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The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc.


Ted Lorch

Full name:
Theodore Andrew Lorch

1879 or 1880 - 1947


Note the longish nose, protruding chin, and the slicked back hair. No question that he's a slick, slippery no-good.

(Courtesy of Jack Tillmany)


Hollywood biographies on Theodore Lorch are confusing: the 1929 and 1930 editions of the Motion Picture News Blue Book has him born in Elgin, Illinois, and attending Springfield High School, Illinois and Imperial University, Russia. The 1929 Motion Picture Almanac has his birth info as Springfield, Illinois and parents were Katherine Girard and Andrew Lorch.

On his World War II draft registration, Lorch reported his birth info as Elgin, Illinois and September 29, 1879. And in the 1880 census, the Lorch family - with 7 month old son Ted - were living in Elgin, Illinois.

Why the Springfield vs. Elgin birth info confusion? A Lorch family tree on Ancestry.com had an explanation:

"Mr. Lorch was born in Elgin, Ill., and at the age of eight months (?) was brought to Springfield by his parents ..."

"When 2 years of age, young Lorch's parents left Springfield for Russia, his father's native country, taking their son with them. There they lived until Theodore was 12 years old, when on the death of his father, the mother and son returned to Springfield."

Prior to his movie days, Ted did a significant amount of theater and stage work. And he owned and operated the Theodore Lorch Players / Theodore Lorch Stock Company. In 1906 - early 1920s, there are many reports in newspapers as well as the New York Clipper and Variety tradepapers on his company doing lengthy engagements in Washington, California, Utah, Colorado, Arkansas, New Jersey, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, more. And during this period, he played the lead in plays based on Sherlock Holmes and Jekyl and Hyde. His company included Cecil Fay and she co-starred with him for years. They married circa 1900 and divorced in 1929.

The February 8, 1910 edition of The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) had a blurb about Lorch and wife Cecil Fay:

"Theodore Lorch, well known to Salt Lake theater goers for his work in stock for a number of years, on Monday purchased a half interest in the Grand theater ..."
"Mr. Lorch will have a capable company. Mrs. Lorch, known to the stage as Miss Cecil Fay, will be the leading lady ..."

Military pension and State of Illinois records confirm that Ted served as a Private in C Company, 5th Illinois Infantry during the Spanish American War (which ran from April 21 - August 13, 1898).

His cinema career began circa 1920, and in that decade, he appeared in a mix of A and B grade features. Lorch's silents included a Buck Jones at Fox; two Ken Maynards for Grand National; one at Universal with Jack Perrin and Rex, the Wonder Horse; and the 1920 version of THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS - see below.


Screen capture on the left with Harry Lorraine (as "Hawkeye") and Theodore Lorch (as "Chingachgook") in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (Maurice Tourneur Prods. / Associated Exhibitors, 1920).

Yes - that bald-headed guy without a mustache is Ted Lorch and he's about forty years old.

Playing "Magua", War Chief of the Hurons, was a young Wallace Beery.




December, 1910 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma newspaper ad with actress and wife Cecil Fay.



March, 1916 in Boise, Idaho. In this week long engagement, he and his troupe were doing evening and matinee performances of three different plays.


Mentions of Ted's early film work in the April 9, 1921 issue of Camera! magazine, available at the Internet Archive.


Lorch successfully handled the transition to talking pictures. Les Adams has him in 80+ sound era films, and that includes 26 westerns and 8 chapterplays.

He worked frequently in B westerns starring Rex Bell (Lorch did five) and Tom Tyler (in six). And he shows up in cowboy adventures with Tim McCoy, Ken Maynard, Kermit Maynard, Fred Scott, Hoot Gibson, Dick Foran, Bob Steele, Bill Cody, Harry Carey Sr., John Wayne, Tom Mix, and Roy Rogers. Interestingly, he did none with Gene Autry or William Boyd (as Hopalong Cassidy).

Occasionally, he was the boss baddie and a great example of Lorch at his nastiest occurs in one of Tom Tyler's best, CHEYENNE RIDES AGAIN (Victory, 1937).

