Lorre's family was Jewish. Lorre was born in Rózsahegy (Rosenberg) in a country called Austria-Hungary. Now the place where he was born is in the country Slovakia. He began acting in theaters in Vienna, Breslau, and Zürich. In the 1920s, he moved to Berlin to work as an actor. In 1931, the movie director Fritz Lang chose Lorre to act in a movie about a serial killer who kills children called "M". Lorre got married three times: Celia Lovsky (1934 - 13 March 1945, divorced); Kaaren Verne (25 May 1945 - 1950, divorced) and Annemarie Brenning (21 July 1953 - 23 March 1964, his death). He had his only child with Brenning, a daughter named Catharine (1953-1985).