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Boris Karloff
Born	William Henry Pratt November 23, 1887(1887-11-23) Camberwell, London, England
Died	February 2, 1969 (aged 81) Midhurst, Sussex, England
Years active	1909-1969
Spouse(s)	Grace Harding (1910-1913) Olive de Wilton (m. 1915) Montana Laurena Williams (m. 1920) Helene Vivian Soule (1924-1928) Dorothy Stine (1928-1946) Evelyn Hope Helmore (1946-1969)

Boris Karloff (born William Henry Pratt) (November 23, 1887 – February 2, 1969) was an English actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best known for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein. His popularity following Frankenstein in the early 1930s was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or, on some movie posters, "Karloff the Uncanny". Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... For other uses, see Camberwell (disambiguation). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... , Midhurst is a market town in the English county of West Sussex, with a population of approximately 5000. ... This article refers to the historic county in England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Frankensteins monster (or Frankenstein or Frankensteins creature) is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... Frankenstein is a 1931 science fiction film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. ...

Biography

William Henry Pratt was born in Camberwell, London, England^[1] to 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 brought up in Enfield. His paternal grandmother was Eliza Julia (Edwards) Pratt, a sister of Anna Leonowens, whose tales about life in the royal court of Siam (now Thailand) were the basis of the musical The King and I. Her maternal grandmother was of East Indian origin from Calcutta in Bengal. For other uses, see Camberwell (disambiguation). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... The London Borough of Enfield is the most northerly London borough and forms part of Outer London. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For the country formerly called Siam see Thailand SIAM is an acronym for Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. ... The King and I is a musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Its script is based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. ... The Indies, on the display globe of the Field Museum, Chicago The Indies or East Indies (or East India) is a term used to describe lands of South and South-East Asia, occupying all of the former British India, the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and... , “Calcutta” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Bengal (disambiguation). ...

Research for a new biography has shown the actor was not orphaned in his youth, as has always been believed.^[2] Following his mother's death he was raised by his elder brothers and sister and attended Enfield Grammar School before moving to Uppingham School and Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, and eventually the University of London. Karloff's first goal in life was to join the foreign service — his brother, Sir John Henry Pratt, became a distinguished British diplomat — but instead he fell into acting. In 1909, Pratt travelled to Canada, changing his name to something more in keeping with his new vocation while on his way to an acting job with the Jeanne Russell Theater Co. in Kamloops, British Columbia. He spent years testing the waters in North America while living in smaller towns like Kamloops and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1912, while appearing in a play in Regina, Saskatchewan, Karloff volunteered to be a rescue worker following a devastating tornado. He also lived in Minot, North Dakota, for a year, performing in an opera house above a hardware store. For health reasons, he did not fight in World War I. Boris Karloff (November 23, 1887 - February 2, 1969, born William Henry Pratt, was an actor best known for his roles in horror films. ... Uppingham School is a co-educational public school situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England. ... For MTS Crosby, see Merchant Taylors School, Crosby. ... Website http://www. ... “Kamloops” redirects here. ... North American redirects here. ... Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. ... Nickname: Motto: Floreat Regina (Let Regina Flourish) Location of Regina in the SE quadrant of Saskatchewan Coordinates: , Country Province District Municipality of Sherwood Established 1882 Government  - City Mayor Pat Fiacco  - Governing body Regina City Council  - MPs Dave Batters Ralph Goodale Tom Lukiwski Andrew Scheer  - MLAs Trent Wotherspoon Kevin Yates Kim... Regina Cyclone is popular name for a tornado that devastated the city Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada on June 30th 1912, around 5:00 pm. ... Minot (IPA ,  ) is a city located in north central North Dakota in the United States. ... New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Opera Bolshoi Theatre. ... Hardware Store is also the title of a song by Weird Al Yankovic from his 2003 album Poodle Hat. Hardware stores sell hardware, tools, and building supplies; for instance: allen wrenches, gerbil feeders, toilet seats, electric heaters, trash compactors, juice extractor, shower rods and water meters, walkie-talkies, copper wires... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

