Boris Karloff (The Man Behind the Monster)

When I made my Bela Lugosi video a couple months ago, I found it wild that I’ve made about 80 videos on my channel now and I’m still only beginning to get to some of the most major players. I love that when I make these videos, I really form connections with these people. Every video takes weeks to research, it takes hours to film, it takes hours to edit. By the time that I’m done, I really feel like I know them inside and out. I’ve had that with my relatives, like Carl, Junior, or Rosabell. Also, with people like Bela, the police chief Laura Oakley, or scream queen Sarah Schwartz.

All of that to say, I was so excited to make this video about the man who stars in two of my favorite Universal movies. There are so many reasons to adore him. If you weren’t a fan of his, I hope this video makes you one. Today, we are talking about Boris Karloff. Boris Karloff was born William Henry Pratt on November 23, 1887 in Surrey, England. He was the youngest of 9 children to Edward John Pratt Jr. and Eliza Sarah Millard. His mother died when he was still fairly young. According to his daughter Sara, he didn’t really have a warm or cuddly childhood.

Boris Karloff was born William Henry Pratt on November 23, 1887 in Surrey, England.

Boris was bitten by the acting bug pretty early and he was born to play scary roles. His first part came at just 9 years old when he played the Demon King in Cinderella. His family pressured him to follow in their footsteps in Government Service. So, he enrolled in Kings College, but in 1909, at the age of 22, he dropped out and moved across the ocean to Canada. He spent some time as a farmer, which I loved learning because just one decade earlier my Uncle Carl had done the very same thing when he immigrated. I have to wonder if they ever traded stories or talked about that shared history once they were working together at Universal.

About a year later in British Columbia, Boris exaggerated his acting experience and got a job with a repertory theater company. This is also around the time that he changed his name from William Henry Pratt to Boris Karloff. Though the origin of the name is a bit of a mystery. Karloff probably came from a relative on his moms’ side, but Boris might have just come out of thin air.

Boris’ theater company hit some hard times and they disbanded. A day later Boris survived a deadly cyclone that tore its way through Saskatchewan. Broke and jobless, he worked on cleanup crews making 20 cents an hour, until he joined another troupe called the Harry St. Clair players. He also may have gotten married during this time, but we don’t know for sure. We think that Boris was married 5 times, but there aren’t reliable records.

Universal paired Boris Karloff up for a couple movies with Bela Lugosi, including The Black Cat, The Raven, and the Invisible Ray.

Boris moved to the United States to continue acting, and ultimately wound up in Los Angeles. It’s pretty cool to see that Boris Karloff was not an overnight success. In fact, even once he got to LA, it was still well over a decade before he made it big. In the 19-teens he did a lot of extra work and bit parts, until the 1920s would bring about the next stage in his career.

Boris Karloff had some East Indian heritage, and an ethnic look that might have prevented him from getting more significant roles. In his early days, he would take any role he could get, which tended to be characters who were Native American, Hindu, Arab, and even the occasional cowboy. He was very much a starving artist and barely able to put a meal on the table, though he did manage to get married two more times in the 1920s. Acting was his passion, and he was willing to give up anything to chase his dream. Finally, in the summer of 1931 at the age of 44, Boris Karloff got his big break in Frankenstein.

Bela Lugosi, who had just starred in Dracula, was the first choice to play the monster, but he turned down the role because he didn’t like the lack of dialogue or the heavy makeup that he would be caked in. James Whale signed on as director and saw Boris Karloff appearing in a film called The Criminal Code. Seeing the interesting possibilities in Karloff’s face, James Whale offered him the role, and Boris Karloff’s life was forever changed.

Boris leaned into his type casting of horror roles.

‌The release of Frankenstein was full of excitement. Carl Laemmle parked ambulances outside the theaters and nurses in the lobby, claiming that audience members might need them when they were so frightened. He filmed an extra intro with Edward van Sloan, warning the audience members that it was their last chance to bail if they were scared. To add to the mystery, they billed Boris Karloff only as a Question Mark and not by name. Semi-related, shockingly, Boris Karloff was not invited to the premiere, he wasn’t big enough yet.

Despite the heavy makeup piled on his face, Boris Karloff became a recognized star following the release of Frankenstein. He was in high demand, and Universal was excited to capitalize on the opportunity. They paired him up for a couple movies with Bela Lugosi, including The Black Cat, The Raven, and the Invisible Ray. Where Bela tried really hard to escape typecasting, Boris leaned into it. In his mind, his job was to make audiences happy and if horror roles did it then he was happy to do them.

So much that I learn about Boris Karloff speaks to his kindness, warmth, and his strong sense of right and wrong. I have to imagine that he and my Uncle Carl got along well because of this. I know that he had a good experience shooting Frankenstein - he called the monster the best friend he ever had - but the shoot was also quite grueling. Every single day Boris had to be in the makeup chair with Jack Pierce at 4am for 4 hours. He removed a dental bridge to enhance the asymmetry in his face, his costume weighed almost 50 pounds, and he had to carry Colin Clive up that hill so many times it left him with debilitating back issues.

Boris and his wife Evelyn married in 1946.

Apparently, it was one 25-hour shoot that really put Boris over the edge, and he started organizing with fellow actors. It was important to him not only to protect himself, but also future actors. In 1933, Boris Karloff became one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild. ‌‌After my family left Universal, and the production code was enforced, horror films were put on hold a couple years, which allowed Boris Karloff to experience success in other genres. He performed on Broadway and in film for the next two decades. He did a couple of horror reprisals, and a slew of commercials.

A lot of the new roles that he took on began endearing him to children. This included Captain Hook in a Broadway production of Peter Pan, as well as a children’s story hour on radio and TV. One of my favorite roles that he did was How the Grinch Stole Christmas where he did the narrator and the voice of the Grinch! How special that one of our favorite scary movie icons is also one of our favorite holiday movie icons. ‌

Outside of the industry, Boris was intensely private about his personal life. He loved gardening. He had a beautiful home on Bowmont Drive in Beverly Hills, where he had flower beds and an orchard with lemons, limes, grapefruit, and avocado. He had a ton of dogs and some turkeys, and even a pig and a cow at one point. It was in his fourth marriage to Dorothy, that he had his one and only daughter, Sara Jane Karloff. She has spent much of her life preserving and promoting her father’s legacy. In his later years, Boris Karloff retired to England, to a cottage called Roundabout. He was plagued with health issues his last 10 years really, he had emphysema and arthritis, and passed away from pneumonia on February 2, 1969 at the age of 81.

Boris’ one and only daughter, Sara Jane, has spent much of her life preserving and promoting her father’s legacy.

What I love learning about Karloff is that no one ever had a bad thing to say about him. Despite his private nature, he was still really professional, friendly, and kind. It must have been hard sometimes to balance that with the dark roles that he was playing. Also to remain likable while doing something as controversial as starting a union. Boris Karloff is one of those central figures at Universal that I already know and love, but I still have so many of his movies to left see. What are your favorite Boris Karloff movies?