Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 27, 1911, Vincent Leonard Price was a man who lived up to his words. He once said, “a man who limits his interests, limits his life”. Accomplished actor, gourmet and connoisseur of fine art, he was a highly educated and cultured gentleman. He traveled throughout Europe and received a degree in Art History from Yale University. An avid art collector, he founded the Vincent Price Gallery of East Los Angeles College, which is celebrating its forty-fifth year. He was married three times and had two children, a boy, Vincent Barret, and a girl, Victoria.
His screen debut came in 1938. After many minor roles, the most famous of which was as Jean Tierney’s playboy fiancé in the thriller, “Laura” in 1944, he eventually found his niche in low budget horror films. Perhaps the best of the early ones was “The House of Wax” made in 1953. The story centers on a crazed museum curator, who has a sense of realism for his wax figures that more than borders on the homicidal.
Maniacs became his specialty; tortured souls like Roderick Usher in highly atmospheric “House of Usher,” which was based on a short story by horror master, Edgar Allen Poe. Another Poe story became a platform: “The Pit and The Pendulum” in 1961. Seeking new heights of lunacy, Price starred in “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” who was much worse than his cousin, the snowman. Eventually, he went to England to specialize in these kinds of films because, as he once said in an interview, “over there, the horror film is respected as an art form.”
The 1970s found him abandoning his career in film, presenting cooking programs for television. With his second wife, Mary Grant, he wrote “A Treasury of Great Recipes.”
Known to be notoriously superstitious, he once joked that he kept a horseshoe, a crucifix and a mezuzah on his front door. According to Price, when he and friend, Peter Lorre went to Bela Lugosi’s funeral and saw Lugosi dressed in his famous Dracula garb, Lorre said, “Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?”
Shortly before his death in October of 1993, he said that one of his most favorite roles was the voice of Professor Ratigan in the Disney feature, “The Great Mouse Detective” of 1986.
What are YOUR favorite Vincent Price movies?