Vincent Price: The Father of Horror Films by Paul Lonardo

 

“In darkness, we find truth.” – Vincent Price

The name Vincent Price may not be one that the youngest generation of horror fans are very familiar with, but it is for more than just nostalgic purposes that true fans of the genre should find out more about him and his work.

Price’s distinctive voice, sophisticated demeanor, and magnetic presence, indeed, set a new standard for horror movie villains, inspiring generations of actors and filmmakers alike. His influence is one that can be seen in the works of contemporary filmmakers like Tim Burton, who considered him a mentor and collaborator.

Price’s iconic career and impactful contributions to the horror genre cannot be fully appreciated in this brief retrospective alone, but hopefully this article will enlighten some of our readers and spark an interest in an actor who is known as the father of horror films.

“Ghosts are just the echoes of our past, forever haunting us.” – Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born on May 27, 1911, and like many actors of his generation he started out in theatre. He first appeared on stage professionally in 1935 in the play Chicago in London. He moved to New York City later that year appearing in a Broadway production of Victoria Regina, playing the role for two seasons at the Broadhurst Theatre through June 1937. In 1938 he appeared in productions of The Shoemaker’s Holiday and Heartbreak House with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre company.

Price made his film debut in 1938 when he appeared in Service de Luxe, and his foray into the horror genre began the following year when he shared the screen with the legendary Boris Karloff in Tower of London. The following year, Price portrayed the title character in The Invisible Man Returns. This was the beginning of a more than half a century movie career that rivals any film star in the history of cinema.

The Second World War interrupted his career, as it did the livelihoods of so many others in all professions. He began portraying villainous roles in film noir thrillers such as The Web, The Long Night, and Rogues’s Regiment. In 1948, he made a voice-only cameo in the closing scene of the horror-comedy spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

“True horror lies not in the supernatural, but in the depths of the human psyche.” – Vincent Price.

It was in the 1950s that Price’s career really took off. He secured the leading role of the homicidal sculptor in 1953’s House of Wax. He followed that film up with roles The Mad Magician (1954), the monster movie The Fly (1958), and its sequel Return of the Fly (1959). That same year, Price starred in two thrillers produced and directed by B-movie king William Castle, House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler.

In the 1960s, Price achieved further success when he appeared in a number of low-budget Roger Corman and American International Pictures films that included House of Usher (1960), which earned significant box-office receipts and led to the subsequent Edgar Allan Poe adaptations; 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 (1964). Price starred in The Last Man on Earth (1964), the first adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend.

 Indeed, he is.

“I don’t play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge.” – Vincent Price

In the late 1960’s Price began doing more television, including a stint as Egghead, a villain on the Batman television series starring Adam West. He made many guest appearances on popular TV show’s like Here’s Lucy and The Brady Bunch, where he played a deranged and memorable archaeologist.

Price appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he portrayed one of two serial killers, but he greatly reduced his film work around 1975, as horror itself suffered a slump, and he increased his narrative and voice work. He hosted the PBS show Mystery! throughout the 1980s and he even did a voiceover on the Scooby-Doo cartoon. He also hosted and starred in BBC Radio’s horror and mystery series The Price of Fear. He accepted a cameo part in the Canadian children’s television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein.

Price began appearing on the popular television game show Hollywood Squares, becoming a semi-regular in the 1970s, and he was one of the guest panelists on the finale in 1980.

In October 1976, he appeared as the featured guest in an episode on the popular The Muppet Show. In 1977, Price recorded a cover version of Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s 1962 single record The Monster Mash. Also in 1977, Price began performing as Oscar Wilde in the one-man stage play Diversions and Delights. In 1979, Price starred with his wife in the short-lived CBS series Time Express. That same year he hosted the hour-long television special America Screams, riding on several roller coasters and recounting their history. During 1979–1980, he hosted the “Mystery Night” segment of the radio series Sears Radio Theater.

“A scream is the most powerful form of expression.” – Vincent Price

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, Price provided the spoken-word sequence throughout Michael Jackson’s mega-hit single, and the most celebrated music video in history (which was actually a short film directed by John Landis), Thriller. This spooky rap narration introduced Price to a whole new generation of fans, the way he did a decade earlier with his appearances on shows like The Brady Bunch.

Eight years before the “Thriller” video, Price was featured an original, spooky mini-movie based on Alice Cooper’s 1975 debut solo album, “Welcome To My Nightmare.” Price portrayed “The Spirit of the Nightmare” in which Cooper was trapped. Cooper’s song, “The Black Widow” was a lynchpin of the production, and the track that got Price involved in the project. Price also lent his voice to another track on the album, “Devil’s Food.”

In 1996 ZZ Top released a tribute song to Price, titled “Vincent Price Blues,” which appeared on their twelfth album, Rhythmeen, and English hard rock band Deep Purple also paid tribute to Price with a 2013 single titled “Vincent Price.

Vincent Price remained busy throughout the decade of 1980’s. He hosted the PBS television series Mystery! In 1984, he appeared in Shelley Duvall’s live-action series Faerie Tale Theatre as the Mirror in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” and the narrator for “The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers.”

In 1985, he provided 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 demons.

In 1987, Price 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. His performance in The Whales of August earned the only award nomination of his career, an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male.

A lifelong fan of roller coasters, Price narrated a 1987 thirty-minute documentary on the history of roller coasters and amusement parks, including Coney Island. In the late 80s’s, he appeared in horror-themed commercials for Tilex bathroom cleanser.

Vincent Price was a consummate actor who did it all.

“Death is not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter.” – Vincent Price

Vincent Price died on October 25, 1993. The prolific actor finished long, successful career with over 200 acting credits, 37 of which are horror films. One of his last movies was Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, starring Johnny Depp, in 1990.

American director and writer John Waters composed a heartfelt and appreciative retrospective on Price, saying, “One raise of his eyebrow and you knew you were about to be thrilled by a debonair, evil, yet sympathetic villain…I can’t imagine these films without Vincent Price in them.”

At the age of nearly eighty, Price recorded the narration of the Phantom for the Phantom Manor attraction at Disneyland Paris. Although several years later, in 1992, the narration was removed and replaced with one entirely in French, Price’s infamous laughter remained on the soundtrack. In 2018, twenty-five years after Price’s death, during a major renovation, parts of the actor’s narration were restored, and the new tracks are now dual-language. Price’s original excerpts, as well as previously unused material from his 1990 recording, comprise the English-speaking portions.

Price has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television, and fans of horror and all things ghoulish should know as much about him as they do other legends in his field, from Lon Chaney to Bill Skarsgård and everyone in between.

Vincent Price’s signature look and voice continues to chill horror audiences, and that’s why he is a horror icon. Not only did he have a huge influence in genre cinema, but he also impacted the film industry as a whole, as well as the music and television industries, leaving a permanent legacy unmatched by any other actor.

“I sometimes feel that I’m impersonating the dark unconscious of the whole human race. I know this sounds sick, but I love it.” – Vincent Price

 To find out more about the legendary actor, visit the official Vincent Price website https://www.vincentprice.com