Lionel Atwill
Acting • Born 1885-02-27 – Died 1946-04-22
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
Filmography
81 credits
To Be or Not to Be
Movie • 1942
Rawitch
The Ghost of Frankenstein
Movie • 1942
Dr. Bohmer
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Movie • 1943
Mayor of Vasaria
Son of Frankenstein
Movie • 1939
Inspector Krogh
House of Frankenstein
Movie • 1944
Inspector Arnz
Doctor X
Movie • 1932
Dr. Jerry Xavier
House of Dracula
Movie • 1945
Police Inspector Holtz
Mystery of the Wax Museum
Movie • 1933
Ivan Igor
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Movie • 1939
Dr. James Mortimer
The Horror Show
Movie • 1979
(archive footage)
The Murder Man
Movie • 1935
Captain Cole
Eve's Daughter
Movie • 1918
Courtenay Urquhart
Fog Island
Movie • 1945
Alec Ritchfield
Mark of the Vampire
Movie • 1935
Inspector Neumann
Crime, Inc.
Movie • 1945
Pat Coyle
The Mad Doctor of Market Street
Movie • 1942
Dr. Ralph Benson, posing as Graham
The Devil Is a Woman
Movie • 1935
Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar
The Vampire Bat
Movie • 1933
Dr. Otto von Niemann
Cairo
Movie • 1942
Teutonic Gentleman
Stamboul Quest
Movie • 1934
Herr Von Sturm
The Great Waltz
Movie • 1938
Count Anton 'Tony' Hohenfried
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
Movie • 1940
Dr. Suderman
Charlie Chan in Panama
Movie • 1940
Cliveden Compton
Captain Blood
Movie • 1935
Colonel Bishop
Girl in 313
Movie • 1940
Russell aka Henry Woodruff
Murders in the Zoo
Movie • 1933
Eric Gorman
Johnny Apollo
Movie • 1940
Jim McLaughlin
Lady in the Death House
Movie • 1944
Charles Finch
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Movie • 1942
Professor Moriarty
The Sphinx
Movie • 1933
Jerome Breen
Rendezvous
Movie • 1935
Maj. William Brennan
Dead End Kids Go To War
Movie • 1942
The Baron
Boom Town
Movie • 1940
Harry Compton
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
Movie • 1942
Dr. Fish
Man-Made Monster
Movie • 1941
Dr. Paul Rigas
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
Movie • 1939
Prof. Roger Chauncey Hildebrand
The Secret of Madame Blanche
Movie • 1933
Aubrey St. John
The Song of Songs
Movie • 1933
Baron von Merzbach
One More River
Movie • 1934
Brough
The Gorilla
Movie • 1939
Walter Stevens
Night Monster
Movie • 1942
Dr. King
The Solitaire Man
Movie • 1933
Inspector Wallace
Lancer Spy
Movie • 1937
Col. Fenwick
Raiders of Ghost City
Movie • 1944
Erich von Rugen, alias Alex Morel
The Age of Innocence
Movie • 1934
Julius Beaufort
The Three Musketeers
Movie • 1939
De Rochefort
Balalaika
Movie • 1939
Professor Marakov
Nana
Movie • 1934
Colonel André Muffat
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
Movie • 1939
Paul Messenger
The Man Who Reclaimed His Head
Movie • 1934
Henry Dumont
The Great Garrick
Movie • 1937
M. Beaumarchais
Secret of the Blue Room
Movie • 1933
Robert von Helldorf
Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
Movie • 1991
Doctor Bohmer / Krogh (archive footage)
Genius at Work
Movie • 1946
Latimer Marsh / The Cobra
Beggars in Ermine
Movie • 1934
John 'Flint' Dawson aka John Daniels
The High Command
Movie • 1937
Maj. Gen. Sir John Sangye
Absolute Quiet
Movie • 1936
Gerald A. Axton
Secrets of Scotland Yard
Movie • 1944
Waterlow
Lost City of the Jungle
Movie • 1946
Sir Eric Hazarias
The Marriage Price
Movie • 1919
Kenneth Gordon
The Sun Never Sets
Movie • 1939
Hugo Zurof
The Wrong Road
Movie • 1937
Mike Roberts
Till We Meet Again
Movie • 1936
Ludwig
The Firebird
Movie • 1934
John Pointer
The Last Train from Madrid
Movie • 1937
Col. Vigo
The Horror of It All
Movie • 1983
Dr. Otto von Niemann (archive footage)
The Great Profile
Movie • 1940
Dr. Bruce
The Silent Witness
Movie • 1932
Sir Austin Howard
Terror in the Pharaoh's Tomb
Movie • 2007
Dr. Xavier (archive footage)
Pardon My Sarong
Movie • 1942
Varnoff
Junior G-Men of the Air
Movie • 1942
The Baron
The Highest Bidder
Movie • 1921
Lester
The Wolfman's Cure
Movie • 1998
Inspector Holtz
Three Comrades
Movie • 1938
Breuer
Lady of Secrets
Movie • 1936
Mr. Stephen Whittaker
Doom of Dracula
Movie • 1966
Arntz, Police Officer (archive footage)
The Mad Empress
Movie • 1939
General Bazaine
Captain America
Movie • 1944
Cyrus Maldor
In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes
Movie • 1996
The Road Back
Movie • 1937
Prosecutor
The Knife
Movie • 1929
The Surgeon