Louise Cromwell BrooksLouise Cromwell BrooksHenrietta Louise Cromwell Brooks was an American socialite and the first wife of General Douglas MacArthur. She was "considered one of Washington's most beautiful and attractive young women" .-Biography:...
in 1930 and divorced in 1943, who had previously been married to Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthurGeneral of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
. - Mary Paula Shilstone in 1944 to his death in 1946 who carried his only surviving child, Lionel Anthony Atwill. His son Tony is a retired writer.
Partial filmography
- Doctor XDoctor X (film)Doctor X is a First National/Warner Bros. horror and mystery film based on the play of the same name. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lee Tracy, Fay Wray, and Lionel Atwill....
(1932) - The Vampire BatThe Vampire BatThe Vampire Bat is an American horror movie starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, and Dwight Frye.-Plot outline:When the villagers of Kleinschloss start dying of blood loss, the town fathers suspect a resurgence of vampirism. While police inspector Karl remains skeptical, scientist Dr...
(1933) - Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
- The SphinxThe SphinxThe Sphinx is a subglacial mound in the southernmost Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It is south-east of Garibaldi Lake. The volcano is part of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt which is a segment of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, but it is not within the geographic boundary of the Cascade Range...
(1933) - The Song of SongsThe Song of Songs (1933 film)The Song of Songs is a romantic drama film starring Marlene Dietrich as a naive, German peasant who moves to Berlin and suffers much heartache. It was based on the 1908 novel Das Hohe Lied by Hermann Sudermann and the subsequent 1914 play, The Song of Songs by Edward Sheldon...
(1933) - Secret of the Blue RoomSecret of the Blue RoomSecret of the Blue Room is a 1933 murder mystery film starring Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, and Paul Lukas. It is based on the German film Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers. A woman's suitor challenges his two rivals to each spend a night in a room in which several murders occurred years before at 1...
(1933) - Murders in the ZooMurders in the ZooMurders in the Zoo is 1933 horror film directed by A. Edward Sutherland, written by Philip Wylie and Seton I. Miller. Considered particularly dark for it's time, film critic Leonard Maltin has called the film "Astonishingly grisly".-Plot:...
(1933) - Stamboul QuestStamboul QuestStamboul Quest is a 1934 spy film set in World War I starring Myrna Loy and George Brent.-Plot:In 1915 Berlin, the German high command is worried about ally Turkey. Recent British attacks on the vital Dardanelles shows signs of inside knowledge. Von Sturm , the head of German intelligence, is...
(1934) - Beggars in ErmineBeggars in Ermine-Plot:John Dawson, a steel-mill owner loses his legs and his company in an accident engineered by his crooked secretary/treasurer, Jim Marley. After meeting a blind peddler, Marchant, he travels the country, under an assumed name, organizing beggars, peddlers, and the handicapped into a dues-paying...
(1934) - The Age of InnocenceThe Age of Innocence (1934 film)The Age of Innocence is a American drama film directed by Philip Moeller and starring Irene Dunne, John Boles and Lionel Atwill. The film is an adaptation of the novel The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton which is set amongst aristocrat New Yorkers in the 1870s.-Cast:* Irene Dunne - Countess...
(1934) - The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
- Mark of the VampireMark of the VampireMark of the Vampire is a 1935 horror film, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt and directed by Tod Browning...
(1935) - The Murder ManThe Murder ManThe Murder Man is a 1935 crime-drama film starring Spencer Tracy, Virginia Bruce, and Lionel Atwill, and directed by Tim Whelan. It was Tracy's first film in what would be a twenty-year career with MGM. Tracy plays an investigative reporter who specializes in murder cases...
(1935) - RendezvousRendezvous (1935 film)Rendezvous is a 1935 spy film set in World War I, starring William Powell as an American cryptologist who tangles with German spies. The film was based on The American Black Chamber, the controversial memoirs of Herbert Yardley, founder and head of MI8....
