Paul Lukas

Paul Lukas (born Pál Lukács; 26 May 1894 – 15 August 1971) was a Hungarian actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, as well as a Photoplay Award and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for his performance in the film Watch on the Rhine, reprising the role he created on the Broadway stage.

Biography Lukas was born Pál Lukács in Budapest into a Hungarian-Jewish family, the son of Adolf Munkácsi and Mária Schneckendorf. He was later adopted by Mária (née Zilahy) and János Lukács, an advertising executive.

Lukas made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916, and his film debut in 1917. At first, he played elegant, smooth womanizers, but increasingly, he became typecast as a villain. He had a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany, and Austria, where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He arrived in Hollywood in 1927, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1937. In 1935, he built a home near the new Racquet Club of Palm Springs, California.

Lukas was busy in the 1930s, appearing in such films as the melodrama Rockabye, the crime caper Grumpy, Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, the comedy Ladies in Love, and the drama Dodsworth. He followed William Powell and Basil Rathbone, portraying the series detective Philo Vance, a cosmopolitan New Yorker, once in The Casino Murder Case (1935).

His major film success was Watch on the Rhine (1943), where he played a man working against the Nazis, a role he originated in the Broadway premiere of the play of the same name in 1941. His portrayal of Kurt Mueller, a German émigré with an American wife, played by Bette Davis, was universally lauded by critics. Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times, wrote: "As the enemy of fascism, Mr. Lukas' haggard, loving, resourceful determination becomes heroic by virtue of his sincerity and his superior abilities as an actor." He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role. He also received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his performance. as well as the character of a blind composer in the episode "A World of Darkness". On 2 April 1944, he starred in "The Steadfast Heart" on Silver Theater. In the 1940s, Lukas was a charter member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a conservative lobbying group opposed to possible Communist influence in Hollywood.

Lukas also starred as Professor Aronnax in Walt Disney's film version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954).

Lukas's film career continued into the 1960s, with nine films, including Fun in Acapulco with Elvis Presley in 1963 and Lord Jim with Peter O'Toole in 1965. His final film, The Challenge, was released in 1970.

The remainder of his career moved from Hollywood to the stage, and to television. His only singing role was as Cosmo Constantine in the original 1950 Broadway stage version of Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam, opposite Ethel Merman for over 600 performances (although he is heard singing a song in the 1933 film Little Women).

Lukas died 15 August 1971, in Tangier, Morocco, reportedly while searching for a place to spend his retirement years. He is buried in Spain.

Recognition Lukas was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard, on February 8, 1960.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1920 Boccaccio Boccaccio 1922 Samson and Delilah Ettore Ricco, tenor1923 Triumphant Life Lord Harry Arwood The Unknown Tomorrow 1928 Three Sinners Count Dietrich Wallentin Lost film Manhattan Cocktail Boris Renov Lost film The Woman from Moscow Vladimir Incomplete film Loves of an Actress Doctor Durande Lost film Two Lovers Don Ramon de Linea Incomplete film Hot News James Clayton Lost film Night Watch Captain Corlaix The Shopworn Angel Bailey Incomplete film 1929 The Wolf of Wall Street David Tyler Lost film Illusion Count Fortuny Half Way to Heaven Nick Pogli 1930 Behind the Make-Up Boris Slightly Scarlet Malatroff Young Eagles Von Baden The Benson Murder Case Adolph Mohler The Devil's Holiday Dr Reynolds Grumpy Berci Anybody's Woman Gustave Saxon The Right to Love Eric 1931 City Streets Big Fellow Mashal Unfaithful Colin Graham Working Girls Doctor Joseph Von Schrader Women Love Once Julien Fields The Beloved Bachelor Michael Morda Strictly Dishonorable Gus The Vice Squad Stephen Lucarno 1932 No One Man Dr Karl Bemis Tomorrow and Tomorrow Doctor Nicholas Faber Thunder Below Ken Downstairs Albert, the Baron's Butler A Passport to Hell Lt. Kurt Kurtoff Rockabye Antonie de Sola 1933 Grand Slam Peter Stanislavsky The Kiss Before the Mirror Walter Bernsdorf Sing Sinner Sing Phil Carida Secret of the Blue Room Captain Walter Brink Captured! Colonel Carl Ehrlich Little Women Professor Bhaer By Candlelight Josef1934 The Countess of Monte Cristo Rumowski Glamour Victor Banki I Give My Love Paul Vadja Gift of Gab The Corpse Father Brown, Detective Flambeau The Fountain Rupert von Narwitz Affairs of a Gentleman Victor Gresham 1935 The Casino Murder Case Philo Vance Age of Indiscretion Robert Lenhart The Three Musketeers Athos I Found Stella Parish Stephan Norman 1936 Dodsworth Arnold Iselin Ladies in Love John Barta 1937 Brief Ecstasy Professor Paul Bernardy The Mutiny of the Elsinore Jack Pethurst Espionage Anton Kronsky Dinner at the Ritz Baron Philip de Beaufort 1938 The Lady Vanishes Dr. Hartz 1939 Confessions of a Nazi Spy Dr. Kassell Captain Fury Francois Dupre 1940 Strange Cargo Hessler The Chinese Bungalow Yuan Sing The Ghost Breakers Parada A Window in London Zoltini Released as Lady in Distress in the US 1941 The Monster and the Girl W. S. Bruhl They Dare Not Love Baron von Helsing1943 Hostages Rheinhardt Watch on the Rhine Kurt MullerWon Academy Award for Best Actor 1944 Uncertain Glory Inspector Marcel Bonet Address Unknown Martin Schulz Experiment Perilous Nick Bederaux 1946 Deadline at Dawn Gus Hoffman Temptation Sir Meyer Isaacson1947 Whispering City Albert Frederic Don't Be a Sucker The Refugee Produced by the US War Department 1948 Berlin Express Dr Bernhardt 1950 Kim Lama 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Prof. Pierre Aronnax 1958 The Roots of Heaven Saint Denis 1959 Judgment at Nuremberg Ernst Janning 1960 Scent of Mystery Baron Saradin See Smell-O-Vision 1962 Tender Is the Night Dr. Dohmler Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Karl von Hartrott 1963 55 Days at Peking Dr. Steinfeldt Fun in Acapulco Maximillian Dauphin 1965 Lord Jim Stein 1968 Sol Madrid Capo Riccione 1970 The Challenge Dr Nagy TV movie