Name change to Karloff

Some time after emigrating to Canada in 1909, William Pratt changed his professional name to "Boris Karloff." Some have theorized that he took the stage name from a mad scientist character in the novel The Drums of Jeopardy called "Boris Karlov." However, the novel was not published until 1920, at least three years after Karloff had been using the name on stage and in silent films (Warner Oland played "Boris Karlov" in a movie version in 1931). Another possible influence was thought to be a character in the Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy novel H.R.H. The Rider which features a "Prince Boris of Karlova," but as the novel was not published until 1915, the influence may be backward, that Burroughs saw Karloff in a play and adapted the name for the character. Pratt/Karloff always claimed he chose the first name "Boris" because it sounded foreign and exotic, and that "Karloff" was a "family name." However, his daughter Sara Karloff publicly denied any knowledge of Slavic forebears, "Karloff" or otherwise. One reason for the name change was to prevent embarrassment to his family. Whether or not his brothers (all dignified members of the British foreign service) actually considered young William the "black sheep of the family" for having become an actor, Karloff himself apparently worried they did feel that way. He did not reunite with his family again until 1933, when he went back to England to make The Ghoul, extremely worried that his siblings would disapprove of his new, macabre claim to world fame. Instead, his elder brothers jostled for position around their "baby" brother and happily posed for publicity photographs with him. The Drums of Jeopardy is a 1920 American novel by Harold MacGrath. ... Warner Oland (October 3, 1879 - August 6, 1938) was a Swedish actor most remembered for his role as Charlie Chan. ... Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan, although he also produced works in many genres. ... Distribution of Slavic people by language The Slavic peoples are a linguistic and ethnic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Europe, where they constitute roughly a third of the population. ... Ron Sweed as The Ghoul Ron Sweed, (born 1950, Cleveland, Ohio), is an American entertainer best known for his late-night television horror host character The Ghoul. ...

Career in Hollywood

Karloff as The Monster from the Bride of Frankenstein trailer (1935)

Once Karloff arrived in Hollywood, California, he made dozens of silent films, but work was sporadic, and he often had to take up manual labor--such as digging ditches and driving a cement truck--to pay the bills. His role as the Monster in Frankenstein (1931) made him a star. A year later, he played another iconic character, Imhotep, in The Mummy. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Bride of Frankenstein is a horror/science fiction film released on April 22, 1935, a sequel to the 1931 film Frankenstein. ... Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is a novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. ... Frankenstein is a 1931 science fiction film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. ... Imhotep can refer to Amenhotep III (sometimes read as Amenophis III), the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian architect, physician, and court official the mortuary priest in Agatha Christies novel Death Comes as the End a French sound engineer and musician from... Boris Karloff as Ardath Bey AKA Prince Imhotep in The Mummy. ...

The five foot eleven, brown-eyed Karloff played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. He was memorably gunned down in a bowling alley in the original version of Scarface. He played a religious WWI soldier in the 1934 John Ford epic The Lost Patrol. Karloff gave a string of lauded performances in 1930s Universal horror movies, including several with his main rival as heir to the horror throne of Lon Chaney, Sr., Bela Lugosi, whose rejection of Karloff's role in Frankenstein made Karloff's subsequent career possible. Karloff played Frankenstein's monster three times; the other films being Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939), which also featured Lugosi as the demented Ygor. Karloff would revisit the Frankenstein mythos in film several times after leaving the film role of the creature. The first would be as the villainous Dr. Niemann in House of Frankenstein (1944) where Karloff would be famously contrasted against the then more popularized Glenn Strange who became the standardized interpretation of the Monster during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Scarface (also known as Scarface, the Shame of the Nation and The Shame of a Nation) is a 1932 gangster film of the Pre-Code era which tells the story of gang warfare and police intervention when rival gangs fight over control of a city. ... For other persons named John Ford, see John Ford (disambiguation). ... Original movie Poster for The Lost Patrol (1934 film) The Lost Patrol is a 1934 war film made by RKO. It was directed and produced by John Ford, with Merian C. Cooper as executive producer and Cliff Reid as associate producer. ... Lon Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930), nicknamed The Man of a Thousand Faces, was an American actor during the age of silent films. ... Bela Lugosi as Dracula United States stamp. ... This article is about the 1818 novel. ... Bride of Frankenstein is a horror/science fiction film released on April 22, 1935, a sequel to the 1931 film Frankenstein. ... Son of Frankenstein is a horror film made by Universal Studios in 1939 and directed by Rowland V. Lee. ... House of Frankenstein was an American horror film produced in 1944 by Universal Studios as part of its ongoing series of monster films. ... Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 - September 20, 1973) was an American actor who appeared mostly in Western movies. ...

