Along with fellow actors Lon Chaney,
Bela Lugosi and
Vincent Price, Boris Karloff is
recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema, and the actor
most closely identified with the general public's image of the
Frankenstein Monster from the classic 1818
Mary Shelley novel "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus".
William Henry Pratt was born on November 23, 1887, in Camberwell,
London, England, UK, the son of Edward John Pratt Jr., the Deputy
Commissioner of Customs Salt and Opium, Northern Division, Indian Salt
Revenue Service, and his third wife, Eliza Sarah Millard.
He was educated at London University in anticipation that he would
pursue a diplomatic career; however, he emigrated to Canada in 1909,
joined a touring company based out of Ontario and adopted the stage
name of "Boris Karloff." He toured back and forth across the U.S. for
over 10 years in a variety of low budget theater shows and eventually
ended up in Hollywood, reportedly with very little money to his name.
Needing cash to support himself, Karloff secured occasional acting work
in the fledgling silent film industry in such films as
The Deadlier Sex (1920),
Omar the Tentmaker (1922),
Dynamite Dan (1924) and
Tarzan und der goldene Löwe (1927),
in addition to a handful of film serials (the majority of these, sadly,
are all lost films). Karloff supplemented his meager film income by
working as a truck driver in Los Angeles, which allowed him enough time
off to continue to pursue acting roles.
His big break finally came when he was cast as the Frankenstein
Monster in the Universal production of
Frankenstein (1931), which was directed by
James Whale, one of the studio's few
remaining auteur directors. The aura of mystery surrounding Karloff was
highlighted in the opening credits, as he was listed as simply "?". The
film was a commercial and critical success for Universal, and Karloff
was instantly established as a hot property in Hollywood. He quickly
appeared in several other sinister roles, including
Scarface (1932) (filmed before
Frankenstein (1931)), as the
black-humored
Das Haus des Grauens (1932),
as the titular Chinese villain of
Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu novels in
Die Maske des Fu-Manchu (1932),
as the living mummy Im-ho-tep in
Die Mumie (1932) and as the misguided
Prof. Morlant in The Ghoul (1933). He
thoroughly enjoyed his role as a religious fanatic in
John Ford's film
Die vermißte Patrouille (1934),
although contemporary critics described it as a
textbook example of overacting.
He donned the signature make-up, neck bolts and asphalt spreader's
boots to play the Frankenstein Monster twice more,
the first time in the sensational
Frankensteins Braut (1935)
and the second time in the less thrilling
Frankensteins Sohn (1939).
Karloff, on loan to Fox, appeared in one of the best of the
Warner Oland Charlie Chan films,
Charlie Chan in der Oper (1936),
before beginning his own short-lived detective film series as Mr. Wong.
He was a wrongly condemned doctor in
Die Teufelsinsel (1938),
the shaven-headed executioner Mord the Merciless in
Der Henker von London (1939), another
misguided scientist in The Ape (1940),
a crazed scientist surrounded by monsters, vampires
and werewolves in Frankensteins Haus (1944),
a murderous cab-man in
Der Leichendieb (1945) and
a Greek general fighting vampires in the
Val Lewton thriller
Isle of the Dead (1945).
While Karloff continued to appear in a plethora of films, many of them
were not up to the standards of his previous efforts, including his
appearances in two of the hokey Bud Abbott
and Lou Costello monster films (he
had appeared with both of them in an earlier, superior film,
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949),
of which theater owners often added his name to the marquee) at the low
point of the Universal-International horror film cycle. During the
1950s he was a regular guest on many high-profile TV shows, including
Texaco Star Theatre Starring Milton Berle (1948),
Tales of Tomorrow (1951),
The Veil (1958),
The Donald O'Connor Show (1954),
The Red Skelton Show (1951)
and
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956),
just to name a few, and he appeared in a mixed bag of films, including
Sabaka (1954) and
Voodoo Island (1957). On Broadway,
he appeared as the murderous Jonathan Brewster in the hit play "Arsenic
and Old Lace" (his role, or rather the absence of him in it, was amusingly
parodied in the play's 1944 film version) and 10 years later he enjoyed a
long run in another hit play, "Peter Pan," perfectly cast as Captain Hook.
His career experienced something of a revival in the 1960s thanks to
hosting the TV anthology series
Thriller (1960) and independent film director
Roger Corman, with Karloff contributing
wonderful performances in
Der Rabe - Duell der Zauberer (1963),
The Terror - Schloß des Schreckens (1963), the ultra-eerie
Die drei Gesichter der Furcht (1963)
and the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired
Das Grauen auf Schloss Witley (1965).
Karloff's last great film role before his death was as Byron Orlok,
an aging and bitter horror film star on the brink of retirement
who confronts a modern-day sniper in the Peter Bogdanovich-directed film
Bewegliche Ziele (1968). After this, he played Professor John Marsh in Die Hexe des Grafen Dracula (1968),
in which he co-starred with Sir Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele; it was
the last film that he starred in that was released in his lifetime. Before these two films,
he played the blind sculptor Franz Badulescu in Kochendes Blut (1968) which was produced,
directed and written by Edward Mann, who had also come to the art of film from
the stage and the theater; it was released in the U.S. in 1971 after his death. His TV career
was topped off by achieving Christmas immortality as both the voices of the titular character
and the narrator of Chuck Jones' perennial animated favorite, Die gestohlenen Weihnachtsgeschenke (1966).
Four low budget horror films that were made in Mexico and starred an ailing Karloff,
whose scenes for all four of them were shot on a soundstage in Hollywood, were released
theatrically in Mexico in 1968 and then were released directly to television in the U.S.
after his death between 1971 and 1972; however, they do no justice to this great actor.
In retrospect, he never took himself too seriously as an actor and had a tendency to
downplay his acting accomplishments. Renowned as a refined, kind and warm-hearted
gentleman with a sincere affection for both children and their welfare,
Karloff passed away on February 2, 1969 from pneumonia.
Respectful of his Indian roots and in true Hindu fashion, he was cremated
at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey, England, UK, where he is
commemorated by a plaque in Plot 2 of the Garden of Remembrance.
