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HORROR 101: THE A-LIST OF HORROR FILMS AND MONSTER MOVIES  VOL 1

(Born Nov. 23^rd, 1887 – Died Feb 2^nd, 1969)

    
    "I have to be very grateful to him, to the Monster, who’s really my best friend. I’d been at it for 20 years when he came along, and he really changed the whole course of my life." - Boris Karloff

    One of my favorite monsters has always been the Frankenstein monster.  I’m sure this started with seeing the original Universal version with Boris Karloff as the creature, or the many photos in the different monster magazines.  But Karloff went even further than just the misunderstood creature.  Was he typecast as a horror actor?  Yes.  Did it stop him?  No.  While other actors were shying away from being pigeon-holed into one part, Karloff made the most of it.

    Karloff was another actor who had been in the profession for many years before becoming a box office name.  He was in his early 40’s when he was cast as Frankenstein’s creature.  After the success of FRANKENSTEIN, he became a star, later being billed as Karloff the Uncanny, or just KARLOFF!  After that, he was of course type cast as the heavy, the monster, or some other type of demented character, but Karloff was grateful of having continuous work in films.

    "I think all actors are typed. I know it’s fashionable to complain about being typecast, which I think is nonsense.  We’re all typed.  If you’re a young man, you play juveniles; and, I mean, as you get on, if you’re lucky, you turn into a character man and you play that kind of part.  And if you become known for a certain kind of role . . . that is not too restricted, I think you’re a very lucky actor."

    While Karloff was always known for his role as monsters, villains, and such, he didn’t seem to mind.  Even at times taking pokes at himself.  During his long stint in the stage play of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, Karloff was playing the character of Jonathan Brewster, who was a desperate criminal, the black sheep of the family. At one point in the play, when trying to hide a body, he is asked why he did it.  His reply: "He said I looked like Boris Karloff." which always got a grand response from the audience.

    Karloff had made quite a name for himself in the theater.  While he had great success in the ARSENIC play, he also played Captain Hook in Peter Pan, in which he got great reviews, and the show ran for close to a year, giving over 300 performances.  He also was in the play THE LARK in 1955, the story of Joan of Arc.  Karloff played the Bishop Cauchon, while Julie Harris played Joan.  This role earned him a Tony nomination for Best Actor. Karloff said that this role was the "high point of my career as an actor."

    Boris Karloff also worked on many different mediums in the entertainment business. He was always appearing on TV shows, doing radio programs, and did many spoken word recordings, such as reading different classics like Shakespeare, Kipling, Dickens, and many different children’s stories and fairy tales.  In 1967, Boris even won a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album, for "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

    In any respect, he always kept working.  He felt that if the opportunities were there for him, he would take them.

    "I’m not really alive when I’m not working and have no part to look to. In fact, to know I would never work again would be something like a death sentence."

    But Karloff had many other accomplishments in the movie business besides acting.  He was one of the founding members of the Screen Actor’s Guild, holding the title of Assistant Treasury for a number of years.  One of reasons that he felt strongly about the Guild and it’s purpose was probably due to when he had to work a 25-hour day on the first FRANKENSTEIN film.  He was also had a major role in combining the American Screen Actor’s Guild with the British’s Equity, to make sure that actors on both sides of the Atlantic were being treated fairly by the studios.

    Boris had even spoken out against censorship in a 1957 article in Films and Filming magazine, entitled "My Life as a Monster."  In it, he spoke of when the British censor cut a scene in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN because they thought it had necrophile tendencies.

    "I must say that I have never been in a scene that was objectionable to good taste.  Some of my films have been stupid and silly, because they did not have good stories; but they have never been distasteful.  I am opposed to censorship in any form.  Censorship always seems to me to be a mistrust of people’s  intelligence.  I believe that good taste takes care of license. It is also worth remembering that one does not have to go and see a film."

    In the end, Karloff is one of the most recognizable faces and names in the horror genre.  Even people who are not fans know who his was.  To us fans and to me personally, he was a great man.  Not just because of the roles he played on the screens, but also because of his kind personality and dedication to his work.