Remembering Vincent Leonard Price II (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993)

Vincent Leonard Price II (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career. Early life and career Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Marguerite Cobb (née Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., who was the president of the National Candy Company. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented "Dr. Price's Baking Powder", the first cream of tartar baking powder, and secured the family's fortune. Price attended St. Louis Country Day School. He was further educated at Yale in art history and fine art. He was a member of the Courtauld Institute, London. He became interested in the theatre during the 1930s, appearing professionally on stage from 1935. Career He made his film debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself in the film Laura (1944), opposite Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger. He also played Joseph Smith, Jr. in the movie Brigham Young (1940), as well as a pretentious priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). Price's first venture into the horror genre was in the 1939 Boris Karloff film Tower of London. The following year he portrayed the title character in the film The Invisible Man Returns (a role he reprised in a vocal cameo at the end of the 1948 horror-comedy spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein). In 1946 Price reunited with Tierney in two notable films, Dragonwyck and Leave Her to Heaven. There were also many villainous roles in film noir thrillers like The Web (1947), The Long Night (1947), Rogues' Regiment (1948) and The Bribe (1949) with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Charles Laughton. His first starring role was as conman James Addison Reavis in the 1950 biopic The Baron of Arizona. He also did a comedic turn as the tycoon Burnbridge Waters, co-starring with Ronald Colman in Champagne for Caesar. He was active in radio, portraying the Robin Hood-inspired crime-fighter Simon Templar in a series that ran from 1943 to 1951. In the 1950s, he moved into horror films, with a role in House of Wax (1953), the first 3-D film to land in the year's top ten at the North American box office, and then the monster movie The Fly (1958). Price also starred in the original House on Haunted Hill (1959) as the eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren. Price played Dr. Warren Chapin, in the "Tingler" a 1959 horror-thriller film by the American producer and director William Castle. In between these horror films, Price played Baka (the master builder) in The Ten Commandments. In the 1955-1956 television season he appeared three times as Rabbi Gershom Seixos in the ABC anthology series, Crossroads, a study of clergymen from different denominations. 1960s In the 1960s, Price had a number of low-budget successes with Roger Corman and American International Pictures (AIP) including the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Comedy of Terrors (1963) The Raven (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Tomb of Ligeia (1965). He also starred in The Last Man on Earth (1964), a film based on the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend. In 1968 Price portrayed witchhunter Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General,[4] which is also known as The Conqueror Worm. He also starred in comedy films, notably Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965). In 1968 he played the part of an eccentric artist in the musical Darling of the Day opposite Patricia Routledge. He often spoke of his pleasure at playing Egghead in the Batman television series. One of his co-stars, Yvonne Craig (Batgirl), said Price was her favorite villain in the series. In an often-repeated anecdote from the set of Batman, Price, after a take was printed, started throwing eggs at series stars Adam West and Burt Ward, and when asked to stop replied, "With a full artillery? Not a chance!", causing an eggfight to erupt on the soundstage. This incident is reenacted in the behind-the-scenes telefilm Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt. In the 1960s, he began his role as a guest on the game show Hollywood Squares, even becoming a semi-regular in the 1970s, including being one of the guest panelists on the finale in 1980. He was known for usually making fun of Rose Marie's age, and using his famous voice to answer maliciously to questions. Later career During the early 1970s, Price hosted and starred in BBC Radio's horror and mystery series The Price of Fear. Price accepted a cameo part in the children's television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (1971) in Hamilton, Ontario Canada, on the local television station CHCH. In addition to the opening and closing monologues, his role in the show was to recite poems about the show's various characters, sometimes wearing a cloak or other costumes. He also appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he portrayed a pair of campy serial killers. That same year Price appeared as himself in "Mooch Goes to Hollywood", a film written by Jim Backus. Price also