Vincent Price: The Life Story Behind the Horror's Elegant Star
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Vincent Price had a voice that could make a room go quiet. It was smooth, deep, and a little bit wicked, and when he spoke, audiences listened, because they knew that something interesting was about to happen. He was tall, elegant, and a little bit frightening, and he played villains, mad scientists, and haunted men with a charm that made people love him, even when he was doing terrible things on screen. He was the king of horror in the 1950s and 1960s, and he was also an art lover, a cook, a writer, and a man who believed that life should be lived with style.
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1911, to a wealthy family that made candy, and he grew up in a house full of books, art, and good food. He went to Yale, he studied art in London, he worked on the stage, and he went to Hollywood, where he became a star in Laura, and then in House of Wax, and then in a series of films based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. He played in more than a hundred films, he wrote cookbooks, he collected art, and he lent his voice to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, one of the most famous songs ever made.
The story of his life is a story of a man who loved beauty, who loved art, who loved food, and who loved to scare people, all at the same time. He was married three times, he had two children, and he died in 1993, at the age of eighty-two, in Los Angeles, after a long and full life that was rich in work, in love, and in laughter, and his voice is still there, on the screen, and on the record, for anyone who wants to hear it.
A St. Louis Boy Who Loved Art
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born on 27 May 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri. His father, Vincent Sr., was the president of a candy company, and his mother, Marguerite, was a woman who loved art and music, and the family was wealthy, and the boy grew up in a large house, with servants, with books, with paintings, and with a sense of style that stayed with him for the rest of his life. He was the youngest of four children, and he was loved, and he was encouraged to learn, to read, and to explore the world.
As a boy, he was tall, thin, and a little awkward, and he did not like sports, but he liked to read, he liked to draw, and he liked to go to museums. He went to school in St. Louis, and he did well, and he went to Yale University, where he studied English and art history, and where he discovered that he liked to act. He took part in plays at Yale, and he found that he liked being on stage, that he liked the feeling of a room turning its attention toward him, and that he was good at making people listen.
After Yale, he went to London, where he studied art at the Courtauld Institute, and where he worked on the stage, appearing in plays, and learning his craft. He was a young man with a voice, with a presence, and with a love of beauty, and he knew that he wanted to be an actor, and that he wanted to live a life that was full of art, of books, of good food, and of good conversation. He was not a boy from the streets, and he was not a boy who had known hunger, but he was a boy who knew what it meant to love something, and to work hard for it.
He came back to America, and he worked on Broadway, appearing in plays, and he built a reputation as a serious actor who could play many kinds of parts. He was tall, he was elegant, and he had a voice that made people listen, and directors loved that, because it made his characters feel important, even when they were villains. He was a working actor, and he behaved like one, showing up on time, learning his lines, and doing the work.
London, Broadway, and the Road to Hollywood
Price worked on the stage in London and in New York for many years, appearing in plays by famous writers, and working with some of the best directors of his time. He played in Victoria Regina, a play about Queen Victoria, in which he played Prince Albert, and his performance was praised for its warmth and its dignity. He was a young actor, and he was learning fast, and he was beginning to understand that acting was not only a job. It was a way of life, a way of seeing the world, and a way of telling the truth about people.
He went to Hollywood in the late 1930s, because the film business was growing fast, and because it offered more money and a larger audience than the theatre. His first films were small, and he played small parts, and he learned how to act for the camera, which was different from acting for the stage, because the camera was close, and it could see everything, every small movement, every small change in the face. He learned to be still, to be quiet, to let the camera come to him, and that stillness became one of his greatest tools.
In 1944, he played in Laura, a film noir directed by Otto Preminger and starring Gene Tierney as a beautiful woman who is thought to be dead. Price played Shelby Carpenter, a man who is charming, who is weak, and who is suspected of murder, and his performance was praised for its elegance and its sly humour. The film was a great success, and it made Price known to film audiences all over the world, and it showed that he could play a villain, or a man who might be a villain, with a charm that made audiences like him, even when they did not trust him.
He played in many other films in the 1940s, in The Song of Bernadette, in Wilson, in The Keys of the Kingdom, and in each of them he brought the same elegance, the same voice, and the same belief that a character should feel like a real person, not a type. He was not a handsome leading man in the usual sense, but he had a presence that made people watch him, and directors loved that, because it made their films feel important.
