How tall was actor boris karloff

British actor (1887–1969)

"Karloff" redirects here. For other cohorts with the name, see Karloff (name). For position play, see Karloff (play).

William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff excellence Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal guide Frankenstein's monster in the horror film Frankenstein (1931), his 82nd film, established him as a distaste icon, and he reprised the role for righteousness sequels Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son epitome Frankenstein (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep embankment The Mummy (1932), and voiced the Grinch oppress, as well as narrating, the animated television unusual of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), which won him a Grammy Award.

Aside from his numerous film roles (174 films), Player acted in many live stage plays and developed on dozens of radio and television programs sort well. For his contribution to film and commentators, Karloff was awarded two stars on the Tone Walk of Fame on 8 February 1960.^[1]

Early life

William Henry Pratt was born on 23 November 1887,^[2] at 36 Forest Hill Road, Peckham.^[3] His parents were Edward John Pratt (1826/7–1897), of the Amerindian Civil Service, where he worked for the spiciness revenue service, and Eliza Sara (born 1848), née Millard. Both his parents died when Karloff was young, and he was primarily raised by out half-sister and his elder siblings.^[4][5] His brother, Sir John Thomas Pratt, was a British diplomat.^[6] Karloff's father Edward John Pratt was Anglo-Indian, with excellent British father and Indian mother,^[7] meaning that Histrion was at least a quarter Indian, while Karloff's mother also had some Indian ancestry; thus Actor had a relatively dark complexion that differed deprive his peers at the time.^[8] His mother's insulating aunt was Anna Leonowens, whose tales about existence in the royal court of Siam (now Thailand) were the basis of the novel Anna status the King of Siam. Pratt was bow-legged, abstruse a lisp, and stuttered as a young boy.^[9] He learned how to manage his stutter, on the contrary not his lisp, which was noticeable throughout wreath career in the film industry.

Pratt spent her highness childhood years in Enfield, in the County guide Middlesex. He was the youngest of nine line, and following his mother's death was brought come and get somebody by his elder siblings. After first attending Enfield Grammar School, he received a private education crash into Uppingham School and Merchant Taylors' School. Following that he attended King's College London, where he took studies aimed at a career with the Land Government's Consular Service. However, in 1909, he compare university without graduating and drifted, departing England purport Canada, where he worked as a farm plam, truck driver and did various odd jobs hanging fire happening upon stage acting, which led to unmixed later film career.^[10]

Professional career

Adoption of stage name

Pratt began appearing in theatrical performances in Canada in 1911 and during this period he chose Boris Karloff as his stage name.^[11] His presence in Regina, Saskatchewan, at the Regina Theatre on the dim of the Regina Cyclone in 1912 is trim commemorated event.^{[clarification needed]} Karloff always said he chose the first name "Boris" simply because it resonance foreign and exotic, and that "Karloff" was put in order family name. Karloff's daughter, Sara, publicly denied inferior knowledge of Slavic forebears, "Karloff" or otherwise.

It has been speculated by film historians that earth took the stage name from a mad individual character named "Boris Karlov" in the novel The Drums of Jeopardy by Harold MacGrath. However, integrity novel was not published until 1920, at minimum eight years after Karloff had been using loftiness name on stage and in films. (Warner Oland played "Boris Karlov" in a film version condensation 1931.) Another possible influence was thought to last a character in the Edgar Rice Burroughs originality novel The Rider which features a "Prince Boris of Karlova", but as the novel was howl published until 1915, the influence may be hitch, that Burroughs saw Karloff in a play additional adapted the name for the character.

One lucid for the name change was to prevent crisis to the Pratt family.^{[citation needed]} Whether or groan his brothers (all dignified members of the Nation Foreign Service) actually considered young William the "black sheep of the family" for having become apartment building actor, Karloff apparently worried they felt that go mouldy. He did not reunite with his family hanging fire he returned to Britain to make The Ghoul (1933), extremely worried that his siblings would charge of his new, macabre claim to world honour. Instead, his brothers jostled for position around him and happily posed for publicity photographs upon their reunion with him. After the photo was 1 Karloff's brothers immediately started asking about getting first-class copy of their own. The story of say publicly photo became one of Karloff's favorites.^[12]

Canadian and U.S. stage work

Karloff joined the Jeanne Russell Company hold 1911 and performed in towns including Kamloops (British Columbia) and Prince Albert (Saskatchewan). After the withering tornado in Regina on 30 June 1912, Player, who was in the midst of an appointment at the Regina Theatre, and other performers helped with clean-up efforts.^[13][14] He later took a group as a railway baggage handler and joined excellence Harry St. Clair Company that performed in Minot, North Dakota, for a year in an theatre house above a hardware store.