recorded dramatic readings of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems, which were collected together with readings by Basil Rathbone. He greatly reduced his film work from around 1975, as horror itself suffered a slump, and increased his narrative and voice work, as well as advertising Milton Bradley's Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture. Price's voiceover is heard on Alice Cooper's first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare from 1975, and he also appeared in the corresponding TV special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare. He starred for a year in the early 1970s in a syndicated daily radio program, Tales of the Unexplained. He also made guest appearances in a 1970 episode of Here's Lucy showcasing his art expertise and in a 1972 episode of ABC's The Brady Bunch, in which he played a deranged archaeologist. In the summer of 1977, he began performing as Oscar Wilde in the one-man stage play Diversions and Delights. Written by John Gay and directed by Joe Hardy, the play is set in a Parisian theatre on a night about one year before Wilde's death. In an attempt to earn some much-needed money, he speaks to the audience about his life, his works and, in the second act, about his love for Lord Alfred Douglas, which led to his downfall. The original tour of the play was a success in every city that it played, except for New York City. In the summer of 1979, Price performed it at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado on the same stage from which Wilde had spoken to miners about art some 96 years before. Price would eventually perform the play worldwide. In her biography of her father Victoria Price state that several members of Price's family and friends thought that this was the best acting that he ever performed. In the spring of 1979, Price starred with his wife Coral Browne in the short-lived CBS TV Series Time Express. In 1982, Price provided the narrator's voice in Vincent, Tim Burton's six-minute film about a young boy who flashes from reality into a fantasy where he is Vincent Price. That same year, he performed a sinister "rap" on the title track of Michael Jackson's Thriller album. A longer version of the rap, sans the music, along with some conversation can be heard on Jackson's 2001 remastered reissue of the Thriller album. Part of the extended version can be heard on the Thriller 25 album, released in 2008. In 1983, Price played the Sinister Man in the British spoof horror film Bloodbath at the House of Death starring Kenny Everett, and he also appeared in the film House of the Long Shadows, which teamed him with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine. While Price had worked with each one of them at least once in the prior decade, this was the first actually teaming of all of them together. One of his last major roles, and one of his favorites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective in 1986. From 1981 to 1989, he hosted the PBS television series Mystery!. Also, in 1985, he was voice talent on the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as the mysterious Vincent Van Ghoul, who aided Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo and the gang in recapturing thirteen evil demons. During this time (1985–1989), he appeared in horror-themed commercials for Tilex bathroom cleanser. In 1987, he starred with Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, and Ann Sothern in The Whales of August, a story of two sisters living in Maine, facing the end of their days. In 1989, Price was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. His last significant film work was as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990). Price also appeared as Sir Despard Murgatroyd in a 1982 television production of Ruddigore (with Keith Michell as Robin Oakapple). A witty raconteur, Price was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he once demonstrated how to poach a fish in a dishwasher. Price was a noted gourmet cook and art collector. From 1962 to 1971, Sears, Roebuck offered the "Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art", selling about 50,000 pieces of fine art to the general public. Price selected and commissioned works for the collection, including works by Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí. He also authored several cookbooks and hosted a cookery TV show, Cooking Pricewise. Personal life Price was married three times and fathered a son, named Vincent Barrett Price, with his first wife, former actress Edith Barrett. Price and his second wife Mary Grant Price donated hundreds of works of art and a large amount of money to East Los Angeles College in the early 1960s in order to endow the Vincent and Mary Price Gallery there. Their daughter, Mary Victoria Price, was born in 1962. Price's last marriage was to the Australian actress Coral Browne, who appeared with him (as one of his victims) in Theatre of Blood (1973). He converted to Catholicism to marry her, and she became a U.S. citizen for him. Death Price was a lifelong smoker. He had long suffered from emphysema and Parkinson's disease, which had forced his role in Edward