House of Wax and the King of Horror
In 1953, Price played the part that changed his career, Professor Henry Jarrod in House of Wax, a horror film directed by Andre De Toth and made in 3-D, a new technology that made audiences feel as if the film was coming out of the screen toward them. Jarrod was a sculptor who made wax figures, who was burned in a fire, and who came back to take revenge on the men who had destroyed his work, by turning them into wax figures. Price played him with a terror and a tenderness that audiences had never seen before, and the film became one of the most famous horror films ever made.
The film was a great success, and it made Price the king of horror, a title that he kept for the rest of his career. He played in The Fly in 1958, a film about a scientist who turns into a fly, and his performance was praised for its sadness, because he played a man who was slowly losing his humanity, and who knew it, and who was afraid. He played in House on Haunted Hill in 1959, a film about a haunted house, and in The Tingler in 1959, a film about a creature that lives in the spine, and in each of them he brought the same elegance, the same voice, and the same belief that horror should be fun, and that it should be played with style.
He liked horror, because it was about fear, about the unknown, about the things that we cannot see, and he understood fear, because he had studied art, and he had seen how art can make people feel, how a painting can frighten, how a story can haunt. He did not play horror as if it were silly, and he did not play it as if it were cheap. He played it as if it mattered, as if the characters were real people, with real fears, and that seriousness made his horror films feel different from many others.
He also worked in television in those years, appearing in many shows, and he became known to a new generation of viewers who had not seen his films. He liked television, because it was steady work, and because it let him play a character over many episodes, building the character slowly, in the way that a stage actor builds a part over many nights. He was a professional, and he treated television with the same respect that he treated film and theatre, because he believed that good work was good work, wherever it was done.
Poe, Corman, and the Films That Made Him a Legend
In the early 1960s, Price began to work with Roger Corman, a director who made low-budget films quickly and cheaply, and who loved the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, a famous American writer of horror. Together, they made a series of films based on Poe’s stories, including House of Usher in 1960, The Pit and the Pendulum in 1961, The Raven in 1963, and The Masque of the Red Death in 1964, and each of them was a success, and each of them made Price even more famous as the king of horror.
In House of Usher, he played Roderick Usher, a man who lives in a decaying house, who is haunted by his family, and who is slowly going mad. He played the part with a quiet, elegant madness, a madness that was frightening because it was so calm, so polite, so controlled. In The Masque of the Red Death, he played Prince Prospero, a cruel prince who tries to escape a plague by hiding in his castle, and who is destroyed by the Red Death, a figure in a red cloak. He played the part with a cruelty that was charming, and with a charm that was cruel, and audiences loved him for it.
The Poe films were made quickly, and they were made cheaply, but they were made with style, with colour, with music, and with Price’s voice, which made them feel like art, not like cheap horror. He liked working with Corman, because Corman gave him freedom, because he let him play the parts his own way, and because he understood that horror should be beautiful, as well as frightening. They made many films together, and they became friends, and their work together is still remembered today as one of the great partnerships in the history of horror.
In 1968, he played in Witchfinder General, a film made in England, in which he played Matthew Hopkins, a man who hunts witches in the time of the English Civil War. The film was dark, violent, and serious, and Price’s performance was praised for its cold, quiet cruelty, a cruelty that was more frightening than any monster, because it was the cruelty of a real man. The film is now seen as a classic, and Price’s performance in it is one of the most powerful things he ever did on screen.
Art, Cookbooks, and a Life Beyond Horror
Price was more than a horror actor. He was an art lover, and he collected art, and he wrote books about art, and he gave lectures about art, and he believed that art should be for everyone, not only for rich people. He worked with Sears, Roebuck and Company, a large American store, to sell affordable art to ordinary people, so that they could have beautiful things in their homes, and he was proud of that work, because he believed that beauty mattered, and that it should not be only for the rich.
He was also a cook, and he loved food, and he wrote cookbooks with his second wife, Mary Grant, a designer, including A Treasury of Great Recipes, a book about famous restaurants and their food. He loved to cook, he loved to eat, and he loved to talk about food, and his cookbooks were successful, because they were written with the same elegance, the same humour, and the same love of beauty that he brought to his acting. He was a man who believed that life should be lived with style, and that food, like art, like film, should be enjoyed.