Karloff returned to the role of the "mad scientist" of Frankenstein mode in 1958's Frankenstein 1970 as Baron Victor Von Frankenstein II, the grandson of the original inventor. The final twist reveals the crippled Baron has given his own face (i.e., "Karloff's") to the Monster. The actor appeared at a celebrity baseball game as the Monster in 1940, hitting a gag home run and making catcher Buster Keaton fall into an acrobatic dead faint as the Monster stomped into home plate. For a fantasy sequence in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, director Norman Z. McLeod filmed a sequence with Karloff in the Monster make-up, but it was deleted. The final time Karloff donned the headpiece and neck bolts was 1962, for a Halloween episode of the TV series Route 66, but he was playing "Boris Karloff" who, within the story, was playing "the Monster." Frankenstein 1970 is a 1958 science fiction horror film, starring Boris Karloff and Don Red Barry. ... For the 1947 film, see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947 film). ... Norman Z. McLeod (b. ... Alternate meanings of Route 66: New Jersey State Highway 66, Interstate 66, and a company named after the route US Highway 66 or Route 66 was and is the most famous road in the United States highway system and quite possibly the most famous and storied highway in the world. ...

While the long, creative partnership of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi never led to a close mutual friendship, it produced some of each actor's most revered and enduring productions, beginning with The Black Cat. Follow-ups included Gift of Gab (1934; not horror, but a whimsical comedy featuring cameos from contract stars), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), Black Friday (1940), You'll Find Out (also 1940), and The Body Snatcher (1945), which many believe contains Karloff's greatest performance. During this period he also starred with Basil Rathbone in Tower of London (1939). The Black Cat is a 1934 horror film that became Universal Pictures biggest box office hit of the year. ... Gift of Gab is the lead MC for hip hop group Blackalicious (along with Chief Xcel), and a member of Quannum Projects (along with Cheif Xcel, DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born and Lateef the Truth Speaker). ... The Raven (1935) is a horror film revolving around Edgar Allan Poes famous poem, featuring Bela Lugosi as a Poe-obsessed mad surgeon with a torture chamber in his basement and Boris Karloff as a fugitive murderer desperately on the run from the police. ... Black Friday is a 1940 science fiction film starring Boris Karloff. ... The Body Snatcher (also known as Robert Louis Stevensons The Body Snatcher) is a 1945 horror directed by Robert Wise based on the short story The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson. ... Basil Rathbone (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967), Military Cross, was a British actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and of suave villains in such swashbuckler films as The Mark of Zorro, Captain Blood, and The Adventures of Robin Hood. ... June 1948 (rerelease) April 16, 1944 September 5, 1952=hiddenStructure Tower of London (1939) is a historical horror film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Rowland V. Lee. ...

In contrast to the characters he played on screen, Karloff was known in real life as a very kind gentleman who gave generously, especially to children's charities. Karloff was also a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was especially outspoken regarding working conditions on sets (some extremely hazardous) that actors were expected to deal with in the mid-1930s. He married six times. The Screen Actors Guild (S.A.G.) is the labor union representing over 120,000 film actors in the United States. ...

An enthusiastic performer, he was able to return to the Broadway stage in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a homicidal character enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Although Frank Capra cast Raymond Massey in the 1944 film, (which was shot in 1941, while Karloff was still appearing in the role on Broadway) Karloff reprised the role on television with Tony Randall and Tom Bosley in a 1962 production on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Somewhat less successful was his work in the J. B. Priestley play The Linden Tree. He also appeared as Captain Hook in the play Peter Pan with Jean Arthur, and in the process revealed a surprisingly good singing voice^{[citation needed]}. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his work opposite Julie Harris in The Lark, by the French playwright Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc, which was also reprised on Hallmark Hall of Fame. For other uses of Broadway, see Broadway. ... Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. ... This article is about the film director. ... Raymond Massey photographed by Carl Van Vechten Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor. ... Arsenic and Old Lace is a film directed by Frank Capra based on a play by the same name by Joseph Kesselring. ... Tony Randall (February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American comic actor. ... Thomas Edward Bosley (born October 1, 1927) is an American actor. ... Hallmark Hall of Fame is a long running anthology program on American television. ... John Boynton Priestley, OM (born 13 September 1894, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, died 14 August 1984, Warwickshire) was an English writer and broadcaster . ... Gerald du Maurier as Captain Hook Captain James Hook is the villain of J. M. Barries play and novel Peter Pan. ... Jean Arthur (October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an Oscar-nominated American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ... Actress Julie Harris photo taken by Carl Van Vechten 1952 Julie Harris (born Julia Ann Harris on December 2, 1925 in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan) is an American actress. ... LAlouette (The Lark) is a play by Jean Anouilh about Joan of Arc. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For other uses, see Joan of Arc (disambiguation). ... Hallmark Hall of Fame is a long running anthology program on American television. ...

