# 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, for his performance in the film Watch on the Rhine (1943), 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 Award for his performance.
In 1943, Lukas guest-starred as the lead character in an episode of the radio program Suspense, "Mr. Markham, Antique Dealer", 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' 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, tenor | |
| 1923 | Triumphant Life | Lord Harry Arwood | |
| 1923 | The Unknown Tomorrow | | |
| 1928 | Three Sinners | Count Dietrich Wallentin | Lost film |
| 1928 | Manhattan Cocktail | Boris Renov | Lost film |
| 1928 | The Woman from Moscow | Vladimir | Incomplete film |
| 1928 | Loves of an Actress | Doctor Durande | Lost film |
| 1928 | Two Lovers | Don Ramon de Linea | Incomplete film |
| 1928 | Hot News | James Clayton | Lost film |
| 1928 | Night Watch | Captain Corlaix | |
| 1928 | The Shopworn Angel | Bailey | Incomplete film |
| 1929 | The Wolf of Wall Street | David Tyler | Lost film |
| 1929 | Illusion | Count Fortuny | |
| 1929 | Half Way to Heaven | Nick Pogli | |
| 1930 | Behind the Make-Up | Boris | |
| 1930 | Slightly Scarlet | Malatroff | |
| 1930 | Young Eagles | Von Baden | |
| 1930 | The Benson Murder Case | Adolph Mohler | |
| 1930 | The Devil's Holiday | Dr Reynolds | |
| 1930 | Grumpy | Berci | |
| 1930 | Anybody's Woman | Gustave Saxon | |
| 1930 | The Right to Love | Eric | |
| 1931 | City Streets | Big Fellow Mashal | |
| 1931 | Unfaithful | Colin Graham | |
| 1931 | Working Girls | Doctor Joseph Von Schrader | |
| 1931 | Women Love Once | Julien Fields | |
| 1931 | The Beloved Bachelor | Michael Morda | |
| 1931 | Strictly Dishonorable | Gus | |
| 1931 | The Vice Squad | Stephen Lucarno | |
| 1932 | No One Man | Dr Karl Bemis | |
| 1932 | Tomorrow and Tomorrow | Doctor Nicholas Faber | |
| 1932 | Thunder Below | Ken | |
| 1932 | Downstairs | Albert, the Baron's Butler | |
| 1932 | A Passport to Hell | Lt. Kurt Kurtoff | |
| 1932 | Rockabye | Antonie de Sola | |
| 1933 | Grand Slam | Peter Stanislavsky | |
| 1933 | The Kiss Before the Mirror | Walter Bernsdorf | |
| 1933 | Sing Sinner Sing | Phil Carida | |
| 1933 | Secret of the Blue Room | Captain Walter Brink | |
| 1933 | Captured! | Colonel Carl Ehrlich | |
| 1933 | Little Women | Professor Bhaer | |
| 1933 | By Candlelight | Josef | |
| 1934 | The Countess of Monte Cristo | Rumowski | |
| 1934 | Glamour | Victor Banki | |
| 1934 | I Give My Love | Paul Vadja | |
| 1934 | Gift of Gab | The Corpse | |
| 1934 | Father Brown, Detective | Flambeau | |
| 1934 | The Fountain | Rupert von Narwitz | |
| 1934 | Affairs of a Gentleman | Victor Gresham | |
| 1935 | The Casino Murder Case | Philo Vance | |
| 1935 | Age of Indiscretion | Robert Lenhart | |
| 1935 | The Three Musketeers | Athos | |
| 1935 | I Found Stella Parish | Stephan Norman | |
| 1936 | Dodsworth | Arnold Iselin | |
| 1936 | Ladies in Love | John Barta | |
| 1937 | Brief Ecstasy | Professor Paul Bernardy | |
| 1937 | The Mutiny of the Elsinore | Jack Pethurst | |
| 1937 | Espionage | Anton Kronsky | |
| 1937 | Dinner at the Ritz | Baron Philip de Beaufort | |
| 1938 | The Lady Vanishes | Dr. Hartz | |
| 1939 | Confessions of a Nazi Spy | Dr. Kassell | |
| 1939 | Captain Fury | Francois Dupre | |
| 1940 | Strange Cargo | Hessler | |
| 1940 | The Chinese Bungalow | Yuan Sing | |
| 1940 | The Ghost Breakers | Parada | |
| 1940 | A Window in London | Zoltini | Released as Lady in Distress in the US |
| 1941 | The Monster and the Girl | W. S. Bruhl | |
| 1941 | They Dare Not Love | Baron von Helsing | |
| 1943 | Hostages | Rheinhardt | |
| 1943 | Watch on the Rhine | Kurt Muller | Won Academy Award for Best Actor |
| 1944 | Uncertain Glory | Inspector Marcel Bonet | |
| 1944 | Address Unknown | Martin Schulz | |
| 1944 | Experiment Perilous | Nick Bederaux | |
| 1946 | Deadline at Dawn | Gus Hoffman | |
| 1946 | Temptation | Sir Meyer Isaacson | |
| 1947 | Whispering City | Albert Frederic | |
| 1947 | 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 | |
| 1962 | Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | Karl von Hartrott | |
| 1963 | 55 Days at Peking | Dr. Steinfeldt | |
| 1963 | Fun in Acapulco | Maximillian Dauphin | |
| 1965 | Lord Jim | Stein | |
| 1968 | Sol Madrid | Capo Riccione | |
| 1970 | The Challenge | Dr Nagy | TV movie |