Clean shaven Ted Lorch as the High Priest in FLASH GORDON (Universal, 1936), and about 56 years old.


Among Lorch's cliffhanger roles:

  • He's escaped convict "Pierre LaFarge", one of many thought to be the "Wolf Man", in THE LIGHTNING WARRIOR (Mascot, 1931).
  • He played the "mysterious cripple" in the Red Grange chapterplay THE GALLOPING GHOST (Mascot, 1931).
  • Lorch (sans mustache) is the High Priest in FLASH GORDON (Universal, 1936).

And who can forget Ted trying to outwit the Three Stooges in about a dozen two-reel comedy shorts beginning in 1935.



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from left to right are bartender Ted Lorch, Charlie King, Rex Bell, Lex Lindsay, and James Marcus in a lobby card from Bell's THE MAN FROM ARIZONA (Monogram, 1932) which is among the lost/missing westerns.

Ted worked with Bell in five oaters: (FROM) BROADWAY TO CHEYENNE (Monogram, 1932), THE MAN FROM ARIZONA (Monogram, 1932), THE FUGITIVE (Monogram, 1933), THE TONTO KID (Resolute, 1935), and GUNFIRE (Resolute, 1935).




(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from left to right are Charles 'Slim' Whitaker (without his normal moustache), Tom Tyler, Jeanne Martel (who would become Tyler's real life wife), Ted Lorch, and on the ground is Forrest Taylor in Tyler's ORPHAN OF THE PECOS (Victory, 1937). Taylor was the brains heavy and Lorch portrayed good guy "Professor Jeremiah Mathews" a "snake-oil salesman" and ventriloquist who helps clear Tom of a murder charge.

Tyler starred in eight for Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures company and Lorch appeared in four: RIP ROARIN' BUCKAROO (Victory, 1936), CHEYENNE RIDES AGAIN (Victory, 1937), ORPHAN OF THE PECOS (Victory, 1937) and LOST RANCH (Victory, 1937). A few years earlier, Ted did a couple other Tylers - SINGLE-HANDED SANDERS (Monogram, 1932) and HONOR OF THE MOUNTED (Monogram, 1932).


His long 'stache and tall, thin build may have been fine for stage plays, silent films, and early talkies. But his time as a main heavy was over by the mid 1930s. He was displaced by guys that were more menacing, surly, and had more bulk. From then on, Ted's film work consisted of Columbia comedy shorts in a dozen with the Three Stooges and a few with Charley Chase, Roscoe Karns, and Andy Clyde. And he appeared in some A and B grade features in which he picked up a days pay as an unbilled townsman, juror, etc. Following are a few examples from this later period:

In STAGECOACH (United Artists, 1939), the stage arrives in Lordsburg with John Wayne handling the reins. In the crowd scene, Ted Lorch has an uncredited role - and a couple lines of dialog - as the express agent for the stageline.

He's fabulous in one of my favorite Stooge shorts, HALF-WITS HOLIDAY (Columbia, 1946), and it was the last with Curly Howard. Ted plays "Professor Sedletz" and bets Vernon Dent (as "Professor Quackenbush") that he can turn the boys into gentlemen. Chaos ensues.

And in the Stooges wacky western GOOFS AND SADDLES (Columbia, 1937), Ted - with his trademarked handlebar mustache - wears a cavalry hat and buckskin jacket as "General Muster" (an obvious play on the real life Custer).

Take a quick look at Ted's film listing at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). He was a busy man in the 1930s. But beginning circa 1940 - when he was about sixty years old - there's a noticeable decline in his movie work. Was that due to his advancing age ... loss of popularity ... illness ... or perhaps, he just opted to slow down.

Lorch was one of the directors of the Screen Extras Guild which was formed in 1945.

California Death Index has a record for Theodore Lorch, born September 29, 1880 in Illinois and he passed away November 11, 1947 in the Ventura, California area. Newspaper reports indicate that he died from a heart ailment.

From the November 19, 1947 issue of Variety: "Theodore A. Lorch, 74, stage and screen actor and member of the Screen Extras Guild board of directors, died Nov. 12 in Hollywood, after a long illness." ; "A native of Springfield, Ill. ..." ; "Widow survives."

