Paul Lukas (May 26, 1895 - August 15, 1971) was a Hungarian actor. Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, he arrived in Hollywood in 1927 after a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria where he worked with Max Reinhardt. He 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. In 1933, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was very busy in the 1930s, appearing in such films as Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, but his major role came in 1943's Watch on the Rhine, when he played a man working against the Nazis (he had played the same role on Broadway in 1941). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role. To modern viewers, however, he is best known for his role as Professor Aronnax, in Walt Disney's classic 1954 film version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In the 1940s, Lukas was a charter member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideas, a conservative lobbying group opposed to alleged Communist influence in Hollywood.
The remainder of his career moved from Hollywood to the stage to television. His only singing role was as Cosmo Constantine in the original stage version of Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam, opposite Ethel Merman. He died in Tangier, Morocco.
Lukas has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6841 Hollywood Blvd.
Preceded by: James Cagney for Yankee Doodle Dandy Academy Award for Best Actor 1943 for Watch on the Rhine Succeeded by: Bing Crosby for Going My Way
Watch on the Rhine (1943)
