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FEATURED ARTICLES: " Lionel Alfred Atwill "
Celluiod; Known Villian and Hero 
 
 




























I Don't See The Who's Who
of Hollywood At My Funeral
 
Despite Lionel's long list of film credits, well know celebrity status and his association with the who's who of Hollywood ,  Atwill's remains were  cremated at The Chapel of The Pines Cemetery in 1946 without any fanfare.
 
Note: This site has recently contacted Chapel of the Pines Cemetery for an update and discovered that Lionel Atwill Jr. has removed the Urn and had them transferred to Vermont for storage. 
 
 
 
"Tinsel Town Studios Adds A Dash Of Salt To Lionel Atwill's Death "
 
The Hollywood Motion Picture Industry and  independent entrepreneurs are still making money off Lionel's Atwill's name and his great films, but no one has even bothered to honor this great  character actor of the Stage & Screen with a well deserved "Star Along The Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame." 
 
This  web site can see absolutely no reason why  an accomplished actor from  The Isben - Shaw Theater, England and truly a Hollywood Star like Lionel Atwill should not be granted his rightful place along "The Hollywood's Walk Of Fame," next to his friends like; Boris Karloff,  Bella Lugosi, Colin Clive, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, Director Josef von Sternberg, Victor Jory,  John & Lionel Barrymore, Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart and Spencer Tracy.   If you agree, send us an E-mail and contact The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Laying to Rest; The Lionel Atwill's Sex Scandal:

On October 14, 1942, Lionel Atwill was sentenced to five years' probation on a perjury conviction stemming from his grand jury testimony the previous year on a morals charge stemming from his showing pornographic movies to party goers at his home during his 1940 Christmas party.

Atwill, the victim of an attempted shakedown, admitted he lied to an earlier grand jury. Seven months into his sentence he applied for, and was granted, termination of his sentence and his record was expunged.

Unfortunately for Atwill, the Hays Office was a different matter. He'd been unemployed during his sentence, his wealthy wife Louise (the ex-wife of Douglas MacArthur) divorced him in June 1943, and he no longer felt welcome in Hollywood.

Lionel Atwill spent weeks looking for roles on Broadway without success and limped back west, where he managed to gain employment at the one studio that specialized in hiring fallen name (and no-name) talent on the cheap, Producers Releasing Corporation.

The very definition of Poverty Row, PRC was a far cry from his glory days at the major studios. Along Gower Gulch, "features" were usually allotted a five-day shooting schedule and retakes were forbidden.

Although Atwill was able to return sporadically to Universal for some bits and serials, he was condemned to spending the remainder of his life working in Poverty Row. Atwill died of lung cancer while working on a quickie serial, Lost City of the Jungle (1946).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jack Backstreet






Final Resting Place: - Posted Article:
 
Byline; A. Atwill, Pacific Palisades, CA
 
How about that....., the only surviving son of; Lionel Alfred Atwill suddenly appear from the World Wide Woodwork, after " The Official Lionel Alfred Atwill "  announces, The Late Great Character Actor's, Final Resting Place on their Web Site?
 
 
Lionel Anthony Atwill, only surviving Son, is quick to contact the Fan Club, with a scathing E-mail Correspondence, filled with inflammatory statements and attempted to make veiled threats like; " Get into Big Trouble..." unless you complied to my outrageous Web Site Design Concessions and other Derogatory Brow Beating Demands.
 
Lionel Anthony was quoted to say:   " I want  my Father's Remains  to be ship back to Vermont without any pomp or circumstance, where I can safely keep it, on top of my ornate fireplace mantle, miles away from the gawking tourist, parasitic film fans and grave robbers." 
 
Lionel Anthony Atwill, immediately petitioned the Los Angeles Superior Court To Have: Lionel Alfred William Atwill Remains Exhumed from The Chapel of the Pines ,..... and Immediately released for shipment back to Vermont.   
 
Lionel Anthony Atwill has made it perfectly clear that he  absolutely  loathes the Glamorous Profession and wishes he could spit out the magical bright lights of Hollywood. 
 
A Tinsel -Town - Shame on you Cousin.........
 
 
 
 

 
 
Biography for Lionel Atwill:
 

Lionel Atwill was born into a wealthy family and was educated at London's prestigious Mercer School to become an architect, but his interest turned to the stage. He worked his way progressively into the craft and debuted at age 20 at the Garrick Theatre in London. He acted and improved regularly thereafter, especially in the plays of Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw. Atwill came to the US in 1915 and would appear in some 25 plays on Broadway between 1917 and 1931, but he was already trying his hand in silent films by 1918. He had a sonorous voice and dictatorial British accent that served him well for the stage and just as well for sound movies. He did some Vitaphone short subjects in 1928 and then his first real film role in Silent Witness (1932) (also titled "The Verdict").

That voice and his bullish demeanor made Atwill a natural for a spectrum of tough-customer roles. As shady noblemen and mad doctors, but also gruff military men and police inspectors (usually with a signature mustache), he worked steadily through the 1930s. He had the chance to show a broader character as the tyrannical but unforgettable Col. Bishop in
Captain Blood (1935).

It's hard to forget his Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein (1939), wherein he agrees to a game of darts with Basil Rathbone and proceeds to impale the darts through the left sleeve of his uniform (the character sported a wooden left arm). And he sends himself up with rolling and blustering dialogue as the glory-hog ham stage actor Rawitch in the classic To Be or Not to Be (1942) with Jack Benny.

However, Atwill effectively ruined his burgeoning film career in 1943 after he was implicated in what was described as an "orgy" at his home, naked guests and pornographic films included--and a rape perpetrated during the proceedings. Atwill "lied like a gentleman," it was said, in the court proceedings to protect the identities of his guests and was convicted of perjury and sentenced to five years' probation.

He was thereafter kept employed on Poverty Row with only brief periods of employment by Universal Pictures, while the rest of Hollywood turned its collective back on him.

He is more remembered for the horror films generally than for better efforts, but they have fueled his continued popularity and a bid by the Southern California Lionel Atwill Fan Club to petition for a Hollywood Blvd. star (he never received one).

IMDb Mini Biography By: William McPeak




























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