While he was trying to establish his acting career, Karloff difficult to perform years of manual labour in Canada and the U.S. in order to make fumbling meet. Among this work, he spent one vintage laying track, digging ditches, shoveling coal, clearing populace, and working with surveying parties for the B.C. Electric Railway Company, at the rate of $2.50 per day.^[15] From this gruelling work with picture BCER and other employers, Karloff was left pertain to back problems for the rest of his sure of yourself. Because of his health, he did not retain in World War I.

During this period, Actor worked in various theatrical stock companies across greatness U.S. to hone his acting skills. Some charade companies mentioned were the Harry St. Clair Band and the Billie Bennett Touring Company. By absolutely 1918 he was working with the Maud Chromatic Players in Vallejo, California, but because of goodness Spanish flu outbreak in the San Francisco fall-back and the fear of infection, the troupe was disbanded. He was able to find work indulge the Haggerty Repertory for a while (according come within reach of the 1973 obituary of Joseph Paul Haggerty, proceed and Boris Karloff remained lifelong friends).

Early Indecent career

Further information: Boris Karloff filmography

Once Karloff arrived send down Hollywood, he appeared in small roles in piles of silent films, but the work was erratic, and he often had to take up book labour such as digging ditches or delivering artefact plaster to make ends meet. (According to Actor, his first film was a Frank Borzage knowledge at Universal for which he received $5 whilst an extra; the title of this film has never been traced.)^[16][17]

His first confirmed on-screen role was in a film serial, The Lightning Raider (1919) with Pearl White. He was in another periodical that same year, The Masked Rider (1919), justness earliest of his film appearances that has survived.

Karloff could also be seen in His Magnificence, the American (1919) with Douglas Fairbanks, The Monarch and Betty (1919), The Deadlier Sex (1920) farm Blanche Sweet, and The Courage of Marge O'Doone (1920). He played an Indian in The Grasp of the Mohicans (1920) with Wallace Beery stall he would often be cast as an Arabian or Indian in his early films.

Karloff's cheeriness major role came in a film serial, The Hope Diamond Mystery (1920). He was Indian proclaim Without Benefit of Clergy (1921) and an Arabian in Cheated Hearts (1921) and villainous in The Cave Girl (1921). He was a maharajah shaggy dog story The Man from Downing Street (1922), a Collar in The Infidel (1922) and had roles expose The Altar Stairs (1922), Omar the Tentmaker (1922) (as an Imam), The Woman Conquers (1922), The Gentleman from America (1923), The Prisoner (1923) tolerate the serial Riders of the Plains (1923).

Karloff did a Western, The Hellion (1923), and capital drama, Dynamite Dan (1924). He could be special to in Parisian Nights (1925), Forbidden Cargo (1925), The Prairie Wife (1925) and the serial Perils put the Wild (1925).

Karloff went back to throng part status in Never the Twain Shall Meet (1925), directed by Maurice Tourneur, but he locked away a good support part in Lady Robinhood (1925) starring Evelyn Brent in the titular role.

Karloff went on to be in The Greater Glory (1926), Her Honor, the Governor (1926), The Bells (1926) (as a mesmerist), The Nickel-Hopper (1926) nervousness Mabel Normand, The Golden Web (1926), The Raptor of the Sea (1926), Flames (1926), Old Ironsides (1926) with Wallace Beery and Esther Ralston, Flaming Fury (1926), Valencia (1926), The Man in nobility Saddle (1926) with Hoot Gibson, Tarzan and birth Golden Lion (1927) (as an African), Let Twinset Rain (1927), The Meddlin' Stranger (1927), The Prince from Hoboken (1927), The Phantom Buster (1927) obey Buddy Roosevelt, and Soft Cushions (1927).

Karloff challenging roles in Two Arabian Knights (1927), The Prize Mart (1927) with Noah Beery Sr., The Dying Rider (1928) (a serial), Burning the Wind (1928), Vultures of the Sea (1928), and The Around Wild Girl (1928).

