Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff, 1887-1969, British actor.
Karloff was born William Henry Pratt. In 1909 he traveled from his native
England to Canada and thence to America, where he began getting small
stage and film roles; his new stage name combined the surname of distant
relations with "Boris," which he claims to have pulled "out of the air."
In the teens he had become a popular stage villain, but by the late
twenties and (especially) early in the Depression, Karloff's money had run
out, and he was forced to support himself by driving a truck.
A series of small film parts -- Criminal Code (1930), Five Star
Final (1931), The Mad Genius (1931) -- brought him to the
attention of James Whale, who had been hired by
Universal Studios to produce a film version of Frankenstein. Both Bela Lugosi and John
Carradine had turned down the role for its lack of dialogue, but Karloff
accepted. This was the deciding moment in his career, and throughout the
thirties and forties Karloff was a widely sought actor.
Four years after the huge success of the first movie, Karloff
reprised his role as the Monster in The
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and The Son of Frankenstein (1939), but
after this latter vowed never again to appear in the role again.
As he later recalled:
There was not much left in the Monster to be developed. We had
reached his limits. I saw that from her on, he would become
rather an oafish prop, so to speak, in the last act of something
like that, without any great stature.
He continued, however, to appear in various horror films, often
as "Dr. Frankenstein" himself, as in Frankenstein 1970
(1958)
A complete list of Karloff's films:
- The Dumb Girl of Portici (extra) (1916)
- His Majesty the American (1919)
- The Prince and Betty (1919)
- The Courage of Marge O'Doone (1920)
- The Deadlier Sex (1920)
- The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
- The Cave Girl (1921)
- Cheated Hearts (1921)
- The Hope Diamond Mystery (1921)
- Without Benefit of Clergy (1921)
- The Altar Stairs (1922)
- The Infidel (1922)
- The Man From Downing Street (1922)
- Omar the Tentmaker (1922)
- The Woman Conquers (1922)
- The Prisoner (1923)
- Dynamite Dan (1924)
- The Hellion (1924)
- Forbidden Cargo (1925)
- Lady Robinhood (1925)
- Never the Twain Shall Meet (1925)
- Parisian Nights (1925)
- The Prairie Wife (1925)
- The Bells (1926)
- The Eagle of the Sea (1926)
- Flames (1926)
- Flaming Fury (1926)
- The Golden Web (1926)
- The Greater Glory (1926)
- Her Honor the Governor (1926)
- The Man in the Saddle (1926)
- The Nicklehopper (1926)
- Old Ironsides (1926)
- Let It Rain (1927)
- The Love Mart (1927)
- The Meddlin' Stranger (1927)
- The Phantom Buster (1927)
- The Princess from Hoboken (1927)
- Soft Cushions (1927)
- Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927)
- Two Arabian Knights (1927)
- Valencia (bit part) (1927)
- Burning the Wind (1928)
- The Little Wild Girl (1928)
- Vultures of the Sea (1928)
- Anne Against the World (1929)
- Behind That Curtain (1929)
- The Devil's Chaplain (1929)
- The Fatal Warning (1929)
- King of the Kongo (1929)
- The Phantom of the North (1929)
- Two Sisters (1929)
- The Unholy Night (1929)
- The Band One (bit part) (1930)
- Mother's Cry (bit part) (1930)
- The Sea Bat (1930)
- The Utah Kid (1930)
- Cracked Nuts (1931)
- The Criminal Code (1931)
- Donovan's Kid (1931)
- Five Star Final (1931)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- Graft (1931)
- Guilty Generation (1931)
- I Like Your Nerve (1931)
- King of the Wild (1931)
- The Mad Genius (1931)
- Pardon Us (in French-language version only) (1931)
- The Public Defender (1931)
- Smart Money (1931)
- Tonight or Never (1931)
- Yellow Ticket (1931)
- Alias the Doctor (1932)
- Behind the Mask (1932)
- Business and Pleasure (1932)
- The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood (cameo) (1932)
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
- The Miracle Man (1932)
- The Mummy (1932)
- Night World (1932)
- The Old Dark House (1932)
- Scarface (1932)
- The Ghoul (1933)
- The Man Who Dared (1933)
- The Black Cat (1934)
- Gift of Gab (cameo) (1934)
- House of Rothschild (1934)
- The Lost Patrol (1934)
- The Black Room (1935)
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
- The Raven (1935)
- Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)
- The Invisible Ray (1936)
- Juggernaut (1936)
- The Man Who Lived Again/Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
- The Walking Dead (1936)
- Night Key (1937)
- West of Shanghai/War Lord (1937)
- The Invisible Menace (1938)
- Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)
- The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)
- Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)
- Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939)
- Son of Frankenstein (1939)
- Tower of London (1939)
- The Ape (1940)
- Before I Hang (1940)
- Black Friday (1940)
- British Intelligence (1940)
- Devil's Island (1940)
- Doomed to Die (1940)
- The Fatal Hour (1940)
- The Man With Nine Lives/Behind the Door (1940)
- You'll Find Out (1940)
- The Devil Commands (1941)
- The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)
- The Climax (1944)
- House of Frankenstein (1944)
- The Body Snatcher (1945)
- Isle of the Dead (1945)
- Bedlam (1946)
- Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947)
- Lured (1947)
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
- Unconquered (1947)
- Tap Roots (1948)
- Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
- The Strange Door (1951)
- The Black Castle (1952)
- Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
- The Hindu (1953)
- Monster of the Island/Il Mostro dell'Isola (1953)
- Voodoo Island/Silent Death (1957)
- Corridors of Blood/Doctor from Seven Dials (1958)
- Frankenstein -- 1970 (1958)
- The Haunted Strangler/Grip of the Strangler (1958)
- The Raven (1963)
- The Terror (1963)
- Bikini Beach (cameo) (1964)
- Black Sabbath/I Tre volti della paura (1964)
- The Comedy of Terrors/Graveside Story (1964)
- Die, Monster, Die! (1965)
- The Daydreamer (voice only) (1966)
- The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (voice only) (1966)
- Cauldron of Blood/Blind Maan's Bluff/El Coleccionista de
Cadaveres (1967)
- Mad Monster Party? (voice of Baron Frankenstein)
(1967)
- The Sorcerers (1967)
- Venetian Affair (1967)
- The Crimson Cult/Curse of the Crimson Altar/Crimson Altar
(1968)
- Targets (1968)
- Snake People/Isle of the Snake People (1970)
- The Fear Chamber (1971)
- House of Evil (1971)
- Sinister Invasion/Invasion siniestra/Incredible Invasion (1971)