He was married three times, first to Edith Barrett, an actress, with whom he had a son, Vincent Barrett Price, then to Mary Grant, with whom he had a daughter, Victoria, and then to Coral Browne, an Australian actress, who was his wife until her death in 1991. He loved his children, and he tried to be a good father, and he worked hard to give them a better life than the one he had known as a boy in St. Louis. He was a private man, and he did not talk much about his personal life in public, but those who knew him spoke of his warmth, his humour, and his kindness.
He also lent his voice to Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982, a song that became one of the most famous in the world. He spoke a short, spooky monologue at the end of the song, in his deep, elegant voice, and the monologue became famous, and it introduced him to a new generation of young people who had never seen his films. He liked the work, and he liked Michael Jackson, and he was proud of it, because it showed that his voice, like his face, could still make people listen, even when he was seventy-one years old.
The Later Years and a Quiet Goodbye
Price kept working through the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in films, in plays, and on television, and he never seemed to slow down. He played in The Abominable Dr. Phibes in 1971, a film about a man who takes revenge on the doctors who failed to save his wife, and his performance was praised for its elegance and its sadness. He played in Theatre of Blood in 1973, a film about an actor who takes revenge on the critics who ruined his career, and his performance was praised for its humour and its power. He was an old man, but he was still working, still acting, still giving everything he had to the work.
He also worked on stage, appearing in plays, and he gave lectures about art, and he wrote books, and he kept learning, kept growing, kept trying new things, even when he was old. He was a man who believed that life should be lived fully, and that an actor should never stop learning, and that the theatre, the film, the book, the kitchen, were all places where a person could learn, and grow, and be happy.
He died on 25 October 1993, in Los Angeles, of lung cancer, at the age of eighty-two. He had been ill, and he had been under treatment, and his health had failed, but he had kept working, and he had kept living, until the end. His death was mourned by actors and directors all over the world, and tributes came from people who had worked with him in every decade of his career. He had played in more than a hundred films, he had written books, he had collected art, and he had lent his voice to one of the most famous songs ever made, and yet he was remembered most of all as a kind, elegant, funny man, a man who loved beauty, and who shared that love with the world.
He also played in The Fall of the House of Usher, a film that is now seen as a classic of horror, and in The Comedy of Terrors in 1963, a film in which he played a funeral director who murders his clients, with humour, with elegance, and with a sly smile that made audiences laugh, even when they were frightened. The film starred Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff, two other famous horror actors, and Price held his own, and he made the film better, because he brought to it a life, a fire, and an honesty that the other actors did not have.
He played in The Tomb of Ligeia in 1964, the last of the Poe films he made with Corman, a film about a man who is haunted by his dead wife, and who marries again, only to find that his first wife will not let him go. Price played the part with a quiet, elegant sadness, a sadness that was frightening because it was so calm, so polite, so controlled, and the film is still watched today by people who love Poe, and who love Price.
He also appeared in Edward Scissorhands in 1990, a film directed by Tim Burton, in which he played the Inventor, a kind old man who creates Edward, a boy with scissors for hands, and who dies before he can finish him. The part was small, but it was moving, and Price played it with a warmth, a humour, and a kindness that made audiences love him, even though he was only on screen for a short time. He was seventy-nine years old, and it was one of his last films, and it introduced him to a new generation of young people who had never seen his horror films.
He also worked on stage in his later years, appearing in plays, and giving lectures about art, and writing books, and he kept learning, kept growing, kept trying new things, even when he was old, because he believed that life should be lived fully, and that an actor should never stop learning, and that the theatre, the film, the book, the kitchen, were all places where a person could learn, and grow, and be happy.
My Take:
When I think about Vincent Price, I think about a voice, and about how a voice can make a room go quiet. He was tall, elegant, and a little bit frightening, and when he spoke, audiences listened, because they knew that something interesting was about to happen. That is the part of his story that stays with me, because it is the most human part. He was not born into horror. He was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, into a house full of books and art, and he had to find his way to horror, step by step, through Yale, through London, through Broadway, and through Hollywood, and I admire that kind of journey, a journey that is not straight, but that is honest.
I think about his love of art, and about how he believed that art should be for everyone, not only for rich people. He worked with Sears to sell affordable art to ordinary people, so that they could have beautiful things in their homes, and he was proud of that work, because he believed that beauty mattered. That tells me something about his character, that he was not a snob, that he did not believe that art belonged only to the rich, and that he wanted to share what he loved with the world. That is a generous way to live, and it is a way of living that I admire.