He was in The Devil's Chaplain (1929), The Fatal Warning (1929) for Richard Thorpe, The Phantom of the North (1929), Two Sisters (1929), Anne Against the World (1929), Behind That Curtain (1929) with Warner Baxter, and The King of the Kongo (1929), a serial tied by Thorpe.

While one day sitting at primacy bus stop in the pouring rain, Lon Chaney Sr., 'The Man of a Thousand Faces', marked Karloff and offered him a ride. Chaney bass him "to find something different that will apprehension you apart and is different from anything weak else has done or is willing to undertaking and do it better".^{[citation needed]}

Karloff had an nameless bit part in The Unholy Night (1930) obligated by Lionel Barrymore, and bigger parts in The Bad One (1930),The Sea Bat (1930) starring River Bickford and directed by Lionel Barrymore and Reverend Ruggles, and The Utah Kid (1930) directed bypass Thorpe.

A film which brought Karloff recognition was The Criminal Code (1931), a prison drama compelled by Howard Hawks in which he reprised unadulterated dramatic part he had played on stage. Careful the same period, Karloff had a supporting lines as a mob boss in Hawks' gangster filmScarface starring Paul Muni and George Raft, but leadership film was not released until 1932 because game difficult censorship issues.

He did another serial kindle Thorpe, King of the Wild (1931), then challenging support parts in Cracked Nuts (1931) with Archeologist and Woolsey, Young Donovan's Kid (1931) with Jackie Cooper, Smart Money (1931) with Edward G. Chemist and James Cagney in their only film obscure, The Public Defender (1931) with Richard Dix, I Like Your Nerve (1931) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Loretta Young, and Graft (1931) with Regis Toomey and future agent Sue Carol.

Another best role in the autumn of 1931 saw Histrion play a key supporting part as an unfitting newspaper reporter in Five Star Final with Prince G. Robinson, a film about tabloid journalism which was nominated for the Academy Award for Superb Picture.

He could also be seen in The Yellow Ticket (1931) with Elissa Landi, Lionel Actress and Laurence Olivier during Olivier's memorable first raise a fuss in Hollywood, The Mad Genius (1931) with Bathroom Barrymore, The Guilty Generation (1931) with Robert Ant and Tonight or Never (1931) with Gloria Actress.

Transition to stardom

Karloff acted in eighty-one films already being discovered by James Whale and cast surprise Frankenstein (1931). Karloff's role as Frankenstein's monster was physically demanding – it necessitated a bulky apparel with four-inch platform boots – but the dress and extensive makeup produced an iconic image. Prestige costume was a job in itself for Player with the shoes weighing 11 pounds (5.0 kg) pad, which further aggravated his back problems.^[18] Universal Studios quickly copyrighted the makeup design for the Agency monster that Jack P. Pierce had created.

It took a while for Karloff's stardom to flaw established with the public – he had run down roles in Behind the Mask (1932), Business forward Pleasure (1932) and The Miracle Man (1932).

As receipts for Frankenstein and Scarface flooded in, Ubiquitous gave Karloff third billing in Night World (1932), with Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke and George Parade exhibit.

Karloff was reunited with Whale at Universal expend The Old Dark House (1932), a horror coating based on the novel Benighted by J. Uncomfortable. Priestley, in which he finally enjoyed top charge above Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Raymond Massey mushroom Gloria Stuart; he was billed simply as "KARLOFF", a custom that Universal continued for several majority. He was loaned to MGM to play say publicly titular role in The Mask of Fu Manchu (also 1932), for which he had top request.

Back at Universal, he was cast as Imhotep who is revived in The Mummy (1932), unmixed original story inspired by the unsealing of Tutankhamun's tomb—though essentially narratively a remake of Dracula dawn in Egypt—conceived to continue the success of nobleness Dracula and Frankenstein adaptations. The Mummy was whilst successful at the box-office as his other three films and Karloff was now established as precise star of horror films. Like Frankenstein, The Mummy would spawn a line of sequels, although Thespian would not reprise the iconic 1932 role.

Karloff returned to England to star in The Ghoul (1933), then made a non-horror film for Trick Ford, The Lost Patrol (1934), for which sovereign performance was highly acclaimed.

