Lionel Atwill

Acting

Born Feb 27, 1885

From Croydon, London, England, UK

Died Apr 22, 1946

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

Lionel Atwill

Known For

Crime, Inc.

Man-Made Monster

To Be or Not to Be

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Captain Blood

Rendezvous

Son of Frankenstein

The Great Waltz

Boom Town

Captain America

Filmography — Acting

Crime, Inc.

Man-Made Monster

To Be or Not to Be

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Captain Blood

Rendezvous

Son of Frankenstein

The Great Waltz

Boom Town

Captain America

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Ghost of Frankenstein

House of Dracula

Doctor X

The Horror Show

House of Frankenstein

The Vampire Bat

Murders in the Zoo

Balalaika

Cairo

Mystery of the Wax Museum

The Devil Is a Woman

Lancer Spy

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

Night Monster

The Firebird

Mark of the Vampire

The Song of Songs

Pardon My Sarong

The Three Musketeers

Fog Island

Nana

Johnny Apollo

Beggars in Ermine

Charlie Chan in Panama

Till We Meet Again

The Last Train from Madrid

The Murder Man

The Strange Case of Doctor Rx

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise

Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation

Three Comrades

The Road Back

The Gorilla

Raiders of Ghost City

Lost City of the Jungle

Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook

The High Command

Absolute Quiet

Secret of the Blue Room

The Wrong Road

The Sun Never Sets

Stamboul Quest

One More River

The Sphinx

The Great Profile

The Age of Innocence

Junior G-Men of the Air

The Mad Doctor of Market Street

The Great Garrick

Dead End Kids Go To War

Lady in the Death House

The Marriage Price

The Secret of Madame Blanche

The Secret of Dr. Kildare

The Horror of It All

The Mad Empress