The Poe films are the part of his career that I love the most, because they are films about fear, about madness, about death, and about beauty, all at the same time, and Price plays them with an elegance that makes horror feel like art. In House of Usher, he is a man who is slowly going mad, and he plays that madness with a quiet, polite calm that is more frightening than any shouting. In The Masque of the Red Death, he is a cruel prince who tries to escape a plague, and he plays that cruelty with a charm that makes the audience like him, even when they know he is wrong. That is great acting, to make an audience love a man who is not good, and Price does it again and again, with a smile, with a voice, with a look.
What makes me sad about his story is that so many people only remember him as a horror actor, and they forget that he was also an art lover, a cook, a writer, and a man who loved beauty in all its forms. He wrote cookbooks, he collected art, he gave lectures, and he lived a life that was rich in many ways, not only in horror. I wish more people knew that, and I wish his cookbooks and his art books were as famous as his horror films, because they show a different side of him, a side that is warm, funny, and generous, a side that loved life, and that wanted to share that love.
I also think about Thriller, and about how a man of seventy-one could lend his voice to a song by Michael Jackson, and make that song famous all over the world. He spoke a short monologue at the end of the song, in his deep, elegant voice, and the monologue became famous, and it introduced him to a new generation of young people who had never seen his films. That tells me something about his character, that he was not afraid to try new things, even when he was old, and that he was willing to work with a young singer, to learn from him, and to give his best to a song that was very different from anything he had done before. That is a brave way to live, and it is a way of living that I admire.
The marriage to Coral Browne is the part of his story that moves me the most, because it was a marriage of two actors who loved each other, who worked together, and who stayed together until her death in 1991. He was married three times, and each marriage was different, and each one taught him something, but the last one, to Coral, was a marriage of equals, of two people who understood the theatre, who understood fame, and who understood each other. I do not think their marriage was perfect, because no marriage is perfect, and I do not want to pretend that it was. But I do think it was real, and that it lasted because both of them worked at it, and because Price was the kind of man who keeps his promises.
I think about House of Wax, too, and about how a film made in 3-D, in 1953, could still frighten audiences today. Price plays a sculptor who is burned in a fire, and who comes back to take revenge, and he plays him with a terror and a tenderness that makes the audience feel sorry for him, even when he is doing terrible things. That is the hardest kind of acting, to make an audience pity a monster, and Price does it by showing the man’s pain, his love for his work, and his need for revenge. That is a great performance, and it is a performance that deserves to be remembered.
If I have a criticism, it is not really a criticism of Price himself. It is a sadness that the film world did not give him more leading roles outside horror, and that he was so often cast as the villain, the mad scientist, the haunted man, the outsider. He could have played many other kinds of men, and I think he would have been wonderful in them, but the industry saw his face, and his voice, and put him in a box. He made the box work for him, and he turned it into a long career, but I still wonder what he might have done if he had been given a wider range of parts. That is a question I cannot answer, and it is a question that makes me a little sad.
For a young reader, I think the lesson of Price’s life is about style, and about the courage to be yourself. He was a man who loved art, who loved food, who loved horror, and who did not pretend to be something he was not. He was elegant, he was funny, he was a little bit frightening, and he let the world see him, and the world loved him for it. That is a simple lesson, but it is a powerful one, and it is a lesson that applies to any life, not only to the life of an actor. Be yourself, love what you love, and share it with the world.
I also think about his age, and about what it means to work until you are eighty-two, and to keep learning, kept growing, kept trying new things, even when you are old. Most people retire at sixty-five, and they spend their last years resting. Price kept working, not because he needed the money, but because he loved the work, and because the work kept him alive. I think there is a lesson in that, too. Work that you love is not a burden. It is a gift, and it can keep you young, even when your body is old. He was eighty-two when he died, and he had lived a full life, and that is a wonderful thing to think about.
When I compare Price with other actors of his generation, what stands out is the elegance of his life. He had the stage, he had the films, he had the art, he had the cookbooks, he had the marriage, he had the children, and he had the long, steady career that so many actors dream of but so few achieve. He did not burn out young, and he did not fade away in sadness. He worked, he loved, he laughed, and he kept going until the end. That is a full life, and it is a life worth learning from.