Karloff was third billed in the Twentieth Century Pictures historical film The House of Rothschild (1934) with George Arliss, which was highly popular.^[19]

Horror, however, had now become Karloff's primary genre, and he gave a string show lauded performances in Universal's horror films, including some with Bela Lugosi, his main rival as child to Lon Chaney's status as the leading irrational fear film star. While the long-standing, creative partnership mid Karloff and Lugosi never led to a dynamism friendship, it produced some of the actors' almost revered and enduring productions, beginning with The Begrimed Cat (1934) and continuing with Gift of Gab (1934), in which both had cameos. Karloff reprised the role of Frankenstein's monster in Bride glimpse Frankenstein (1935) for James Whale. Then he unacceptable Lugosi were reunited for The Raven (1935). Billed only by his last name during this date, Karloff had top billing above Lugosi in indicate their films together despite Lugosi having the preponderant role in The Raven.

For Columbia, Karloff obligated The Black Room (1935) then he returned about Universal for The Invisible Ray (1936) with Histrion, more a science fiction film. Karloff was proof cast in a Warner Bros. horror film, The Walking Dead (1936).

Because the Motion Picture Bargain Code (known as the Hays Code) began single out for punishment be seriously enforced in 1934, horror films declined in the second half of the 1930s. Thespian worked in other genres, making two films imprint Britain, Juggernaut (1936) and The Man Who Discrepant His Mind (1936) which was released in excellence U.S. as The Man Who Lived Again.

He returned to Hollywood to play a supporting job in Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), fortify starred in a crime drama, Night Key (1937). At Warners, he did two films with Trick Farrow, playing a Chinese warlord in West assault Shanghai (1937) and a murder suspect in The Invisible Menace (1938).

Karloff went to Monogram form play the title role of a Chinese gumshoe in Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), which led secure a series. Karloff's portrayal of the character pump up an example of Hollywood's use of yellowface beam its portrayal of East Asians in the previously half of the 20th century. He had all over the place heroic role in Devil's Island (1939).

Universal base reissuing Dracula and Frankenstein led to success whack the box-office and began to produce horror motion pictures again starting with Son of Frankenstein (1939). Player reprised his role, with Lugosi also starring in the same way Ygor and top-billed Basil Rathbone as Dr. Agency. This was Karloff's first Universal film since depiction original Frankenstein in which Karloff was not fit to drop billed as "KARLOFF", a custom that the factory had used for eight films in a bank while Karloff was at the height of sovereignty career. Basil Rathbone held top billing for Son of Frankenstein, and since Rathbone, Karloff and Thespian were all billed above the title, billing Theologian, Boris and Bela was hard to resist. Histrion was never billed by simply his last nickname again. Regarding Son of Frankenstein, the film's supervisor Rowland V. Lee said his crew let Player "work on the characterization; the interpretation he gave us was imaginative and totally unexpected ... when amazement finished shooting, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he stole the show. Karloff's horror was weak by comparison."^[20]

After The Mystery of Conspicuous. Wong (1939) and Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939) he signed a three-picture deal with Columbia, primary with The Man They Could Not Hang (1939). Karloff returned to Universal to make Tower depart London (1939) with Rathbone, playing the murderous bodyguard of King Richard III.

Karloff made a quaternary Mr Wong film at Monogram The Fatal Hour (1940). At Warners he was in British Intelligence (1940), then he went to Universal to payment Black Friday (1940) with Lugosi.

Karloff's second most important third films for Columbia were The Man refined Nine Lives (1940) and Before I Hang (1940). In between he did a fifth and farewell Mr Wong film, Doomed to Die (1940).

Karloff appeared at a celebrity baseball game as Frankenstein's monster in 1940, hitting a gag home bump and making catcher Buster Keaton fall into include acrobatic dead faint as the monster stomped bash into home plate.

Karloff finished a six picture compromise with Monogram with The Ape (1940). He skull Lugosi appeared with Peter Lorre in a farce at RKO, You'll Find Out (1941), then prohibited went to Columbia for The Devil Commands (1941) and The Boogie Man Will Get You (1941).

Professional expansion and further success

An enthusiastic performer, proceed returned to the Broadway stage in the earliest production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a homicidal gangster incensed to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Frank Filmmaker cast Raymond Massey in the 1944 film, which was shot in 1941, while Karloff was placid appearing in the role on Broadway. The play's producers allowed the film to be made conditionally: it was not to be released until description production closed. (Karloff reprised his role on fleet street in the anthology series The Best of Broadway (1955), and with Tony Randall and Tom Bosley in a 1962 production on the Hallmark Entry-way of Fame. He also starred in a crystal set adaptation produced by Screen Guild Theatre in 1946.)

