Description
As a young British boy he was bow-legged, lisped, and stuttered. In his early 20s he left university, traveled to Canada and the US, and became a farm laborer. It was while acting in Canadian theater that William Henry Pratt (1887–1969) reinvented himself as “Boris Karloff.” After he arrived in Hollywood, the reinvention took the form of Master of the Macabre, as he found stardom in the films Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, and The Mask of Fu Manchu. He continued to dominate the horror film genre starring in The Black Cat, The Raven, and—extending the franchise—Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein.
After a lengthy career in films, on TV, radio, and records, Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one for film, and one for TV).
He is more recognizable to legions of admirers as a monster disguised in make-up. For this portrait, Drew Friedman preferred to portray Karloff as dapper, if slightly menacing, gentleman William Pratt.