In the end, I think Vincent Price teaches us that horror can be beautiful, and that a villain can be charming, and that a man who scares people can also be a kind, generous, funny man, who loves art, who loves food, and who loves life. That is a wonderful lesson, and it is a lesson that we still need today. I am glad that he lived to be eighty-two, I am glad that he worked for so long, and I am glad that we still have his films to watch, and his voice to hear, because in those films, he is still alive, still speaking, still smiling, and still showing us what a great actor can do.
One more thought stays with me, and it is about the boy in St. Louis who loved art. That boy could not have known that he would one day be the king of horror, or that he would write cookbooks, or that he would lend his voice to Thriller, or that he would die at eighty-two, after a long and full life. He only knew that he liked art, and that he liked to act, and that he was willing to work hard to learn how. He followed that feeling, step by step, for more than eighty years, and it led him to a life that was rich, full, and full of work that mattered. If a young person reads this story and feels that they love something strange, or something frightening, or something beautiful, I hope they think of Vincent Price, and I hope they remember that loving what you love, and sharing it with the world, is a good way to live.
I also think about Edward Scissorhands, and about how a man of seventy-nine could play a kind old inventor, and make audiences love him, in only a few minutes on screen. Price played the Inventor with a warmth that was real, with a humour that was gentle, and with a sadness that made the film better, because the Inventor is a man who creates something beautiful, and who dies before he can finish it, and that is a sad story, and a true story, about what it means to be an artist, to make something, and to leave it unfinished. I think Price understood that story, because he was an artist himself, and he had made many things, and he knew that not everything can be finished.
There is another part of his life that I find moving, and it is the way he collected art, and the way he believed that art should be for everyone. He did not collect art to show off, or to make money, but because he loved it, because it made him happy, and because he wanted other people to be happy, too. He worked with Sears to sell affordable art, so that ordinary people could have beautiful things in their homes, and that is a generous thing to do, and it is a thing that deserves to be remembered, because it shows that he was not a snob, and that he believed in sharing what he loved.
I think about his cookbooks again, and about how he loved food, and how he wrote about it with the same elegance that he brought to his acting. He loved to cook, he loved to eat, and he loved to talk about food, and his cookbooks were successful, because they were written by a man who loved life, and who wanted to share that love. That is a wonderful thing, to love life, and to share it, and Price did it, in his films, in his books, in his lectures, and in his kitchen, and I admire him for it.
Finally, I want to remember him as a man who was elegant, who was funny, who was a little bit frightening, and who was kind, all at the same time, and who lived a long and full life, and who died at eighty-two, after giving the world a hundred films, several books, and a voice that is still famous today. He was a boy from St. Louis, he became the king of horror, he wrote cookbooks, he collected art, and he lent his voice to Thriller, and that is a life worth remembering, and I am glad that we still have his films to watch, because in those films, he is still alive, still speaking, and still showing us what a great actor can do.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Vincent Price best known for?
Vincent Price is best known as the king of horror in the 1950s and 1960s, especially for House of Wax from 1953, The Fly from 1958, and the Edgar Allan Poe films he made with Roger Corman, including House of Usher and The Masque of the Red Death. He was also known for his elegant voice, which he lent to Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982.
Did Vincent Price write cookbooks?
Yes, he wrote cookbooks with his second wife, Mary Grant, including A Treasury of Great Recipes, a book about famous restaurants and their food. He loved to cook and to eat, and his cookbooks were successful because they were written with the same elegance and humour he brought to his acting.
What was Vincent Price’s role in Thriller?
He spoke a short, spooky monologue at the end of Michael Jackson’s song Thriller, released in 1982, in his deep, elegant voice. The monologue became famous, and it introduced Price to a new generation of young people who had never seen his horror films.
How many films did Vincent Price make?
He appeared in more than a hundred films in his career, which lasted from the late 1930s until the 1990s. His best-known films include Laura from 1944, House of Wax, The Fly, the Poe films, Witchfinder General, and The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
Was Vincent Price an art collector?
Yes, he was a serious art lover and collector, and he worked to make art affordable for ordinary people, including through a programme with Sears, Roebuck and Company. He wrote books about art, gave lectures, and believed that beauty should be for everyone, not only for rich people.
How old was Vincent Price when he died?
Vincent Price died on 25 October 1993 in Los Angeles of lung cancer, at the age of eighty-two. He had worked as an actor for more than fifty years, on stage, in films, and on television, and he was still working in his later years.
