Known For
Acting
Born
Feb 27, 1885
Died
Apr 22, 1946
Place of Birth
Croydon, London, England, UK
Credits
81 titles
Lionel Atwill
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
Known For
Filmography
Terror in the Pharaoh's Tomb
Dr. Xavier (archive footage)
The Wolfman's Cure
Inspector Holtz
In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes
Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
Doctor Bohmer / Krogh (archive footage)
The Horror of It All
Dr. Otto von Niemann (archive footage)
The Horror Show
(archive footage)
Doom of Dracula
Arntz, Police Officer (archive footage)
Genius at Work
Latimer Marsh / The Cobra
Lost City of the Jungle
Sir Eric Hazarias
House of Dracula
Police Inspector Holtz
Crime, Inc.
Pat Coyle
Fog Island
Alec Ritchfield
House of Frankenstein
Inspector Arnz
Secrets of Scotland Yard
Waterlow
Raiders of Ghost City
Erich von Rugen, alias Alex Morel
Lady in the Death House
Charles Finch
Captain America
Cyrus Maldor
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Mayor of Vasaria
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Professor Moriarty
Night Monster
Dr. King
Dead End Kids Go To War
The Baron
Cairo
Teutonic Gentleman
Pardon My Sarong
Varnoff
Junior G-Men of the Air
The Baron
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
Dr. Fish
The Ghost of Frankenstein
Dr. Bohmer
To Be or Not to Be
Rawitch
The Mad Doctor of Market Street
Dr. Ralph Benson, posing as Graham
Man-Made Monster
Dr. Paul Rigas
Boom Town
Harry Compton
The Great Profile
Dr. Bruce
Girl in 313
Russell aka Henry Woodruff
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
Dr. Suderman
Johnny Apollo
Jim McLaughlin
Charlie Chan in Panama
Cliveden Compton
The Mad Empress
General Bazaine
Balalaika
Professor Marakov
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
Paul Messenger
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
Prof. Roger Chauncey Hildebrand
The Sun Never Sets
Hugo Zurof
The Gorilla
Walter Stevens
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Dr. James Mortimer
The Three Musketeers
De Rochefort
Son of Frankenstein
Inspector Krogh
The Great Waltz
Count Anton 'Tony' Hohenfried
Three Comrades
Breuer
The Great Garrick
M. Beaumarchais
The Wrong Road
Mike Roberts
Lancer Spy
Col. Fenwick
The High Command
Maj. Gen. Sir John Sangye