Boris Karloff (1887–1969), born William Henry Pratt in England, adopted the stage name of Boris Karloff when he joined a touring company in Canada. When he ended up short of cash in Hollywood, he secured acting work in silent films, beginning in 1920. He appeared in eighty films before his big break came in 1931 when cast as the monster in Universal Pictures’ production of Frankenstein. On Broadway, he appeared as the murderous Brewster brother in the hit Arsenic and Old Lace, and a decade later he enjoyed a long run in Peter Pan, perfectly cast as Captain Hook. He was an actor also known for his voice work. He was the biggest star to lend his voice to a sound effect: Universal added his anguished scream over the dead Ygor from Son of Frankenstein (1939) to its stock sound effects library and used it for subsequent films, including House of Frankenstein (1944) as the cry when Daniel the hunchback falls from the roof. He provided the voice of the Grinch in the original 1966 animated film version of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and his voice was the basis for Tony the Tiger commercials by Kellogg’s. He also narrated many successful recordings of children’s stories. He won the AudioFile Earphones Award for his reading of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, praised for his eloquent locution and full repertoire of creature voices delivered in his “inimitable style” And Library Journal says the stories are “read to perfection by Boris Karloff.” |