Scissorhands to be much smaller than intended. His illness also contributed to his retirement from Mystery!, as his condition was becoming noticeable on-screen. He died of lung cancer on October 25, 1993. He was cremated and his ashes scattered off Point Dume in Malibu, California. The A&E Network aired an episode of Biography highlighting Price's horror career the next night, but because of its failure to clear copyrights, the show was never aired again. Four years later, A&E produced its updated episode, a show titled Vincent Price: The Versatile Villain, which aired on October 12, 1997. The script was by Lucy Chase Williams, author of The Complete Films of Vincent Price (Citadel Press, 1995). In early 1991, Tim Burton was developing a personal documentary with the working title Conversations With Vincent, in which interviews with Price were shot at the Vincent Price Gallery, but the project was never completed and was eventually shelved. Legacy In 1951, impressed by the spirit of the students and the community's need for the opportunity to experience original art works first hand, Price donated some 90 pieces from his own collection to East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California, thus establishing the first "teaching art collection" owned by a community college in the U.S. Today, the Vincent Price Art Gallery continues to present world-class exhibitions, and remains one of the actor's most enduring legacies. The collection contains over 2,000 pieces and has been valued in excess of five million dollars. Price was an Honorary Board Member and strong supporter of the Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum located in Bristol, Connecticut until his death. The museum features detailed life-size wax replicas of characters from some of Price's films, including The Fly, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and The Masque of the Red Death.[10] A black box theater at Price's alma mater, Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, is named after him. Director Tim Burton directed a short stop-motion film as a tribute to Vincent Price called Vincent, about a young boy named Vincent Malloy who was obsessed with the grim and macabre. It is narrated by Price. "Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice" was a parody on Sesame Street. He was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons ("Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"). Price even had his own Spitting Image puppet, who was always trying to be "sinister" and lure people into his ghoulish traps, only for his victims to point out all the obvious flaws. The October 2005 episode of the Channel 101 series Yacht Rock featured comedian James Adomian as Vincent Price during the recording of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Starting in November 2005, featured cast member Bill Hader of the NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live has played Price in a recurring sketch where Vincent Price hosts botched holiday specials filled with celebrities of the late 1950s-early 1960s. Other cast members who have played Price on SNL include Dan Aykroyd and Michael McKean (who played Price when he hosted a season 10 episode and again when he was hired as a cast member for the 1994-1995 season). In 1999, a frank and detailed biography written by his daughter, Victoria Price, about her father was published by St. Martin's Press. Filmography Year Film Role Director 1938 Service De Luxe Robert Wade Rowland V. Lee 1939 The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex Sir Walter Raleigh Michael Curtiz Tower of London Duke of Clarence Rowland V. Lee 1940 The Invisible Man Returns Geoffrey Radcliffe Joe May Green Hell David Richardson James Whale The House of the Seven Gables Clifford Pyncheon Joe May Brigham Young Joseph Smith Henry Hathaway 1941 Hudson's Bay King Charles II Irving Pichel 1943 The Song of Bernadette Prosecutor Vital Dutour Henry King 1944 The Eve of St. Mark Pvt. Francis Marion John M. Stahl Wilson William Gibbs McAdoo Henry King Laura Shelby Carpenter Otto Preminger The Keys of the Kingdom Angus Mealey John M. Stahl 1945 A Royal Scandal Marquis de Fleury Ernst Lubitsch, Otto Preminger Leave Her to Heaven Russell Quinton John M. Stahl 1946 Shock Dr. Richard Cross Alfred L. Werker Dragonwyck Nicholas Van Ryn Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1947 The Web Andrew Colby Michael Gordon The Long Night Maximilian Anatole Litvak Moss Rose Police Inspector R. Clinner Gregory Ratoff 1948 Up in Central Park Boss Tweed William A. Seiter Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein The Invisible Man (voice only) Charles Barton Rogues' Regiment Mark Van Ratten Robert Florey The Three Musketeers Richelieu George Sidney 1949 The Bribe Carwood Robert Z. Leonard Bagdad Pasha Ali Nadim Charles Lamont 1950 The Baron of Arizona James Addison Samuel Fuller Champagne for Caesar Burnbridge Waters Richard Whorf Curtain Call at Cactus Creek Tracy Holland Charles Lamont 1951 Adventures of Captain Fabian George Brissac William Marshall His Kind of Woman Mark Cardigan John Farrow 1952 The Las Vegas Story Lloyd Rollins Robert Stevenson 