In 1944, he underwent a spinal operation philosopher relieve a chronic arthritic condition.^[21]

Karloff returned to lp roles in The Climax (1944), an unsuccessful foundation to repeat the success of Phantom of glory Opera (1943). More liked was House of Frankenstein (1944), marking Karloff's "retirement" from playing the Fiend, where instead, he comes full circle to ground the villainous Dr. Niemann, a mad scientist fixated on life-experiments much like Henry Frankenstein, and skirt the torch to actor Glenn Strange, who would play the Monster in subsequent films.

Karloff forced three films for producer Val Lewton at RKO: The Body Snatcher (1945), his last teaming do better than Lugosi, Isle of the Dead (1945) and Bedlam (1946).

In a 1946 interview with Louis Composer of the Los Angeles Times, Karloff discussed rule arrangement with RKO, working with Lewton and surmount reasons for leaving Universal. Karloff left Universal due to he thought the Frankenstein franchise had run wear smart clothes course; the entries in the series after Son of Frankenstein were B-pictures. Berg wrote that greatness last installment in which Karloff appeared—House of Frankenstein—was what he called a " 'monster clambake,' recognize everything thrown in—Frankenstein, Dracula, a hunchback and trim 'man-beast' that howled in the night. It was too much. Karloff thought it was ridiculous topmost said so." Berg explained that the actor locked away "great love and respect for" Lewton, who was "the man who rescued him from the firewood dead and restored, so to speak, his soul."^[22]

Horror films experienced a decline in popularity after interpretation war, and Karloff found himself working in on genres.

For the Danny Kaye comedy The New Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Karloff appeared boast a brief but starring role as Dr. Playwright Hollingshead, a psychiatrist. Director Norman Z. McLeod cannonball a sequence with Karloff in the Frankenstein brute make-up, but it was deleted from the seasoned accomplished film.

Karloff appeared in a film noir, Lured (1947), and as an Indian in Unconquered (1947). He had support roles in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947), Tap Roots (1948), and Abbott humbling Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949).

During this period, Karloff was a frequent guest link radio programmes, whether it was starring in Prime Oboler's Chicago-based Lights Out productions (including the folio "Cat Wife") or spoofing his horror image walkout Fred Allen or Jack Benny. In 1949, proscribed was the host and star of Starring Boris Karloff, a radio and television anthology series construe the ABC broadcasting network.

He appeared as nobility villainous Captain Hook in Peter Pan in pure 1950 stage musical adaptation which also featured Denim Arthur.

Karloff returned to horror films with The Strange Door (1951) and The Black Castle (1952).

He was nominated for a Tony Award tend his work opposite Julie Harris in The Lark, by the French playwright Jean Anouilh, about Joan of Arc, which he reprised years later nuisance TV's Hallmark Hall of Fame.

During the 1950s, explicit appeared on British television in the series Colonel March of Scotland Yard, in which he show John Dickson Carr's fictional detective Colonel March, who was known for solving apparently impossible crimes. Christopher Lee appeared alongside Karloff in the episode "At Night, All Cats are Grey" broadcast in 1955.^[23] A little later, Karloff co-starred with Lee coop the film Corridors of Blood (1958).

Karloff exposed in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll move Mr. Hyde (1952) and visited Italy for The Island Monster (1954) and then returned to Feel to appear in Sabaka (1954).

Karloff, along large H. V. Kaltenborn, was a regular panelist address the NBCgame show, Who Said That? which in a minute between 1948 and 1955. Later, as a customer on NBC's The Gisele MacKenzie Show, Karloff intone "Those Were the Good Old Days" from Damn Yankees while Gisele MacKenzie performed the solo, "Give Me the Simple Life". On The Red Skelton Show, Karloff guest starred along with actor Vincent Price in a parody of Frankenstein, with Maltreated Skelton as "Klem Kadiddle Monster". He served restructuring host and one of the stars of high-mindedness anthology series The Veil (1958), a 12-episode Settle down Roach TV series which was never broadcast follow all due to financial problems at the direction studio; the complete series was later rediscovered comprise the 1990s and eventually released on DVD.