In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller, Out of This World and The Veil, the latter of which was never broadcast and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff appeared in several films for American International Pictures, including Comedy of Terrors, The Raven and The Terror, the latter two directed by Roger Corman, and appeared as the very brave "retired horror film actor" Byron Orlok (a lightly-disguised version of himself) in Peter Bogdanovich's critically acclaimed 1968 film Targets, which was one of Karloff's final film appearances. Thriller was, along with The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, one of the great anthology television series of the 1960s, running from 1960-1962 on NBC-TV. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing an entertaining mix of macabre horror tales and suspense thrillers. ... Out of This World was a British science fiction anthology television series made by ABC Television and broadcast in 1962. ... The Veil is the title of an American horror/suspense anthology television series produced in 1958 by Hal Roach Studios. ... The early AIP logo. ... The Raven is a 1963 American motion picture produced and directed by Roger Corman. ... The Terror is a 1963 American horror film produced by Roger Corman. ... Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926), sometimes nicknamed King of the Bs for his output of B-movies (though he himself rejects this appellation as inaccurate), is a prolific American producer and director of low-budget exploitation movies, many of which are some of the most influential movies made. ... Peter Bogdanovich Serbian Cyrillic Петар Богдановић (born July 30, 1939) is a Serbian-American film director, writer and actor. ... Targets (1968) is a film written, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich. ...

During the 1950s Karloff appeared on British TV in the series "Colonel March of Scotland Yard", in which he solved apparently impossible crimes. Colonel March is a fictional detective created by John Dickson Carr. ...

On The Red Skelton Show, Karloff guest starred along with horror actor Vincent Price in a parody of Frankenstein with Red Skelton as the monster "Klem Kadiddle Monster". Karloff also appeared with Robert Vaughn and Stefanie Powers in the spy series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. in the episode, entitled, "The Mother Muffin Affair" in which Karloff performed in drag. The Red Skelton Show was a staple of American television for almost two decades, from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. ... Vincent Leonard Price Jr. ... Robert Francis Vaughn (born November 22, 1932) is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. ... Stefanie Powers with Robert Wagner Stefanie Powers (born Stefania Zofia Federkiewicz[1] on November 2, 1942) is an American stage and film actress and singer. ... First novel. ...

In the mid-1960s, Karloff gained a late-career surge of American popularity when he narrated the made-for-television animated film of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and provided "the sounds of the Grinch". (The song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung not by Karloff, but by American voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger.) Karloff later won a Grammy award in the spoken word category after the story was released as a record. This article is about the animated special. ... Ravenscrofts 1970 gospel album Great Hymns in Story and Song Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (February 6, 1914 – May 22, 2005) was an American voice actor and singer with a deep, booming voice. ... For other uses, see Tony The Tiger (disambiguation). ...

Death

Boris Karloff lived out his final years at his cottage, 'Roundabout', in the Hampshire village of Bramshott. After a long battle with arthritis and emphysema, he contracted pneumonia, succumbing to it in the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex, England on February 2, 1969, at the age of 81. He was cremated, following a requested low-key service, at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey, where he is commemorated by a plaque in the Garden of Remembrance. A memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden (The Actors' Church), London, where there is also a plaque.^[3] For other uses, see Hampshire (disambiguation). ... Bramshott is a village in Hampshire,England, nr Liphook. ... Arthritis (from Greek arthro-, joint + -itis, inflammation; plural: arthritides) is a group of conditions where there is damage caused to the joints of the body. ... This article is about human pneumonia. ... , Midhurst is a market town in the English county of West Sussex, with a population of approximately 5000. ... This article refers to the historic county in England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... , The Pepperpot, Godalmings former town hall. ... This article is about the English county. ... St Pauls Church, also commonly known as the Actors Church, is a church located in Covent Garden, London, England. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

However, even death could not put an immediate halt to Karloff's media career. Four Mexican films for which Karloff shot his scenes in Los Angeles were released over a two-year period after he had died. They were dismissed as undistinguished efforts by critics and fans alike. Also, a few years prior to his death, he lent his name to a comic book for Gold Key Comics titled Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery. An illustrated likeness of Karloff continued to introduce each issue of this publication for nearly a decade after the real Karloff died. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing cteated for comic books distributed to newstands. ...