He always struck me as a pretty "hammy" actor and the pattern for "Snidely Whiplash", the caped and mustached arch enemy of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties" in the Rocky and Bullwinkle animated TV series.

Theodore "Ted" Lorch was a memorable and familiar face in the ol' B western and serial ... and a frequent nemesis of the Three Stooges.


Links

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Ted Lorch: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0520380/

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (Maurice Tourneur Productions, 1920) can be viewed at YouTube and the Internet Archive:
   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCc2M-SqQdg
   Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/last_of_the_mohicans_1920

Three Stooges comedies on YouTube:
   HALF-WITS HOLIDAY (Columbia, 1946):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsa0D2lt6C0
   GOOFS AND SADDLES (Columbia, 1937): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1d3DAUOcLc

The Three Stooges Net website has a listing of the various cast members in the Stooges' shorts, and here's Lorch: http://www.threestooges.net/cast/actor/136/

Can't remember ol' "Snidely Whiplash", the caped and mustached arch enemy of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties". Go to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snidely_whiplash

Daniel Neyer's "The Files of Jerry Blake" serial website has a writeup on THE GALLOPING GHOST, including some comments on Lorch who "manages to steal every scene he appears in": http://filesofjerryblake.com/2014/03/07/the-galloping-ghost/

Photo of Lorch and Helen Foster in the exploitation film THE ROAD TO RUIN (Willis Kent, 1934). Lorch had an uncredited role as an abortion doctor: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Road_to_Ruin_%281934%29_-_Helen_Foster_%26_Theodore_Lorch.jpg
You can view THE ROAD TO RUIN at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/TheRoadToRuin_457


On the trail of Ted Lorch.

The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), California Death Index, and newspaper and Hollywood tradepaper sources have information on Ted Lorch. Pay particular attention to:

1) three marriages (to Cecil Fay, Diana Christiansen, Dica Jane Hildebrand).
2) confirmation of his military service during the Spanish American War.
3) note the "bullet hole right leg" on his World War II draft registration.
4) various ages and birth dates for Ted.

