The Legend that is... Vincent Price (1911 - 1993)
- ibetyoudidnt
- May 11
- 5 min read
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. graced our screens, big and small, radios and theatre stages for 60 years.
His iconic voice, his wonderful expressions and his range of films made him a legend of the screen for horror, villainy and campy ghoulishness.
Born in Missouri in 1911, Price came from a wealthy family. His grandfather made the family fortune through the culinary industry, and his father was the President of the National Candy Company. Price continued the family love of food by being a gourmet chef and a wine-connoisseur.
I shall look for the answer tonight at the bottom of a large rum and coke!
His acting career started on the stage in 1938. It was short-lived, eight roles in 10 years before moving on, and he would return to the stage for just four roles after 1942.
But we know Vincent Price for his movies. 1938's Service de Luxe graced us with his screen presence for the first time. Unlike a lot of actors, Price was a lead from the beginning. But it wasn't until 1944's Laura that we see him lay the foundations for his legacy. There had been a couple of horror films in the preceding six years, but mostly dramas of some description. Laura paved the way for history. This was followed up 1946's Shock.
But Price wasn't one for typecasting. He starred in dramas, film noir, musicals and comedies throughout his career. Notably, The Long Night (1947), Up in Central Park and Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein (both 1948) before he became known for his horror roles, and Percy's Progress (1974), I Go Pogo (1980) and The Great Mouse Detective (1986).
It was the prime of his career, 1950's onwards, that Vincent Price became a face associated with the horror genre. More often than not as the villain, but there were a few times where he was a good natured friend trying to help, such as in The Fly (1958) and The Return of the Fly (1959). However, most critics would say it was William Castle's House on Haunted Hill (1959) that launched Price's legacy. Playing an eccentric and vengeful billionaire, Price is elegantly scary, sinister and diabolical. While dated, the film is still a masterclass in how horror doesn't need to be all blood, guts and gore.
Sometimes I feel like I am impersonating the dark unconscious of the whole human race.
The 1960's saw Price team up with Roger Corman for a series of eight adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe works. The House of Usher (1960) showcased how Price relished in low budget era of film. The likes of The Raven and The Haunted Palace (both 1963) just elevated how Price loved what he did. His lead as Nicholas Medina in The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) was, in my opinion, his best of the series. Many of these films will be reviewed by I Bet You Didn't See over the coming year.
His lead in Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and 1966's Dr Goldfoot and the Girl, Bombs brought him back into proper comedy, and as the decade ended he started to move away from horror, although never leaving it fully in the 1970's. His 28 films in the 1960's eclipsed his 15 made in the 1970's, including the deliciously vile The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) and Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972).
All through his career, Price dipped in and out of various genres, but his many side interests kept him busy and able to pick what he wanted to do. By the 1980's (his was in his 70's at this point) he was enjoying lending his voice to various animated ventures and other mediums of entertainment. He tells a story in this very funny interview with Michael Parkinson about his work with Michael Jackson on Thriller among other stories, such as scaring cinema goers at the end of House of Wax (1953).
His final film appearance was in Edward Scissorhands (1990) just three years before he died, and in 1993 an unfinished project The Thief and the Cobbler he had leant his voice to in the 1960's was released. His work throughout film was so renowned, there was probably no actor of that era that hadn't worked with him. His headlining position in the 1983 film House of the Long Shadows, alongside his great friend Christopher Lee, the great Peter Cushing and the American icon John Carradine just shows what an incredible actor and performer he was.
Amazingly, however, Vincent Price starred in 110 films, of which only 25 were horror films.
On television he was just as popular and busy. He was Dr Egghead opposite Adam West's Batman in 1966 and '67 and would regularly appear as a guest star in numerous top shows of the time. My first experience of Vincent Price was as Vincent Van Ghoul in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo (1985). I was watching that much later (late 1990's) but it was still something I looked forward to seeing because of the character's charisma. It wasn't until much later that I understood just how amazing an actor needs to be to draw that sort of appeal through a cartoon!
A man who limits his interests, limits his life.
Price was many things aside of an actor. He was
educated as a fine art historian and was an avid collector. He was also a gourmet chef, releasing four cookbooks, three with his second wife Mary Grant and appeared on several cooking TV shows. Since his death, he has been spoofed and referred to countless times. He was a man who would turn into the skid, as it were, and he thoroughly enjoyed making fun of himself. He threw himself into his Muppet's episode, getting bitten by Kermit. Funnily enough, though, he never played a vampire on film. Only on TV!
Vincent Price was always said to be a very nice man, very genuine and supportive. He was a supporter and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. He denounced racial and religious prejudice publicly on radio in 1950 and stood by those beliefs all his life.
He was married three times. Firstly to Edith Barrett from 1938 to 1948 and they had a son, the poet and activist Vincent Barrett Price, in 1940. Vincent then married Mary Grant in 1949, who help with much of his cookery ventures. Their daughter, Victoria Price, was born in 1962 and it was through her that he showed his active and public support for the LGBTQ+ community. Grant and Price divorced in 1973, and in 1974 Price married Coral Browne, and they would remain married until her death in 1991.
The most unusual and amusing thing about Mr Price that I found out in my research for this piece was his lifelong love of roller coasters. America Screams was a 1980 documentary about roller coasters that he presented and he would ride them up until he physically wasn't able to. There is something about the King of Horror on a roller coaster in sheer delight that makes him all the more wonderful in my eyes.
It's as much fun to scare as to be scared...
Vincent Price passed away on October 25th 1993. He was 82 years young. He had won more Lifetime Achievement awards than he did awards for individual roles or films, but he is still a bigger name than almost all of the Academy Award winners. It just goes to show how you don't need awards to be loved.
Long may he reign in history, and haunt our screens most deviously.
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