Legacy

For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1737 Vine Street (for motion pictures) and 6664 Hollywood Boulevard (for television) (Lindsay, 1975). Buskers perform on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ... Hollywood Boulevard as taken from the Kodak Theatre Hollywood Boulevard is an avenue in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, beginning at Sunset Boulevard in the east and running northwest to Vermont Avenue, where it straightens out and runs due west to Laurel Canyon Boulevard. ...

In 1998, Karloff (as Frankenstein's Monster and The Mummy) was featured in a series of "Monster Stamps" issued by the U.S. Postal Service.^[4]

Filmography

Further information: Boris Karloff filmography

The following is a list of all of actor Boris Karloffs films. ...

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In 1931, Boris Karloff took out insurance against premature aging from his fright make-up.^[5]

• The 1931 Frankenstein 6-sheet movie poster, featuring Karloff as the monster, is considered to be the most valuable movie poster in the world. There is only 1 copy of the poster known to exist.

• Despite his great performances in many classic horror movies, there's reason to think he never took such roles seriously. He once said, "My wife is a woman of very great taste. That's why she's never seen any of my films."

• In the 1940's, Karloff was frequently on the radio program "Information Please", which showed his incredible knowledge for facts and trivia, as well as his pleasant personality, something never seen in his films.

• Boris Karloff made numerous appearances on the CBS television program Suspense. The episode titled "The Yellow Scarf" was broadcast June 7, 1949 and "A Night at an Inn" was broadcast April 26, 1949. They are not yet available commercially on DVD. There is a public film showing at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in September 2007 in Aberdeen, Maryland.

• Karloff always credited film star Lon Chaney with giving him the best advice of his career, when the elder Chaney told the then-struggling Karloff to "find something that no one else can do, and do it better than anyone else can do it, and you'll leave your mark."

• Karloff was bow-legged, had a lisp and stuttered as a young boy.^[6] He conquered his stutter, but not his lisp, which is noticeable all through his career. Due to the years of difficult manual labor in Canada and the U.S. while trying to establish his acting career, he suffered back problems all of his later life.

• Karloff had a very soft and warm voice. A line from the play "Sir Henry at Rawlinson End" by Viv Stanshall describes a character as being "Karloff soft spoken”.

• Had one daughter, Sara Karloff, by his fifth wife (b.1938).

• Guitarist Kirk Hammett from the band Metallica has a custom ESP KH-2 M-II guitar featuring a drawing of Karloff as The Mummy.^[7]

• Beginning in 1940, Karloff dressed up as Santa Claus every Christmas to hand out presents to physically disabled children in a Baltimore hospital.^[8]

• Karloff's picture was not published when news of his passing was announced in newspapers. Glenn Strange's photo appeared instead. The same thing happened to Lon Chaney Jr. when actor Mark Willis's photo as a werewolf was published instead.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... This article is about the broadcast network. ... DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ... The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention is an event held annually in Aberdeen, Maryland. ... For other uses, see September (disambiguation). ... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Largest metro area Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)  - Width 101 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37° 53′ N to 39° 43′ N... Lon Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930), nicknamed The Man of a Thousand Faces, was an American actor during the age of silent films. ... Lifes like that sometimes, isnt it? — Stanshall prepares to sing The Sound of Music with the Bonzo Dog Band on Do Not Adjust Your Set. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Monument City, Charm City, Mob Town, B-more Motto: Get In On It (formerly The City That Reads and The Greatest City in America; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Location Location of Baltimore in Maryland Coordinates , Government Country State County United...

Notes and references

• Lindsay, Cynthia (1975). Dear Boris. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0394475798. 

A blue plaque showing information about The Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey in Torquay. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is the unique eight-digit number applied to a periodical publication including electronic serials. ... ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is the unique eight-digit number applied to a periodical publication including electronic serials. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Boris Karloff

• Boris Karloff Obituary at the Internet Obituary Network
• Boris Karloff at the Internet Broadway Database
• Boris Karloff at the Internet Movie Database
• Boris Karloff at Find A Grave

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDb) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... Find A Grave is an online database of seventeen million cemeteries and burial records. ...