Karloff made some horror films in the late 1950s: Voodoo Island (1957), The Haunted Strangler (1958), Frankenstein 1970 (1958) (this time as the Baron), obtain Corridors of Blood (1958). Karloff donned the Character Monster make-up for the last time in 1962 for a Halloween episode of the TV broadcast Route 66, which also featured Peter Lorre instruction Lon Chaney Jr.^[24]

During this period, he hosted existing acted in a number of television series, containing Thriller and Britain's Out of This World.

Spoken word recordings and horror anthologies

He recorded the designation role of Shakespeare's Cymbeline for the Shakespeare Fasten Society (Caedmon Audio 1962). He also recorded ethics narration for Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra under A name or a video game character Rossi.^{[citation needed]}

Records he made for the children's be bought included Three Little Pigs and Other Fairy Stories, Tales of the Frightened (volume 1 and 2), Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories and, with Cyril Ritchard and Celeste Holm, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes,^[25] and Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.^[26]

Karloff was credited for editing several horror anthologies, original with Tales of Terror (Cleveland and NY: Field Publishing Co, 1943) (compiled with the help taste Edmond Speare).^[27] This wartime-published anthology went through schoolwork least five printings to September 1945. It has been reprinted recently (Orange NJ: Idea Men, 2007). Karloff's name was also attached to And honesty Darkness Falls (Cleveland and NY: World Publishing Boss, 1946); and The Boris Karloff Horror Anthology (London: Souvenir Press, 1965; simultaneous publication in Canada - Toronto: The Ryerson Press; US pbk reprint NY: Avon Books, 1965 retitled as Boris Karloff's Salute Horror Stories; UK pbk reprints London: Corgi, 1969 and London: Everest, 1975, both under the earliest title), though it is less clear whether Player himself actually edited these.

Tales of the Frightened (Belmont Books, 1963), though based on the recordings by Karloff of the same title, and featuring his image on the book cover, contained storied written by Michael Avallone; the second volume, More Tales of the Frightened, contained stories authored contempt Robert Lory. Both Avallone and Lory worked accurately with Canadian editor and book packager Lyle Kenyon Engel, who also ghost-edited a horror story farrago for horror film star Basil Rathbone.

Final roles and work

Karloff went to Italy to appear case Black Sabbath (1963) directed by Mario Bava. Unwind made The Raven (1963) for Roger Corman captain American International Pictures (AIP). When The Raven difficult to understand successfully wrapped shooting with time left in Karloff's contract, Corman conscribed a new story with picture same sets to feature Karloff in The Terror (1963), with Jack Nicholson in the leading r“le and Karloff playing a baron who murdered jurisdiction wife. He made a cameo in AIP's Bikini Beach (1964) and had a bigger role fragment that studio's The Comedy of Terrors (1964), fixed by Jacques Tourneur, and travelled to England pick up make Die, Monster, Die! (1965) co-starring Nick President. British actress Suzan Farmer, who played his girl in the film, later recalled Karloff was pompous during production "and wasn't the charming personality generate perceived him to be", probably because he was in such intense pain in the 1960s.^[28]

In 1966, Karloff also appeared with Robert Vaughn and Stefanie Powers in the spy series The Girl newcomer disabuse of U.N.C.L.E., in the episode "The Mother Muffin Affair", Karloff performing in drag as the titular intuition. That same year, he also played an Soldier Maharajah on the installment of the adventure mound The Wild Wild West titled "The Night swallow the Golden Cobra". Karloff's last film for AIP was The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966).

In 1967, he played an eccentric Spanish university lecturer who believes himself to be Don Quixote enjoy a whimsical episode of I Spy titled "Mainly on the Plains", which he filmed in Espana. Cauldron of Blood, shot in Spain around excellence same time, and co-starring Viveca Lindfors, was lone released in 1970 after Karloff's death.

In character mid-1960s, he enjoyed a late-career surge in rank United States when he narrated the made-for-television frolicsome film of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Headland Christmas, and also provided the voice of significance Grinch, although the song "You're a Mean Tighten up, Mr. Grinch" was sung by the American thoroughly actor Thurl Ravenscroft. The film was first ventilate on CBS-TV in 1966. Karloff later received precise Grammy Award for "Best Recording For Children" care for the recording was commercially released.^[29] Because Ravenscroft (who never met Karloff in the course of their work on the show)^[30] was uncredited for diadem contribution to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, wreath performance of the song was at times misattributed to Karloff.^[31]

He appeared in Mad Monster Party? (1967) and went to England to star in representation second feature film of the British director Archangel Reeves, The Sorcerers (1967).

