Theodore Lorch

Hulking (six feet tall), mustachioed American supporting actor Theodore Lorch (or billed more simply Ted Lorch) first gained recognition onscreen as Chingachgook in Maurice Tourneur's handsome production of Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1920). During the following decades, Lorch would become a dependable Hollywood character actor who could play almost any role, from a Turkish merchant (1924's The Sea Hawk) to a Prime Minister (1929's The Royal Rider) or a coroner (1932's The King Murder). No role seemed too small (he was merely billed "Man" in 1934's Jealousy) or outrageous (the hissable Squire Cribbs in a hoary 1935 independent production of The Drunkard). Today, however, Lorch is best remembered for playing the High Priest in the serial Flash Gordon (1936) and for menacing the Three Stooges in countless two-reel comedies for ten years between 1937 and his death in 1947.