Paul Lukas - Turner Classic Movies

Paul Lukas

Actor
Paul Lukas

About

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Also Known As
Pal Lukacs
Birth Place
Budapest, HU
Born
May 26, 1894
Died
August 15, 1971
Cause of Death
Heart Attack

Biography

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Star of the Hungarian stage who appeared in a number of Max Reinhardt productions before arriving in the US in 1927 and establishing himself as one of Hollywood's favorite suave European types. For a time in the early 1930s the dapper, mustachioed Lukas was a romantic lead of films including "Strictly Dishonorable" (1931), "Little Women" (1933), "By Candlelight" (1933), and "The Fountain...

Filmography

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Sol Madrid (1968)
Capo Riccione
Lord Jim (1965)
Stein
Fun in Acapulco (1963)
Maxmillian
55 Days at Peking (1963)
Dr. Steinfeldt
Tender Is the Night (1962)
Dr. Dohmler
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)
Karl von Hartrott

Photos & Videos

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Watch on the Rhine - Movie Poster
1 Photo
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Whale Of A Tale
Berlin Express - Lobby Card Set
8 Photos
Address Unknown - Movie Posters
2 Photos
Dodsworth (1936) -- (Movie Clip) The Most Amusing Friends

Family & Companions

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Gizella Lukas
Wife
Died in 1962.
Annette Lukas
Wife
Second wife.

Biography

Star of the Hungarian stage who appeared in a number of Max Reinhardt productions before arriving in the US in 1927 and establishing himself as one of Hollywood's favorite suave European types. For a time in the early 1930s the dapper, mustachioed Lukas was a romantic lead of films including "Strictly Dishonorable" (1931), "Little Women" (1933), "By Candlelight" (1933), and "The Fountain" (1934). He did, however, have more than a touch of the roue about him, which manifested itself in "Affairs of a Gentleman" (1934) and in his splendid supporting performance as one of the heroine's illicit romances in William Wyler's "Dodsworth" (1936).

Alfred Hitchcock's delightful suspenser "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) found Lukas playing an outright, though still sneaky, villain, and he played a number of unsympathetic roles in wartime films, memorably as Hedy Lamarr's dangerous husband in "Experiment Perilous" (1944). The most notably exception to Lukas's roles during this period was his fine Oscar-winning lead performance (recreating his stage role) as a heroic resistance fighter in the well-intentioned but stodgy "Watch on the Rhine" (1943). During his later years Lukas played a number of gentler roles, keeping busy in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1954, as Prof. Aronnax) and "Tender Is the Night" (1962), but the gentlemanly if sometimes deceptive Continental suavity which was always his trademark never left him.

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

Sol Madrid (1968)
Capo Riccione
Lord Jim (1965)
Stein
Fun in Acapulco (1963)
Maxmillian
55 Days at Peking (1963)
Dr. Steinfeldt
Tender Is the Night (1962)
Dr. Dohmler
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)
Karl von Hartrott
Scent of Mystery (1960)
Baron Saradin
The Roots of Heaven (1958)
Saint Denis
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Prof. Pierre Aronnax
Kim (1951)
Lama
Berlin Express (1948)
Dr. [Heinrich] Bernhardt
Whispering City (1947)
Temptation (1946)
Sir Meyer Isaacson
Deadline at Dawn (1946)
Gus Hoffman
Experiment Perilous (1944)
Nick Bedereaux
Address Unknown (1944)
Martin Schulz
Uncertain Glory (1944)
Marcel Bonet
Hostages (1943)
Richard Rheinhardt
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
Kurt Muller
The Monster and the Girl (1941)
Bruhl
They Dare Not Love (1941)
Baron von Helsing
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Parada
Strange Cargo (1940)
Hessler
Captain Fury (1939)
François Dupre
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
Dr. [Karl F.] Kassell
A Window in London (1939)
Zoltini
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Dr. Hartz
Espionage (1937)
[Anton] Kronsky
Dinner at the Ritz (1937)
[Baron] Philip de Beaufort
Dodsworth (1936)
Arnold Iselin
Ladies in Love (1936)
John Bartlett
I Found Stella Parish (1935)
Stephen Norman
Age of Indiscretion (1935)
Robert Lenhart
The Casino Murder Case (1935)
Philo Vance
The Three Musketeers (1935)
Athos
Gift of Gab (1934)
Himself
The Fountain (1934)
Rupert Von Narwitz
Affairs of a Gentleman (1934)
Victor Gresham
Glamour (1934)
Victor Banki
I Give My Love (1934)
Paul Vadja
Father Brown, Detective (1934)
Flambeau
The Countess of Monte Cristo (1934)
Rumowski
Secret of the Blue Room (1933)
Captain Walter Brink
Little Women (1933)
Prof. Baer
Captured! (1933)
[Carl] Erlich
The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)
Paul Held
Sing Sinner Sing (1933)
Phil Carida
Grand Slam (1933)
Peter [Stanislavsky]
By Candlelight (1933)
Josef
No One Man (1932)
Dr. Karl Bemis
Thunder Below (1932)
Ken
Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1932)
Dr. Nicholas Faber
Downstairs (1932)
Albert
A Passport to Hell (1932)
Lieutenant "Kurt" Kurtoff
Rockabye (1932)
Antonie [Tony] de Sola
Working Girls (1931)
Joseph von Schraeder
City Streets (1931)
Big Fella Maskal
Strictly Dishonorable (1931)
"Gus" DiRuvo, also known as Tino Caraffa
The Vice Squad (1931)
Major Stephen Lucarno
Women Love Once (1931)
Julien Fields
The Beloved Bachelor (1931)
Michael Morda
Unfaithful (1931)
Carl Heiden
Grumpy (1930)
Berci
Young Eagles (1930)
Von Baden
Slightly Scarlet (1930)
Malatroff
The Benson Murder Case (1930)
Adolph Mohler
Anybody's Woman (1930)
Gustav Saxon
The Right To Love (1930)
Eric Helge
Behind the Make-Up (1930)
Boris
The Devil's Holiday (1930)
Dr. Reynolds
The Shopworn Angel (1929)
Bailey
The Wolf of Wall Street (1929)
David Tyler
Half-way to Heaven (1929)
Nick
Illusion (1929)
Count Fortuny
Manhattan Cocktail (1928)
Renov
Three Sinners (1928)
Count Dietrich Wallentin
Hot News (1928)
James Clayton
The Woman From Moscow (1928)
Vladimir
The Night Watch (1928)
Captain Corlaix
Loves of an Actress (1928)
Dr. Durande
Two Lovers (1928)
Ramón de Linea
Sphynx (1917)