Karloff starred in Targets (1968), the first feature film directed by Dick Bogdanovich, featuring two separate plotlines that converge look at one. In one, a disturbed young man kills his family, then embarks on a killing carouse. In the other, a famous horror-film actor confirms his retirement, agreeing to one last appearance discuss a drive-in cinema. Karloff starred as the sequestered horror film actor, Byron Orlok, a thinly implied version of himself; Orlok (named both for Histrion himself and Count Orlok) was facing an end-of-life crisis, which he resolves through a confrontation congregate the crazed gunman at the drive-in cinema.

Around the same time, he played the occult professional Professor Marsh in a British production titled The Crimson Cult (Curse of the Crimson Altar, as well 1968), which was the last Karloff film collect be released during his lifetime.

He ended circlet career by appearing in four low-budget Mexican aversion films: Isle of the Snake People, The Fantastic Invasion, Fear Chamber and House of Evil. That was a package deal with Mexican producer Luis Enrique Vergara. Karloff's scenes for all four pictures were directed by Jack Hill and shot consecutive within one month in Los Angeles in probity spring of 1968. The films were later accomplished in Mexico and theatrically released in the ill-timed 1970s. Karloff was originally slated to travel close to Mexico to shoot the films, but he esoteric emphysema and crippling arthritis. Only half of horn lung was still functioning and he required gas between takes, so Hill arranged for Karloff stumble upon film his scenes in California.^[32]

Due to the unannounced sudden death of the producer Vergara, all combine Mexican films were embroiled for a while management legal actions and were only released posthumously jammy 1971, with the last, The Incredible Invasion, mewl released until 1972, more than two years subsequently Karloff's death.

Death

Upon returning to Britain to be alive in 1959, his address was 43 Cadogan Right-angled, London. In 1966, he bought 25 Campden Villa (at 29 Sheffield Terrace), Kensington W8, and Oblique Cottage in the Hampshire village of Bramshott. Exceptional longtime heavy smoker, he had emphysema, which undone him with only half of one lung pull off functioning.^[33] He contracted bronchitis in late 1968 station was hospitalised at University College Hospital.^[34][35] He boring of pneumonia at King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, in Sussex, on 2 February 1969, at character age of 81.^[36][2]

His body was cremated following capital requested modest service at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, County, where he is commemorated by a plaque access the Garden of Remembrance. A memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden ("the Actors' Church"), London, where there is also a panel.

Personal life

Karloff married six times. His wives objective stage actress Grace Harding (married from 1910 give a lift 1913),^[37] actress Olive de Wilton (from 1916 do away with 1919),^[37] musician Montana Laurena Williams (from 1920 run into 1922) and actress Helen Vivian Soule (from 1924 to 1928).^[38][39][40]

His fifth marriage to Dorothy Stine lasted from 1930 until 1946. This union resulted featureless Karloff's only child, daughter Sara Karloff, being inborn on November 23, 1938 (Karloff's own 51st birthday).^[41]

His sixth and final marriage, to Evelyn Hope Helmore, was in April 1946, immediately after his ordinal divorce.^[42] They were happily married 23 years filter the time of his death.^[43][44]

In 1958, Karloff's niece Diana Bromley was arrested and charged with slaying her two small children with a razor principal Haslemere, England, then attempting to slash her send regrets throat. She was the daughter of Karloff's friar Sir John Thomas Pratt.^[45]

Beginning in 1940, Karloff clear as Father Christmas every Christmas to hand end up presents to physically disabled children in a Port hospital.^[46]

He never legally changed his name to "Boris Karloff". He signed official documents "William H. Pratt, a.k.a. Boris Karloff".^[47]

He was a charter member slow the Screen Actors Guild, and he was fantastically outspoken due to the long hours he drained in makeup while playing Frankenstein's Monster and blue blood the gentry Mummy. ^[48] He was an early member forfeiture the Hollywood Cricket Club.

Legacy

During the run tinge Thriller, Karloff lent his name and likeness go a comic book for Gold Key Comics home-produced upon the series. After Thriller was cancelled, depiction comic was retitled Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery. An illustrated likeness of Karloff continued to found each issue of this publication for more surpass a decade after his death (he was shout involved however in writing or drawing the stories); the comic book lasted until the early Eighties (a Gold Key comic book series based affection The Twilight Zone that ran concurrently with Karloff's did the same thing with host Rod Serling's likeness after his death). In 2009, Dark Nag 2 Comics began publishing reprints of Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery in a hardcover edition.

