Boris
Karloff
Boris Karloff
(WilliamHenry Pratt) attended Merchant Taylors’ from
1899 to1901. After struggling as a labourer in Canada, he began to act in
travelling theatre before eventually breaking into Hollywood and gaining
global recognition as the monster in Frankenstein in 1933. He acted in
over 170 films, performed on Broadway where he was nominated for a
Tony award and won a Grammy as the voice of The Grinch. He was also one of the
founding members of the Screen Actors’ Guild. His daughter,
Sara Karloff
, who now
runs the Boris Karloff Foundation, is interviewed below
Concordia
Merchant Taylors’ School
Your father’s family were mostly
members of the diplomatic service.
What motivated him to take a
different path?
My father, WilliamHenry Pratt (Billy), a.k.a.
Boris Karloff, was the youngest of nine
children, seven brothers and one sister. His
closest in age brother was seven years older
than he was. His father was in the Consular
Service and served in India. All of the Pratt
boys, including my father, were trained for
the Consular Service and all but my father
served in it, either in India or China. My
father’s oldest brother, John, was knighted
for his service in China and my father often
referred to him as “My brother, The Sir.”
Although schooled for “the family
business”, my father wanted no part of
it. His passion was the theatre. Having
taken every opportunity to see every play
he could as a young man growing up
in England, once he reached the age of
21, he left home with £100 in his pocket
and boarded a ship to British Columbia
determined to become AN ACTOR,
despite the fact he had not set foot on a
stage since the age of seven!
He spent 10 years learning his craft with
three different repertory theatre groups,
sometimes getting paid, sometimes not.
He dug ditches, worked at the B.C railway,
the B.C. Electric Co., he drove a truck, he
did whatever it took to sustain himself
between theatre jobs. But he learned his
craft and fortunately was a quick student.
These theatre groups would do three or
four plays a week and travel around the
country night after night. Not an easy life.
But he was AN ACTOR!
Eventually, my father made his way
down to Hollywood and auditioned for
everything and anything that came along.
He was an extra...the third from the left
in the fourth row...as he told it. Finally he
began to get bit parts, a move up from
“extra” parts. These were often speaking
roles, small but “showy”.
Stardom came with the release
of Frankenstein. What was the
experience like for him?
After 20 years in the business and at age
44, he got his break! James Whale spotted
him in the studio commissary and asked
him to test for the role of the Monster in
the upcoming film, Frankenstein. Bela
Lugosi had already turned the role down.
My father was delighted to be offered
any role. After two weeks of working with
makeup genius Jack Pierce, the makeup
was completed and ready for the film test.
The rest is cinema history! My father was
an overnight star. Frankenstein was his
81st film and hardly anyone had seen his
first 80 films!
However, no one expected this film to
be the huge success it was, nor did anyone
expect the Monster to be the star of the
film. My father was not even invited to the
Première! He was not even mentioned in
the front running credits of the film. There
was a “?” opposite the Monster in the
credit line.
The physical effects of the costume
were significant. Did he feel it was
worth the sacrifice?
This stardom, however, did not come
without cost. The wardrobe and boots
weighed over 70 pounds and my father
had to carry Colin Clive (Dr. Frankenstein)
up the back lot hill of the studio several
times before “the shot” was just right. It
took a terrible toll on my father’s already
bad back. He was already very slender,
having spent years as a starving actor, but
he lost 25 pounds during the making of
Frankenstein.
The makeup alone took nearly four
hours each morning to put on and over
three hours each night to take off and that
was in addition to 12-14 hour shooting
