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Movies 101: Who was Vincent Price?
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One of the most terrifying men to ever grace the silver screen, Vincent Price is known for his roles bringing several stories by the famed writer Edgar Allan Poe to life. He worked with film legends from Otto Preminger to Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Tim Burton, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, John Carradine and Johnny Depp over his lengthy acting career. His terrifying performances are still terrifying audiences today, generations after they were originally made.
Born on May 27, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri, he came from a wealthy family and got his undergraduate degree at Yale University. He began his film career in 1938 and got his breakout role in 1939's The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex as Sir Walter Raleigh. His first horror film came in 1939 when he played Richard, the Duke of Clarence in Tower of London and the following year starred in The Invisible Man Returns. In 1940, he played Joseph Smith in the film Brigham Young and worked along Otto Preminger and Gene Tierney in 1944's Laura. His role in The Invisible Man Returns gave him a voice cameo at the end of Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein. In 1948, he played Richieleu in The Three Musketeers.
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Price's venture into the horror genre began in the 1950s. In 1953, he had a lead role in the original House of Wax, followed by roles in The Fly (1958), House on Haunted Hill (1959), and Return of the Fly (1959). In the 1960s, he teamed up with director Roger Corman for a series of film based on the works of Egdar Allan Poe, such as House of Usher (1960), Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). He also starred in literary films such as Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962), The Last Man on Earth (1964), Twice-Told Tales (1963), and Diary of a Madman (1963).
As he grew older, Price took on more roles in television. He played the villain Egghead in "Batman", along with roles in shows such as Daniel Boone, "Get Smart", "The Mod Squad", "The Red Skelton Show", "The Brady Bunch", "Columbo", "The Bionic Woman", and "The Love Boat" over the course of the 1970s. He took on roles in campy horror films and took on the role of Oscar Wilde in the one-man-show stage play Diversions and Delights.
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In the 1980s, he acted several times in the series "Mystery!" and teamed up with Tim Burton for films such as Vincent (1982) and Edward Scissorhands (1990), which was his last major film role. He also played Professor Rattigan in The Great Mouse Detective in the 1980s, as well as working in several television playhouse shows, in the theatre, and narrating radio programs. A major foodie, he even hosted his own cooking show called Cooking Pricewise.
He married three times, to actress Edith Barrett, art collector Mary Grant, and Australian actress Coral Browne, with two children, one from his first wife and another from his second. He enjoyed gardening and fine art, and was widely regarded as a bit of an eccentric from his friends. He one quipped to Peter Lorre at the funeral for fellow friend Bela Lugosi "Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?," one example of his sense of humor. Though he died of emphysema and Parkinson's disease on October 25, 1993, his legacy still remains in Hollywood and is carried on my friends still working in the film world.
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