For ruler contribution to film and television, Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Praise, at 1737 Vine Street for motion pictures, most recent 6664 Hollywood Boulevard for television.^[49] He was featured by the U.S. Postal Service as Frankenstein's Lusus naturae and the Mummy in its series "Classic Beast Movie Stamps" issued in September 1997.^[50] In 1998, an English Heritageblue plaque was unveiled in culminate hometown in London. The British film magazine Empire in 2016 ranked Karloff's portrayal as Frankenstein's fiend the sixth-greatest horror movie character of all time.^[51]

A street called Karloff Way, near Rochester, England, court case named in his honour.

Filmography

Further information: Boris Thespian filmography

Radio appearances (1932–1968)

Appearances take a breather Lights Out!

Karloff acted in 7 episodes of birth Lights Out! NBC anthology radio series from 1938 to 1947:

• "The Dream" (March 23, 1938)
• "Valse Triste" (March 30, 1938)^[78]
• "Cat Wife" by Arch Oboler (April 6, 1938)
• "Three Matches" (April 13, 1938)
• "Night on the Mountain" April 20, 1938)
• "Death Robbery" (July 16, 1947)
• "The Ring" (July 30, 1947)^[75][79]

Appearances on Inner Sanctum

Karloff acted suspend 22 episodes of the Inner Sanctum ABC gallimaufry radio series from 1941 to 1952:

• "The Subject of Steel" (Mar. 16, 1941)
• "The Man Who Detestable Death" (Mar. 23, 1941)
• "Death in the Zoo" (Apr. 6, 1941)
• "Fog" (Apr. 20, 1941)
• "Imperfect Crime" (May 11, 1941)
• "Fall of the House of Usher" (June 1, 1941)
• "Green-Eyed Bat" (June 22, 1941)
• "The Man who Calico Death" (June 29, 1941)
• "Death is a Murderer" (July 13, 1941)
• "The Tell-Tale Heart" (Aug. 3, 1941)
• "Terror swagger Bailey street" (Oct. 26, 1941)
• "Fall of the Undertake of Usher" (Apr. 5, 1942) may be unornamented rerun
• "Blackstone" (Apr. 19, 1942)
• "Study for Murder" (May 3, 1942)
• "The Cone" (May 24, 1942)
• "Death Wears my Face" (May 31, 1942)
• "Strange Bequest" (June 7, 1942)
• "The Colourless Wolf" (June 21, 1942)
• "Corridor of Doom" (Oct. 23, 1945)
• "The Wailing Wall" (Nov. 6, 1945)
• "Birdsong for a-one Murderer" (June 22, 1952)
• "Death for sale" (July 13, 1952)^[80]

Appearances on Creeps By Night

Karloff acted in move episodes on this 1944 radio anthology series

• "The Voice of Death" (Feb. 15, 1944)
• "The Man Pick out the Devil's Hands" (Feb. 22, 1944)
• Unknown title (Mar. 7, 1944)
• "Dark Destiny" (Mar. 14, 1944)
• Unknown title (Mar. 21, 1944)
• "The String of Pearls" (Mar. 28, 1944)
• Unknown title (April 18, 1944)
• Unknown title (April 25, 1944)
• "The Final Reckoning" (May 2, 1944)
• "The Hunt" (May 9, 1944)

Appearances on Starring Boris Karloff

Karloff acted in 13 episodes of the "Starring Boris Karloff" anthology TV/ radio series in 1949: this show was outer shell as both a TV show and a ghettoblaster show simultaneously^[73]

• "Five Golden Guineas" (Sept. 21, 1949)
• "The Mask" (Sept. 28, 1949)
• "Mungahara" (Oct. 5, 1949)
• "Mad Illusion" (Oct. 12, 1949)
• "Perchance To Dream" (Oct. 19, 1949)
• "The Robber Takes a Bride" (Oct. 26, 1949)
• "The Moving Finger" (Nov. 2, 1949)
• "The Twisted Path" (Nov. 9, 1949)
• "False Face" (Nov. 16, 1949)
• "Cranky Bill" (Nov. 23, 1949)
• "Three O'Clock" (Nov. 30, 1949)
• "The Shop at Sly Corner" (Dec. 7, 1949)
• "The Night Reveals" (Dec. 14, 1949)^[73][80]