Life Events

1916

Made stage debut in Budapest

1917

Earliest features include "The Sphynx" in Hungary

1922

Played Samson in a German film production, "Samson und Dalilah"

1927

Brought to the US by Paramount Studios' Adolph Zukor

1928

Played earliest Hollywood roles

1937

Journeyed to England to make several films there, including "Dinner at the Ritz", "The Lady Vanishes" and "A Window in London/Lady in Distress"

1941

Enjoyed a notable success on Broadway in Lillian Hellman's cautionary wartime drama, "Watch on the Rhine"

1968

Among last feature films roles was his part in "Sol Madrid"

Photo Collections

 
1 Photo
Watch on the Rhine - Movie Poster
Watch on the Rhine - Movie Poster
8 Photos
Berlin Express - Lobby Card Set
Here is a set of Lobby Cards from RKO's Berlin Express (1948), starring Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, and Paul Lukas. Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.
2 Photos
Address Unknown - Movie Posters
Here are two different styles of American one-sheet movie posters for Columbia Pictures' Address Unknown (1944), starring Paul Lukas and K.T. Stevens and directed by William Cameron Menzies. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters.

Videos

Movie Clip

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Whale Of A Tale Kirk Douglas (as harpoon expert Ned Land) offers a jaunty rendition of "Whale of a Tale" by Al Hoffman and Norm Gimbel, immediately followed by an emergency at sea, in Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, 1954.
Dodsworth (1936) -- (Movie Clip) The Most Amusing Friends Early in her Paris stay, eager American Fran (Ruth Chatterton), wife of the retiring auto executive title character, Walter Huston, whom she forgets to meet, aims to impress French pal Renee (Odette Myrtle) and her cultured associate Iselin (Paul Lukas, his first appearance), in William Wyler’s Dodsworth, 1936.
I Found Stella Parish (1935) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Norman Theater Opening credits and some framing by theater fans awaiting the star, from Warner Bros. I Found Stella Parish, 1935, starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Paul Lukas, directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
I Found Stella Parish (1935) -- (Movie Clip) Three Old Liars Finishing her performance in a fictional London play, and flush from curtain calls, the title character (Kay Francis) is confronted in the literal sense by her past, the obscured Jeffords (Barton MacLane), in a critical scene from I Found Stella Parish, 1935.
I Found Stella Parish (1935) -- (Movie Clip) This Brief Hour With both their names on the marquee outside, impresario Stephen (Paul Lukas) settles for a date when the title character (Kay Francis) refuses his proposal, in an early scene from I Found Stella Parish, 1935.
Uncertain Glory (1944) -- (Movie Clip) The Barber Will Shave Your Neck After an opening establishing visibly atmospheric Nazi-occupied Paris, 1943, we meet Errol Flynn as inmate Jean Picard, not apparently political, rousted by the warden (Art Smith) who is congratulated by the commissioner (Douglas Dumbrille) and questioned one last time by policeman Bonet (Paul Lukas), in Raoul Walsh and Warner Bros.’ Uncertain Glory, 1944.
Uncertain Glory (1944) -- (Movie Clip) Two Great Weaknesses Smitten Louise (Faye Emerson) has followed criminal Picard (Errol Flynn), who escaped execution due to an air raid in Paris, to Bordeaux, only to be intercepted by policeman Picard (Paul Lukas), who was tipped off by her jealous boyfriend, early in Uncertain Glory, 1944.
Strange Cargo (1940) -- (Movie Clip) Kinship With The Dead Inmate Telez (Eduardo Ciannelli) with his bible, visited by the beatific Cambreau (Ian Hunter), who has inexplicably appeared among the convicts in the French colonial prison, literate Hessler (Paul Lukas), then re-captured Verne (Clark Gable) getting involved, in Frank Borzage's Strange Cargo, 1940.
