English and American actor (1885?1946)
Lionel Atwill
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Born
| Lionel Alfred William Atwill
(
1885-03-01
)
1 March 1885
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Died
| 22 April 1946
(1946-04-22)
(aged 61)
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Occupation
| Actor
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Years active
| 1904?1946
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Spouses
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Phyllis Relph
(
m.
1913;
div.
1919)
(
m.
1920;
div.
1928)
(
m.
1930;
div.
1943)
Mary Paula Pruter
(
m.
1944)
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Children
| 2
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Lionel Alfred William Atwill
(1 March 1885 ? 22 April 1946) was an English and American stage and screen actor. He began his acting career at the
Garrick Theatre
. After coming to the United States, he appeared in Broadway plays and Hollywood films. Some of his more significant roles were in
Captain Blood
(1935),
Son of Frankenstein
(1939) and
To Be or Not to Be
(1942).
Life and career
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]
Atwill was born on 1 March 1885 in
Croydon
, London, England. He studied architecture before his stage debut at the
Garrick Theatre
, London, in 1904.
[1]
He became a star in Broadway theatre by 1918 and made his screen debut in 1919.
[2]
His Broadway credits include
The Lodger
(1916),
The Silent Witness
(1930),
Fioretta
(1928),
The Outsider
(1924),
Napoleon
(1927),
The Thief
(1926),
Slaves All
(1926),
Beau Gallant
(1925),
Caesar and Cleopatra
(1924),
The Outsider
(1923),
The Comedian
(1922),
The Grand Duke
(1921),
Deburau
(1920),
Tiger! Tiger!
(1918),
Another Man's Shoes
(1918),
A Doll's House
(1917),
Hedda Gabler
(1917),
The Wild Duck
(1917),
The Indestructible Wife
(1917),
L'elevation
(1917), and
Eve's Daughter
(1917).
[3]
He acted on the stage in Australia and then became involved in U.S. horror films in the 1930s, including leading roles in
Doctor X
(1932),
The Vampire Bat
,
Murders in the Zoo
and
Mystery of the Wax Museum
(all 1933), and perhaps most memorably as the one-armed Inspector Krogh in
Son of Frankenstein
(1939),
[1]
a role famously parodied by
Kenneth Mars
in
Mel Brooks
' 1974 satire
Young Frankenstein
. He appeared in four subsequent Universal Frankenstein films as well as many other of the studio's beloved chillers.
His other roles include a romantic lead opposite
Marlene Dietrich
in
Josef von Sternberg
's
The Devil Is a Woman
(1935), a crooked insurance investigator in
The Wrong Road
(1937) for
RKO
, Dr. James Mortimer in
20th Century Fox
's film version of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
(1939), and
Professor Moriarty
in the
Universal Studios
film
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
(1943).
[1]
He also had a rare comedy role in
Ernst Lubitsch
's 1942 classic
To Be or Not to Be
and that same year menaced
Abbott and Costello
in
Pardon My Sarong
.
Personal life
[
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]
Atwill married four times. His first wife was Phyllis Ralph; the couple married in 1913 and divorced in 1919. In 1941, their son John Arthur Atwill (born 1914) was killed in action at age 26.
[4]
Atwill married the actress
Elsie Mackay
in 1920. He married
Louise Cromwell Brooks
in 1930 after her divorce from General of the Army
Douglas MacArthur
; they divorced in 1943.
[5]
Atwill married Paula Pruter in 1944, and their marriage continued until his death.
[1]
Their son, Lionel Anthony Atwill, is a retired writer.
In 1942, Atwill was indicted for perjury by a jury investigating the 1941 proceeding of a grand jury relative to the alleged occurrence of a sex orgy at his home. He was given five years probation, but Hollywood producers and other executives blacklisted him for minor criminal activity. He made small film appearances afterward.
[6]
[7]
Atwill died on 22 April 1946, as a result of
lung cancer
[8]
and
pneumonia
at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.
[1]
Filmography
[
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References
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]
Further reading
[
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]
- Mank, Gregory William (1998).
Hollywood's Maddest Doctors. A Biography of Lionel Atwill, Colin Clive and George Zucco
. Baltimore: Midnight Marquee Press.
ISBN
978-1887664226
.
- Smith, Ronald L. (2010).
Horror stars on radio, The broadcast histories of 29 chilling Hollywood voices
. Jefferson NC: McFarland.
ISBN
978-0786445257
.
- Pitts, Michael R. (9 January 2002).
Horror Film Stars
(3rd ed.). Jefferson NC: McFarland.
ISBN
978-0786410521
.
- Stuart, Ray; Banasiewicz, Czeslaw Z. (1965).
Immortals of the Screen
. New York: Bonanza Books.
ASIN
B000OGH3S2
.
- Twomey, Alfred E.; McClure, Arthur F. (1969).
The Versatiles, A Study of Supporting Character Actors and Actresses in the American Motion Picture, 1930-1955
.
South Brunswick
NJ: A.S. Barnes & Company.
ISBN
978-0498067921
.
External links
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