Karloff, Boris (redirected from William Henry Pratt)

Karloff, Boris (kär`lôf, –lŏf), 1887–1969, Anglo-American actor, b. Dulwich, England; his original name was William Henry Pratt. A distinguished character actor with a superb speaking voice, Karloff was famous for his monster roles in Hollywood horror films, notably Frankenstein (1931). His other movies include The Ghoul (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Isle of the Dead (1945), and Targets (1968).

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Karloff, Boris

 orig. William Henry Pratt

Boris Karloff.

(credit: AP)

(born Nov. 23, 1887, London, Eng.—died Feb. 2, 1969, Midhurst, West Sussex) British-U.S. actor. He immigrated to Canada from England in 1909 and acted with touring companies before moving to Hollywood, where he played minor roles in films from 1919. His tender, sympathetic performance in Hollywood's first important monster film, James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), received so much critical praise that he became an overnight sensation. He acted in more than 100 films, specializing in horror pictures such as The Mummy (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939), and his name became synonymous with the horror genre. He returned to the stage for highly acclaimed performances on Broadway in Arsenic and Old Lace (1941) and as Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1950). His most famous television performance was in the animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966), for which he provided the voices of both the Grinch and the narrator.

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Karloff, Boris (b. William Henry Pratt) (1887–1969) actor; born in Dulwich, England. After years of touring as an actor in Canada (where he adopted his stage name) he settled in Hollywood in 1919 where he acted in silent films. His role as the monster in Frankenstein (1931) typecast him as a horror movie villain—in real life he was a gentle, refined person—and when he returned to the stage, as he occasionally did, it was also as some menacing character, such as Captain Hook in Peter Pan or the villainous brother in Arsenic and Old Lace. He also created the stereotype of the mad scientist in such movies as Isle of the Dead (1945).