1953 House of Wax Professor Henry Jarrod André De Toth 1954 Dangerous Mission Paul Adams Louis King Born in Freedom: The Story of Colonel Drake Colonel Edwin L. Drake Arthur Pierson Casanova's Big Night Casanova (uncredited) Norman Z. McLeod The Mad Magician Don Gallico John Brahm 1955 Son of Sinbad Omar Khayyam Ted Tetzlaff 1956 Serenade Charles Winthrop Anthony Mann While the City Sleeps Walter Kyne Fritz Lang The Vagabond King Narrator (uncredited) Michael Curtiz The Ten Commandments Baka Cecil B. DeMille 1957 The Story of Mankind The Devil Irwin Allen 1958 The Fly François Delambre Kurt Neumann 1959 House on Haunted Hill Frederick Loren William Castle The Big Circus Hans Hagenfeld Joseph M. Newman The Tingler Dr. Warren Chapin William Castle Return of the Fly Francois Delambre Edward Bernds The Bat Dr. Malcolm Wells Crane Wilbur 1960 House of Usher Roderick Usher Roger Corman 1961 Master of the World Robur William Witney The Pit and the Pendulum Nicholas Medina Sebastian Medina Roger Corman Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile Benakon Fernando Cerchio Rage of the Buccaneers Romero Mario Costa 1962 Confessions of an Opium Eater Gilbert De Quincey Albert Zugsmith Tales of Terror Locke Fortunato Luchresi M. Valdemar Roger Corman Convicts 4 Carl Carmer Millard Kaufman Tower of London Richard of Gloucester Roger Corman 1963 The Raven Dr. Erasmus Craven Roger Corman Diary of a Madman Simon Cordier Reginald Le Borg Beach Party Big Daddy William Asher The Haunted Palace Joseph Curwen Charles Dexter Ward Roger Corman Twice-Told Tales Alex Medbourne Dr. Rappaccini Gerald Pyncheon Sidney Salkow 1964 The Comedy of Terrors Waldo Trumbull Jacques Tourneur The Last Man on Earth Dr. Robert Morgan Ubaldo Ragona The Masque of the Red Death Prince Prospero Roger Corman The Tomb of Ligeia Verden Fell Roger Corman 1965 War-Gods of the Deep Sir Hugh, The Captain Jacques Tourneur Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine Dr. Goldfoot Norman Taurog 1966 Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs Dr. Goldfoot General Willis Mario Bava 1967 The Jackals Oupa Decker Robert D. Webb The House of 1,000 Dolls Felix Manderville Jeremy Summers 1968 Spirits of the Dead Narrator (English-language version) Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, Roger Vadim Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins Michael Reeves More Dead Than Alive Dan Ruffalo Robert Sparr 1969 The Oblong Box Sir Julian Markham Gordon Hessler The Trouble with Girls Mr. Morality Peter Tewksbury 1970 Scream and Scream Again Dr. Browning Gordon Hessler Cry of the Banshee Lord Edward Whitman Gordon Hessler 1971 The Abominable Dr. Phibes Dr. Anton Phibes Robert Fuest Here Comes Peter Cottontail January Q. Irontail Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr. Mooch Goes to Hollywood Himself Richard Erdman What's a Nice Girl Like You...? Spevin Jerry Paris 1972 An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe Recitator Kenneth Johnson Dr. Phibes Rises Again Dr. Anton Phibes Robert Fuest 1973 Theatre of Blood Edward Lionheart Douglas Hickox 1974 Madhouse Paul Toombes Jim Clark Percy's Progress Stavos Mammonian Ralph Thomas 1975 Journey Into Fear Dervos Daniel Mann 1976 The Butterfly Ball Narrator Tony Klinger 1979 Scavenger Hunt Milton Parker Michael Schultz 1980 The Monster Club Eramus Roy Ward Baker Pogo for President: 'I Go Pogo' The Deacon (voice only) Marc Paul Chinoy 1983 House of the Long Shadows Lionel Grisbane Pete Walker Michael Jackson's Thriller Narrator (voice only) John Landis 1984 Bloodbath at the House of Death Sinister Man Ray Cameron Terror in the Aisles archival footage Andrew J. Kuehn 1985 The Little Troll Prince Ulvik #1 (voice only) Ray Patterson 1986 The Great Mouse Detective Professor Ratigan (voice only) Burny Mattinson, Ron Clements, David Michener, John Musker Escapes The Mailman David Steensland 1987 Sparky's Magic Piano Henry, Sparky's dad (voice only) Lee Mishkin The Nativity King Herod (voice only) Don Lusk The Whales of August Mr. Maranov Lindsay Anderson From a Whisper to a Scream Julian White Jeff Burr 1988 Dead Heat Arthur P. Loudermilk Mark Goldblatt 1990 Catchfire Mr. Avoca Dennis Hopper 1990 Edward Scissorhands The Inventor Tim Burton 1993 The Thief and the Cobbler Zig-Zag the Grand Vizier (voice only, recorded 1967-1973) Richard Williams       Carl Ray Louk "FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996 "LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000 "THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD "EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941 "FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895 "FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895  "I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock  "TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003  "EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS MySpace.com: www.myspace.com/carlraylouk http://www.myspace.com/carlraylouk Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : LouksHauntedGraveyardhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/LouksHauntedGraveyard/ Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk/