Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born on May 27, 1911, in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of four children of Vincent Leonard Price, president of the National Candy Company, and his wife Marguerite Cobb Price. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented Dr. Price's Baking Powder, the first cream of tartar-based baking powder, which established the family's fortune. Price was of Welsh and English descent and was a descendant, through his paternal grandmother, of Peregrine White, the first child born in colonial Massachusetts, delivered aboard the Mayflower while anchored in Provincetown Harbor. He attended the St. Louis Country Day School and took a summer course at Milford Academy in Connecticut. In 1933 he graduated from Yale University with a degree in English and a minor in art history, having contributed to the campus humor magazine The Yale Record. After a year of teaching, he enrolled at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London to pursue a master's degree in fine arts.

The theater drew Price away from academic study. He made his professional stage debut in 1935 in Chicago at the Gate Theatre in London, and shortly afterward introduced the role of Prince Albert in Laurence Housman's Victoria Regina at the same venue. Later that year he brought the role to Broadway, appearing opposite Helen Hayes as Queen Victoria at the Broadhurst Theatre, where he played the part for two seasons through June 1937. In 1938 he worked with Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre company in productions of The Shoemaker's Holiday and Heartbreak House. From 1941 to 1942 he played Mr. Manningham in Angel Street, the Broadway staging of Gas Light, which he helped bring to New York. His Broadway career spanned from 1935 to 1978 and included productions such as Black-Eyed Susan, King Richard II, the drama Yours, A. Lincoln, the musical Darling of the Day, and Diversions and Delights.

Price made his film debut in the 1938 comedy Service de Luxe. His early screen work encompassed a range of character roles, including Joseph Smith in Brigham Young (1940), Bernadette's prosecutor Vital Dutour in The Song of Bernadette (1943), William Gibbs McAdoo in Wilson (1944), and a pretentious priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). He appeared opposite Gene Tierney in Laura (1944), directed by Otto Preminger, and reunited with Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Dragonwyck (1946). He also took on villainous roles in film noir productions including The Web (1947), The Long Night (1947), Rogues' Regiment (1948), and The Bribe (1949). Additional credits from this period include The Three Musketeers (1948) and the role of Baka in The Ten Commandments (1956). His first starring role came as con man James Reavis in The Baron of Arizona (1950), and he appeared alongside Ronald Colman in the comedy Champagne for Caesar the same year.

Price's entry into horror began with the Boris Karloff film Tower of London (1939), and he portrayed the title character in The Invisible Man Returns (1940). He became firmly established in the genre with the leading role in House of Wax (1953), the first three-dimensional film to rank in the year's top ten at the North American box office. Subsequent horror credits included The Mad Magician (1954), The Fly (1958), Return of the Fly (1959), House on Haunted Hill (1959), and The Tingler (1959). Throughout the 1960s he collaborated with director Roger Corman and American International Pictures on a series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, among them House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). He starred in The Last Man on Earth (1964), the first film adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, and portrayed witch hunter Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General (1968). Later horror work included The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Theatre of Blood (1973).

Price appeared on television as the recurring villain Egghead in the series Batman. In radio he portrayed Simon Templar in The Saint from 1947 to 1951, and performed in the drama Three Skeleton Key on Escape in 1950 and on Suspense in 1956 and 1958. He received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for his voice work in Great American Speeches (1959). He voiced the villainous Professor Ratigan in Disney's animated feature The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and provided the narration for Michael Jackson's song Thriller. His appearance in the drama The Whales of August (1987) earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male. His final film role was in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990). Over the course of his career he appeared in more than 100 films and received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television. Lifetime achievement and special tribute awards came from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films; Fantasporto; the Bram Stoker Awards; and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Beyond performance, Price held a degree in art history, lectured on the subject, and wrote books on art. He served as an arts consultant and was an active art collector. The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College bears his name. He was also a gourmet cook and cookbook author.