The character names "Igor", "Ygor," and "Karl" all redirect here. For the 2008 animated film, see Igor (2008 film).
A generic Igor, most closely resembling Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein (1974).
Fritz, Karl, Ygor, Igor, etc., are the different versions of the stock character, usually depicted as a hunchback or otherwise deformed, who is Victor Frankenstein's assistant in his laboratory. He was created as Fritz in 1823 by Richard Brinsley Peake for the play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein. No lab assistant appears in the original Mary Shelley novel.
Robert Keeley is the first known stage actor to play Fritz, in 1823.
The common image of the assistant is based on Dwight Frye's Fritz in Universal Pictures' Frankenstein (1931) and the same actor's Karl in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The name Igor comes from Bela Lugosi's Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), with the spelling changed for other adaptations to protect copyright.
The term "Igor" has entered the popular lexicon as a synonym for lab assistant, underappreciated employee, and/or hunchback.
Frankenstein (1931)[]
Henry Frankenstein hired Fritz (Dwight Frye) to assist him in his experiments on creating new life. He helped him dig up bodies and then would help transport them back to the castle where the experiments took place. He was tasked with acquiring a brain to be put into the body. During a lightning strike, he dropped the brain that was meant to go into the body and took a criminal's abnormal brain. During the experiment, Frankenstein's fiancee Elizabeth, friend Victor Moritz, and older teacher Dr. Waldman arrived at the castle searching for him. Fritz attempted to make them leave but eventually had to let them in. He later helped Frankenstein lock his monster in the dungeon. While he was taunting the monster with a torch, it broke free and choked him to death and later hung him from the rafters. His body was later discovered by Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Waldman. Frankenstein was brokenhearted by Fritz's death and briefly fell into a depression.
Karl[]
Karl (Dwight Frye) was a henchman of Dr. Septimus Pretorius.
Ygor (Bela Lugosi)[]
In Son of Frankenstein (1939), the stock character appeared as Ygor and was played by Bela Lugosi. This version was more popular with audiences, and was brought back for The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942).
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man[]
There is no analogous character in the 1943 film, the only "canonical" entry in the series with this absence.
Daniel (House of Frankenstein)[]
Daniel (J. Carrol Naish) was a hunchbacked man who was in the same prison cell as Dr. Gustav Niemann.
Nina (House of Dracula)[]
Nina (Jane Adams) was the hunchbacked assistant of Doctor Franz Edelmann. Edelmann had a fatherly feeling for Nina, and desired to cure her deformity.
House of Wax (1953)[]
Warner Bros.' House of Wax (1953) may be the first feature film to include a madman's assistant named Igor with the conventional spelling. Charles Buchinsky plays Igor, the assistant to the murderous wax museum owner Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price). Rather than a hunchback, this Igor is a deaf-mute.
The 1933 version of the story, Mystery of the Wax Museum (also by Warners), featured a character named Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) as the analog of Jarrod. This character is unconnected to any bit of Frankenstein lore, and predates the first appearance of Bela Lugosi's Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939), which coincidentally starred Atwill as Inspector Krogh (the first of four roles Atwill would play in the Universal Pictures Frankenstein series).
"Monster Mash" (1962)[]
In the novelty song "Monster Mash" (1962), some of the music at a party at Castle Frankenstein is provided by "Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds," who are not otherwise described. This may be the first pop cultural reference to Igor in a lighthearted comical context, rather than a dark or tragic one.
Young Frankenstein (1974)[]
In Mel Brooks' spoof, British comedian Marty Feldman played Igor as a humorous and sympathetic, rather than tragic and villainous, figure. A native of Transylvania, this Igor is the grandson of the original Igor. When Frederick Frankenstein arrives to take charge of his grandfather's estate, Igor meets him at the train station. As Frankenstein, who seeks to get away from the family reputation, has taken to pronouncing his name as Fronkensteen, Igor says that his name is pronounced "eye-gor" rather than "ee-gor."
Frankenweenie[]
In Frankenweenie (2012), Edgar Gore, commonly known as E. Gore, is voiced by Atticus Shaffer. His appearance is modeled on Peter Lorre, and his name is combination of Igor, horror author Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), and horror illustrator Edward Gorey (1925-2000).
There is no analogous character in the original 1984 short film.
See also: Edgar Gore at Tim Burton wiki.