Boris Karloff - Stage name: Pratt becomes Karloff, Career in Hollywood

Film star, born in London, UK. He studied at London University, then went to Canada and the USA, aiming for a diplomatic career, and became involved in acting. He spent 10 years in repertory companies, went to Hollywood, and after several silent films made his name as the monster in Frankenstein (1931). Apart from a notable performance in a World War 1 story, The Lost Patrol (1934), his career was mostly spent in popular horror films, though his performances frequently transcended the crudity of the genre, bringing, as in Frankenstein, a depth and pathos to the characterization. He continued to appear in films, on television, and on the stage until his death.

Boris Karloff (November 23, 1887 in East Dulwich, London, England – February 2, 1969) was an English actor best known for his roles in horror films. After gaining fame, he was sometimes billed as "Karloff" and sometimes as "Karloff the Uncanny". Through her, Karloff could claim distant East Indian ancestry, as it seems that Eliza Edwards and her sister, Anna, were the children of a mixed-race marriage. 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.

Stage name: Pratt becomes Karloff

Some time after emigrating to Canada in 1909, William Pratt changed his professional name to "Boris Karloff." 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. 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. 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.

Career in Hollywood

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 to pay the bills, like digging ditches and driving a cement truck (or "lorrie," as he called it.) His role as the Monster in Frankenstein (1931) made him a star.

The five foot ten, brown-eyed Karloff (who, in the wake of Frankenstein's success, was billed for a time only by his last name) played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. Karloff gave a string of superb 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; Whilst 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. 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 of 1945, which many believe contains Karloff's greatest performance.

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 as regards working conditions on sets (some extremely hazardous) that actors were expected to deal with in the mid-1930s.

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.

In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller 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. Due to the credits stating "the sounds of the Grinch are by Boris Karloff", it is sometimes erroneously stated that Karloff sang the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". The song was actually sung by American voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft (also the voice of Tony the Tiger) in the style that was very dissimilar to Karloff's voice.

Boris Karloff lived out his final years at his appropriately named cottage, 'Roundabout', in the Hampshire village of Bramshott.

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 prior to his death were released over a two-year period after his passing. Also, a few years prior to his death, he lent his name to a comic book for Gold Key Comics entitled 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.

For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1737 Vine Street (for motion pictures) and 6664 Hollywood Boulevard (for television) (Lindsay, 1975).

In 1998, Karloff (as Frankenstein's Monster) was featured in a series of "Monster Stamps" issued by the U.S. Postal Service.