Boris Karloff, the great icon of horror cinema

Boris Karloff is considered, alongside Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price, one of the greatest icons of horror cinema, and is universally recognized as Frankenstein's monster from Mary Shelley's classic novel.

He was born under the name Henry Pratt on November 23, 1887, in London, England, and studied at the University of London with the idea of pursuing a diplomatic career. However, in 1909 he emigrated to Canada, where he joined a theater company in Ontario and adopted the stage name Boris Karloff. With the company, he toured throughout the United States for more than 10 years, performing a wide variety of low-budget theatrical acts, before finally arriving in Hollywood. To earn extra money, Karloff took occasional roles and worked as a truck driver, which allowed him to keep looking for parts within the fledgling silent film industry.

His moment came in 1931, when he tested for the role of “the monster” in Universal's film Frankenstein, directed by one of the studio's few contracted auteurs, James Whale. In the credits, Karloff appeared only as “?”. The film became a commercial success, and Karloff rose quickly in Hollywood, playing sinister characters in films such as The Old Dark House (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), The Mummy (1932), and The Ghoul (1933). He returned to the role of the monster when he filmed Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939).

Karloff went on to appear in a large number of films that didn't compare to his early work, including some films with Abbott and Costello. He also worked on a few television shows, and it wasn't until the 1960s that his career had a small resurgence when he appeared in The Raven (1963), The Terror (1963), Black Sabbath (1963), and Die, Monster, Die! (1965).

His last major appearance was as an aging horror star in Peter Bogdanovich's film Targets (1968). After that, he fell into films and television series of little significance (he even shot three low-budget films in Mexico).

He died on February 2, 1969, of pulmonary emphysema; his funeral and cremation were carried out according to Hindu tradition in England.

With information from www.karloff.com The official Boris Karloff website (abre en nueva pestaña) and imdb.com (abre en nueva pestaña)