Igor (character)

Igor, or sometimes Ygor, is a stock character, as a sometimes hunch-backed laboratory assistant to many types of Gothic villains or as a fiendish character who assists only himself, the latter most prominently portrayed by Bela Lugosi in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). He is familiar from many horror films and horror film parodies. He is traditionally associated with mad scientists, particularly Victor Frankenstein, although Frankenstein has neither a lab assistant nor any association with a character named Igor in the original Mary Shelley novel. The Igor of popular parlance is a composite character, based on characters created for the plays and for Universal Studios film franchise. The 1823 play gave Victor Frankenstein a sidekick named Fritz. In the first Universal Frankenstein film (1931), Fritz served the same role; in the sequels, a different physically deformed character, Ygor, is featured, though Ygor is not an assistant in those films. Many Igor-type characters are also portrayed with a voice similar to that of actor Peter Lorre.