(1935) - Captain Blood (1935)
- The Wrong RoadThe Wrong Road- Cast :*Richard Cromwell as Jimmy Caldwell*Helen Mack as Ruth Holden*Lionel Atwill as Mike Roberts*Horace McMahon as Blackie Clayton*Russ Powell as Chief Ira Foster*Billy Bevan as McLean*Marjorie Main as Martha Foster*Rex Evans as Victor J...
(1937) - The High CommandThe High CommandThe High Command is a 1938 British drama film directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Lionel Atwill, Lucie Mannheim and James Mason. It was based on a novel by Lewis Robinson.- Plot summary :...
(1937) - Lancer SpyLancer SpyLancer Spy is a 1937 film about an Englishman who impersonates a German officer, receiving fame upon arriving in Germany. A female German spy is instructed to check on him but falls in love with him instead.-Cast:...
(1937) - The Great GarrickThe Great GarrickThe Great Garrick is a motion picture directed by James Whale and starring Brian Aherne and Olivia de Havilland. It also features Lionel Atwill, Edward Everett Horton, and Melville Cooper. Lana Turner has a bit part...
(1937) - Three ComradesThree Comrades (film)Three Comrades 1938 is a drama film directed by Frank Borzage and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for MGM. The screenplay is by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edward E. Paramore Jr., and was adapted from the novel Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque...
(1938) - The Great WaltzThe Great Waltz (film)The Great Waltz is a 1938 American biographical film based very loosely on the life of Johann Strauss II. It starred Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet and Miliza Korjus. Rainer received top billing at the producer's insistence, but her role is comparatively minor as Strauss' wife, Poldi Volgelhuber...
(1938) - Son of FrankensteinSon of FrankensteinSon of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal Studios' Frankenstein series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Béla Lugosi as Ygor. It is a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein....
(1939) - The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (1939 film)The Three Musketeers is a 1939 musical comedy film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel of the same name. Don Ameche stars as D'Artagnan, with the Ritz Brothers as his cowardly helpers.-Cast:*Don Ameche as D'Artagnan...
(1939) - The Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1939 film)The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 mystery film based on the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by 20th Century Fox....
(1939) - The Gorilla (1939)
- Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939)
- Charlie Chan in PanamaCharlie Chan in Panama-Cast:*Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan*Jean Rogers as Kathi Lenesch*Lionel Atwill as Cliveden Compton*Mary Nash as Miss Jennie Finch*Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan *Kane Richmond as Richard Cabot*Chris-Pin Martin as Sergeant Montero...
(1940) - Johnny ApolloJohnny ApolloJohnny Apollo was a Marx Toy Company toy line featuring two astronauts, first released in 1968 in response to the then current interest in outer space and the US/Soviet Space Race...
(1940) - Charlie Chan's Murder CruiseCharlie Chan's Murder CruiseCharlie Chan's Murder Cruise is a 1940 murder mystery film starring Sidney Toler in his fifth of many performances as Charlie Chan. It is a remake of the 1931 lost film Charlie Chan Carries On, which is also the title of the Earl Derr Biggers novel on which both movies are based.-Cast:*Sidney Toler...
(1940) - Boom TownBoom Town (film)Boom Town is a 1940 adventure drama Hollywood film starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, and Frank Morgan. A story written by James Edward Grant in Cosmopolitan magazine titled "A Lady Comes to Burkburnett" provided the inspiration for the film.-Plot:"Big John"...
(1940) - Man Made MonsterMan Made MonsterMan-Made Monster is a science fiction horror film released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Lon Chaney Jr. in his horror debut. Man-Made Monster was re-released under various titles including Electric Man and The Mysterious Dr. R...
(1941) re-released as The Atomic Monster - To Be or Not to BeTo Be or Not to Be (1942 film)To Be or Not to Be is a 1942 American comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch, about a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who use their abilities at disguise and acting to fool the occupying troops. It was adapted by Lubitsch and Edwin Justus Mayer from the story by Melchior Lengyel...
(1942) - The Ghost of FrankensteinThe Ghost of FrankensteinThe Ghost of Frankenstein, is an American monster horror film released in 1942. The movie is the fourth in a series of films produced by Universal Studios based upon characters in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and features Lon Chaney, Jr...
