The character actor provided the understructure of a film. Take any movie, good or mediocre, from 1930 to 1970 and you will find one or more memorable “characters”. A leading role in films usually required a “name”, a celebrated star who had mass appeal and who could bring audiences into the theater. The character or featured roles depended on someone who specialized in a particular “type” of personality and who could wrap a persona around the role to give it dimension, depth and mood soon identified with that actor alone. It was these players who kept the audiences in their seats.

Boris Karloff

1887 – 1969

Boris Karloff


Frankenstein's Monster

It was August, 1931 and Los Angeles was sweltering under the dog days heat. On the back lot of Universal Studios, an ungainly figure walked slowly toward one of the bungalows assisted by an aide and two studio guards. Bolts piercing his neck and hampered by steel harnesses around his legs, the grotesque giant kept his face hidden under a blue veil and, when the door of the bungalow closed behind him, the guards took up positions outside the door. Now a legend-in-the-making could remove the instruments of torture and ….Boris Karloff could eat his lunch.

He was born William Henry Pratt in Camberwell, London, England on November 23, 1887. The youngest of 8 children born to a member of Britain’s foreign service, he was being groomed for a diplomatic position. But William, bitten by the acting bug, ran off to Canada in 1909, joining one touring company after another and working as a farmhand from time to time to keep body and soul together. For 10 years he honed his craft with supporting roles in plays all over Canada and the US.

In 1916, Pratt made his screen debut during a brief stay in the movie capital. The movie was “The Dumb Girl of Portici” and stared Anna Pavlova. Then, when he found himself out of a job 3 years later, he went back to Hollywood and took up steady employment as an extra and bit player in silent films. When work wasn’t so steady, he supplemented his income by working as a truck driver.

By the 1920’s William Henry Pratt had become Boris Karloff, a name that sounded much more menacing and more suited to his association with the creatures of the netherworld. He had trained his soft, cultured voice and pronounced lisp into a harsher, more guttural tone. And, in 1931, he got the role that would make him famous!

Carl “Junior” Laemmle, the 22 -year -old production chief at Universal wanted to make Mary Shelley’s tale of a lab-created monster into a horror film for Bela Lugosi, the cloaked vampire of “Dracula” fame. But, when confronted with the actual makeup requirements, Lugosi turned it down flat stating “Any tall extra could be the Monster’. The project seemed doomed for failure until director James Whale found his “creature” quietly having lunch in the studio commissary! When he approached Boris Karloff and asked him if he would test for the part, Boris answered “I would be delighted” and film history added another page.

Boris may have regretted his decision when he was confronted with 16 hour days, 6 of them spent putting on and removing 48 lbs. of makeup and costume (it would lead to chronic back problems later). But even the heavy makeup and ponderous casings could not hide the exceptional talent and ability of an actor who could express such sensitive emotion through the face of a monster. Karloff’s performance was outstanding and it made the film an ageless classic.

Another tedious makeup job occurred when Boris played the role of Im-ho-tep in Karl Freund’s (1932) “The Mummy”. He spent 8 hours being packed in clay from head to toe. The clay was a blue-green that filmed a chilling tombstone gray and dried into thousands of hair-line cracks that artists accented with a thin brush and paint. There should have been a special make-up chair dedicated to Boris Karloff!
During Universal’s macabre cycle of horror films during the 30’s monsters by the dozen peopled the box office. One highly successful film was “The Bride of Frankenstein” with Elsa Lanchester as the lady mate just made for a lovesick monster. Ads proclaimed “The Monster Did Not Die! He Lives – and Wants to Love!” But the film was done over the objections of Karloff who felt that now that the Monster speaks, it was too human to be terrifying. A second sequel was “The Son of Frankenstein” and it united Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi and Karloff in an unholy trio with the next generation carrying on the nefarious family traditions. But it was the last appearance of Karloff as the monster… until he made an appearance on a Halloween episode of television’s “Route 66”!

   Karloff as an amnesiac opera singer in"Charlie Chan at the opera" (1936). Shown
with Warner Oland and Charlotte Henry.
 But Boris also played many notable supporting roles outside the horror genre including the fine performance as the religious fanatic in John Ford’s “The Lost Patrol” (1934). He won a Tony nomination for his stage role in “The Lark” (1956). Ironically this icon of thrills and chills was often the host of children’s programs and even narrated Mother Goose for a children’s story record. He was Captain Hook in a Broadway production of “Peter Pan” in the 1950’s and Colonel March in the television series “Colonel March of Scotland Yard” (1954)

Boris Karloff married five times but four of them ended in divorce. However, his 4 th marriage produced a daughter, Sarah and his 5 th lasted 23 years until his death. He made over 166 movies, three of them released after his death and one of them never released at all.

William Henry Pratt died in Midhurst, Sussex County, England on February 2, 1969 of emphysema. He was 81 years old.

Films also include: “Scarface” (1932)….”The Raven” (1935)….The Man Who Lived Again” (1936)….”Tower of London” (1939)….”The Body Snatcher” (1945)….”Unconquered’ (1947)…and “Die, Monster, Die” (1965)