---
name: "Paul Lukas"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/paul-lukas"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "25 May 1894"
died: "15 August 1971"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T11:42:41.606959+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Paul Lukas

Actor. Born 25 May 1894 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]. Died 15 August 1971.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 25 May 1894, Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
- **Died:** 15 August 1971
- **Also known as:** Pál Lukács, Lukács Pál, Paul Lukacs, Пол Лукас

## Fi1m on Paul Lukas

> Paul Lukas gives courteous men an authority that can reassure us or make us wary. We rate his restrained supporting work, while wishing he had been asked to play rather fewer suave Europeans.

Paul Lukas makes a doctor’s good manners seem worth a moment’s thought. As Dr. Hartz in Alfred Hitchcock’s *The Lady Vanishes* (1938), he has the cultured assurance of someone accustomed to being listened to. That is useful in a railway mystery, where deciding whom to believe occupies much of the evening. He gives us enough to form an impression without settling all our questions. We value the restraint: a more demonstrative actor would make the task too easy.

The suave European was a useful part, and one that could become a restriction. In *Little Women* (1933) he played Professor Bhaer; William Wyler’s *Dodsworth* (1936) gave him Arnold Iselin, one of the heroine’s suitors. These were supporting roles, the work that occupied much of his screen career through the 1930s and early 1940s. *Watch on the Rhine* (1943), following his stage success in the same part, put Kurt Müller’s sincerity and slowly gathering strength at the centre. It is an important corrective to the idea that his polish was only useful for making someone suspect.

*The Lady Vanishes* also shows why that supporting work matters. Margaret Lockwood keeps the film urgent, while Lukas’s gentlemanly manner fits a story in which people find respectable reasons to ignore trouble. We were unsettled by those excuses, because they are so easy to recognise. Hitchcock has room for humour as well as tension, and Lukas belongs comfortably among people whose confidence need not settle our doubts. His contribution is worth noticing even when the mystery is taking most of our attention.

In *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea* (1954), he plays the narrator-scientist, another use for that cultivated authority. The limitation is the repeated casting: suave gentlemen and villains can begin to feel like assignments an actor has already completed. We would have welcomed more opportunities for the sincerity associated with *Watch on the Rhine*. For a first encounter, though, choose *The Lady Vanishes* and forgive its occasional overcomplicated plotting.

## Biography

Paul Lukas, born Pál Lukács, was a Hungarian actor. He made his stage debut in Budapest in 1916 and his film debut the following year. He had a successful career on stage and screen in Hungary, Germany and Austria, including work with Max Reinhardt, before arriving in Hollywood in 1927.

In Hollywood, Lukas appeared in numerous films, including *The Lady Vanishes* (1938) as Dr. Hartz, *Dodsworth* (1936) and *Little Women* (1933). He reprised his Broadway role as Kurt Mueller in the film *Watch on the Rhine* (1943), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor. He became a naturalised United States citizen in 1937 and continued working in film, stage, radio and television into the 1960s.

Lukas died in Tangier, Morocco, on 15 August 1971.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Lady Vanishes* (1938), Fi1m 88, as Dr. Hartz — [page](https://film.one/film/the-lady-vanishes.md)

## Also known for

- *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea* (1954), Prof. Pierre Arronax
- *55 Days at Peking* (1963), Dr. Steinfeldt
- *Little Women* (1933), Prof. Bhaer
- *Dodsworth* (1936), Arnold Iselin
- *Fun in Acapulco* (1963), Maximillian Dauphin
- *Lord Jim* (1965), Stein
- *The Ghost Breakers* (1940), Parada
- *The Man from U.N.C.L.E.* (1964), Dr. Stoller

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/paul-lukas