(1942) - Junior G-Men of the AirJunior G-Men of the AirJunior G-Men of the Air is a Universal film serial starring the Dead End Kids and the Little Tough Guys.-Plot:Japanese sabateurs attack America in preparation for an invasion during World War II. They are discovered by "Ace" Holden and The Dead End Kids, who do not trust the police enough to help...
(1942 serial) - Pardon My SarongPardon My Sarong-Plot:Tommy Layton , a wealthy bachelor, rents a city bus and rides it from Chicago to Los Angeles. Once there he intends to participate in a yacht race to Hawaii. The drivers of the bus, Algy and Wellington , are then chased by a detective who was hired by the bus company. They escape capture by...
(1942) - Night MonsterNight MonsterNight Monster is a 1942 American black-and-white horror film featuring Bela Lugosi and produced and distributed by Universal Pictures Company. The movie uses an original story and screenplay by Clarence Upson Young and was produced and directed by Ford Beebe...
(1942) - Sherlock Holmes and the Secret WeaponSherlock Holmes and the Secret WeaponSherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films.- Plot :Sherlock Holmes pretends to be a Nazi spy to aid scientist Dr. Franz Tobel and his new invention, a bombsight, in escaping a Gestapo trap in Switzerland...
(1943) - Frankenstein Meets the Wolf ManFrankenstein Meets the Wolf ManFrankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, released in 1943, is an American monster horror film produced by Universal Studios starring Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster. This was the first of a series of "ensemble" monster films combining characters from several film...
(1943) - Captain AmericaCaptain America (serial)Captain America is a Republic black-and-white serial film based on the comic book character Captain America. It was the last Republic serial made about a superhero...
(1944 serial) - Raiders of Ghost CityRaiders of Ghost CityRaiders of Ghost City is a Universal movie serial.-Cast:* Dennis Moore as Captain Steve Clark* Wanda McKay as Cathy Haines* Lionel Atwill as Erich von Rugen, alias Alex Morel* Joe Sawyer as Idaho Jones* Regis Toomey as Captain Clay Randolph...
(1944 serial) - House of FrankensteinHouse of Frankenstein (1944 film)House of Frankenstein is an American monster horror film produced in 1944 by Universal Studios as a sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man the previous year. This monster rally approach would continue in the following film, House of Dracula, as well as the 1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet...
(1944) - Lady in the Death HouseLady in the Death House- Cast :*Jean Parker as Mary Kirk Logan*Lionel Atwill as Charles Finch*Douglas Fowley as Dr. Dwight 'Brad' Bradford*Marcia Mae Jones as Suzy Kirk Logan*Robert Middlemass as State's Attorney*Cy Kendall as Detective*John Maxwell as Robert Snell...
(1944) - Crime, Inc.Crime, Inc. (1945 film)Crime, Inc. is a 1945 black-and-white American crime thriller film directed by Lew Landers.-Plot summary:The film, based on a story by former crime reporter Martin Mooney, is about a newspaper journalist who faces prison time because he refuses to name his sources...
(1945) - Fog IslandFog Island- Cast :*George Zucco as Leo Grainer*Lionel Atwill as Alec Ritchfield*Jerome Cowan as Kavanaugh*Sharon Douglas as Gail*Veda Ann Borg as Sylvia*John Whitney as Jeff*Jacqueline deWit as Emiline Bronson*Ian Keith as Dr. Lake*George Lloyd as Allerton - Butler...
(1945) - House of DraculaHouse of DraculaHouse of Dracula was an American horror film released by Universal Pictures Company in 1945. It was a direct sequel to House of Frankenstein and continued the theme of combining Universal's three most popular monsters: Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula and The Wolf Man...
(1945) - Lost City of the JungleLost City of the JungleLost City of the Jungle is a Universal movie serial.-Cast:* Russell Hayden as Rod Stanton, United Peace Foundation operative* Jane Adams as Marjorie Elmore* Lionel Atwill as Sir Eric Hazarias, villain acting under the pseudonym Geoffrey London...
(1946 serial)
External links
- Official Lionel Atwill - Web Site & Fan Club at lionelatwillfanclub.tripod.com
- Literature on Lionel Atwill