Secret Of The Blue Room (1933) -- (Movie Clip) The Ghost Won't Bite Us Pressed by his birthday-girl daughter Irene (Gloria Stuart) and her three friendly-rival suitors (Paul Lukas, Onslow Stevens and William Janney as Walter, Frank and Tommy), Von Helldorf (Lionel Atwill) tells of the deadly room in the family manor, in Secret Of The Blue Room, 1933.
Secret Of The Blue Room (1933) -- (Movie Clip) You'd Better Have This Lock Fixed Host Von Helldorf (Lionel Atwill) and daughter Irene (Gloria Stuart) are in good morning spirits along with guests Walter and Frank (Paul Lukas, Onslow Stevens) until the butler (Robert Barrat) points out that her third suitor, whom everyone assumed was at no real risk staying in the notorious bedroom, has vanished, in Secret Of The Blue Room, 1933.
Secret Of The Blue Room (1933) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Why All The Secrets? Handy introduction of players from Universal and Gloria Stuart as the object of the admiration of Lionel Atwill as her dad, Paul Lukas, Onslow Stevens and William Janney as her suitors on at the hour of her 21st birthday, in Secret Of The Blue Room, 1933.
Tender Is The Night (1962) -- (Movie Clip) We Are Not Moralists Entering the flashback, Dick (Jason Robards Jr.) recalls a meeting with boss Dr. Dohlmer (Paul Lukas) and "Baby," (Joan Fontaine) the sister of his patient and future wife, in Tender Is The Night, 1962, from the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

Trailer

Grand Slam - (Original Trailer) A Russian waiter (Paul Lukas) rides the craze for contract bridge to fame and fortune in the satire Grand Slam (1933).
Fun in Acapulco - (Original Trailer) The only thing stopping Elvis from having Fun In Acapulco (1963) is a fear of heights. Ursula Andress helps him cope.
Experiment Perilous - (Original Trailer) A small-town doctor (George Brent) tries to help a beautiful woman (Hedy Lamarr) with a deranged husband (Paul Lukas).
Captured! - (Original Trailer) Leslie Howard discovers that his fellow POW, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., had an affair with his wife in Captured! (1933).
Berlin Express - (Re-issueTrailer) Allied agents fight an underground Nazi group in post-war Europe in Jacques Tourneur's Berlin Express (1948) starring Robert Ryan, Merle Oberon and Paul Lukas.
Age Of Indiscretion - (Original Trailer) A moralistic publisher (Paul Lukas) discovers his wife (Helen Vinson) is cheating on him in Age of Indiscretion (1935).
Ghost Breakers, The - (Original Trailer) Bob Hope has to turn ghostbust...er, ghostbreaker to clear Paulette Goddard's castle in the horror-comedy The Ghost Breakers (1940).
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The (1962) - (Original Trailer) Members of an Argentinan family fight on opposite sides during WW II in Vincente Minnelli's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) starring Glenn Ford.
Strange Cargo - (Original Trailer) Devil's Island prisoners are changed forever by a prisoner who thinks he's Jesus in Strange Cargo (1940) starring Clark Gable & Joan Crawford.
Kim - (Original Trailer) Errol Flynn is a horse trader in Colonial India who befriends the orphaned boy Kim (1950) played by the young Dean Stockwell in Rudyard Kipling's classic tale.
Sol Madrid - (Original Trailer) David McCallum is an undercover agent pursuing heroin smugglers in Sol Madrid (1968) co-starring Telly Savalas.
Little Women (1933) - (Original Trailer) The four March sisters fight to keep their family together and find love while their father is off fighting the Civil War in Little Women (1933).

Companions

Gizella Lukas
Wife
Died in 1962.
Annette Lukas
Wife
Second wife.

Bibliography

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