  • 1880 census summary and census takers worksheet dated June 1, 1880 - living in a boarding house run/owned by P. H. Spencer in Elgin, Kane County, Illinois were 24 year old Andrew Lorch (born Russia), 18 year old wife Katie Lorch (born Missouri), and newborn son Theodore (born Illinois). Theodore Lorch was listed as age 7/12 (meaning 7 months old) and his birth month was November (meaning November, 1879): https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MXV9-TCK
  • 1890 census is unavailable - it was lost in a 1921 fire (and water damage) at the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C.
  • World War I draft registration from September, 1918 - Theo Andrew Lorch reported his birth date as September 29, 1880 and home address was c/o Johnston-American The Agency, Cook County, Illinois. Employer was Frank Tinney and Lorch's occupation was "Actor - on road". He listed his wife Cecil Lorch and she was also "on road" (difficult to read her her first name which looks like Cucila): https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-26306-24696-82?cc=1968530
    Wikipedia has info on Frank Tinney: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Tinney
  • 1920 census summary and census takers worksheet - 39 year old Theodore Lorch (born Illinois) and 39 year old wife Cecil (born Texas) were among a half-dozen families renting at 529 Fullerton Parkway, Chicago. The occupation of Ted and wife were "Actor - Moving Pictures" and "Actress - Moving Pictures": https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MJQD-F2Q
  • November 12, 1928 Passaic, New Jersey Daily News - actress Cecil Fay sues Ted Lorch for divorce: https://www.newspapers.com/article/passaic-daily-news-actress-cecil-fay-sue/173734036/
  • January 27, 1929 Los Angeles Times - Cecil Fay Lorch was granted a divorce: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-actress-cecil-fay/173734581/
  • 1930 census summary and census takers worksheet - 36 year old Theodore Lorch (born United States), 33 year old wife Mary (born Utah) and 75 year old mother-in-law Inger Christiansen (born Denmark) were renting at 739 N. West Knoll Drive, Beverly Hills. Occupations of Ted and wife were "Actor - Motion Pictures" and "Actress - Motion Pictures". Lorch answered "No" to the question on whether he was a military veteran: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XCFN-MY3
  • June 24, 1930 California marriage license of 43 year old Theodore Andrew Lorch (born Illinois) to 32 year old Diana Christiansen Hughes (born Utah), and this was the second marriage for both. Lorch's occupation was "Actor", and his parents were Andrew Theodore Lorch (born Russia) and Kate Girard (born Illinois). Diana's occupation was "Actress" and her maiden name was Diana Christiansen:
    https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-29945-17741-6?cc=1804002&wc=M9MJ-7SB:1105144986
    https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-29945-17656-10?cc=1804002&wc=M9MJ-7SB:1105144986
  • Military service:
    December 8, 1930 military pension form request and Lorch's military unit was C Company, 5th Illinois Infantry: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-24260-54893-85?cc=1919699
    Ancestry.com had a Veteran Administration Master Index Card for Theodore A. Lorch. He was born September 29, 1880 and died November 11, 1947. Military service dates were April 25, 1898 to July 5, 1898, and he was a Private, Company C, 5th Illinois Infantry.
    Ancestry.com had that pension form along with a very simple (confusing) Spanish American War index card for: "Theodore A. Lorch, Co. C, 5 Illinois Infantry (Spanish War)", and he's listed as a Private.
    Confirmed that Theodore A. Lorch served during the Spanish American War as a Private, C Company, 5th Illinois Infantry. The State of Illinois has a listing of Spanish American War veterans. Search for "Lorch" at this link: https://apps.ilsos.gov/isaveterans/spanamericansrch.jsp
  • 1940 census summary and census takers worksheet - 60 year old Theodore A. Lorch (born Illinois) and 40 year old wife Diana (born Utah) were renting at 1624 North Alexandria, Los Angeles. Lorch's occupation was "Actor - Motion Pictures", and in 1939, he worked 52 weeks and earned $2500.00. Wife Diana was "Actress - Motion Pictures", and in 1939, she worked 12 weeks and earned $500.00: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K9HW-1BK
  • World War II draft registration dated April 25, 1942 in North Hollywood, California - Theodore Andrew Lorch reported his birth date and location as September 29, 1879 in Elgin, Illinois; occupation was "Free Lance"; and home address was 12358 Cantura, North Hollywood, California. His contact was Diana Lorch at the same address. He's 6 feet tall and weighed 185 pounds. Additional info has "bullet hole right leg": https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-16505-54147-87?cc=1861144&wc=MMRW-1V2:1100039110
  • September 27, 1946 Orange County, California marriage license of 64 year old Theodore Andrew Lorch (born Illinois) to 46 year old Dica Jane Govan (born Oklahoma). This was Lorch's third marriage and the sixth marriage for Dica. Lorch's occupation was "Actor", and his parents were Andrew T. Lorch (born Russia) and Katherine Girard (born Illinois). Dica's maiden name was Dica Jane Hildebrand:
    https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-29923-579-58?cc=1804002
    https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-29923-680-38?cc=1804002
  • California Death Index for Theodore A. Lorch. He was born September 29, 1880 in Illinois; mother's maiden name was Girrad; and he passed away November 11, 1947 in the Ventura, California area: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPQ5-S5Q?lang=en
  • The November 15, 1947 Los Angeles (California) Times newspaper had an obituary and funeral notice. Ted was still living at 12358 Cantura, North Hollywood, and the obit noted his work in many stage productions and his own stock company. The only family member mentioned was his widow Dica.
    November 13, 1947 Motion Picture Daily: "T. A. Lorch, 68. Camarillo, Cal., Nov. 12. - Theordore A. Lorch, veteran character actor of motion pictures and stage died here yesterday of a heart ailment. He was 68 years old ..."

Find A Grave website has a photo of the marker for Ted Lorch at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. Has 1879 as his birth year: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6930304/theodore-lorch

His mother, Katherine 'Kate' Gerard Lorch (1860 - 1899) is interred next to him at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. She passed on March 3, 1899 in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114936838/katherine-lorch



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