 | 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 ..."
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.
"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 ..."
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).
|
 | | 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).
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.
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.
Links
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (Maurice Tourneur Productions, 1920) can be viewed at YouTube and the Internet Archive:
Three Stooges comedies on YouTube: 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
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).
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
|
Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Ted Lorch: 