Vincent Price made a career out of frightening people, becoming one of Hollywood’s most successful horror stars. But the off-screen Vincent was very different from the characters he often portrayed on film. In real life, Vincent was a gourmet cook, a writer, a devoted art lover, and a thoughtful, caring man with a wonderful sense of humor.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 27, 1911, Vincent developed an appreciation for fine art at a young age. After graduation from high school, he fulfilled a life-long dream to tour Europe, later studying art history and fine art at Yale. During the 1930s, Vincent became interested in theater, and he made his first stage appearance in 1935. Perhaps his most important role was in Victoria Regina. The play was a success in London, and was brought to New York as a result, where Vincent again played the starring role, this time opposite Helen Hayes.

Realizing that he wanted to pursue acting as a full-time career, Vincent moved to Hollywood, where he made his film debut opposite Constance Bennett in Service de Luxe (1938). Throughout the next several years, he continued to appear in minor roles, as a contract player at Twentieth Century Fox studios. In 1939, Vincent was given his first role in a horror movie, portraying a character murdered by Boris Karloff’s character in Tower of London. His success in the movie provided him with the title role in The Invisible Man Returns, the following year.

In 1938, Vincent married for the first time, to actress Edith Barrett. The marriage lasted ten years, and produced Vincent’s only son, Vincent Barrett Price.

Throughout the 1940s, Vincent continued to gain attention through his roles in several film noirs, including Laura (1944), opposite Gene Tierney, Leave Her to Heaven (1946), again with Tierney in the title role, The Long Night (1947), and The Bribe, co-starring Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, and Charles Laughton.

In 1949, Vincent married his second wife, Mary Grant. Vincent’s daughter, Victoria Price was born to the couple in 1962. They divorced in 1973.

During the 1950s, Vincent was finally able to achieve the status of successful movie star, when he was given the opportunity to star in several horror films. House of Wax (1953) was the first 3-D film to land in the top ten of the North American Box Office for the year. With The Fly (1958), Vincent continued to grow in popularity.

In 1959, Price was given one of his best roles, as eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren in The House on Haunted Hill. Throughout the 1960s, he starred in a number of low-budget horrors, with great success, including one of his most popular movies, The Last Man on Earth.

In 1960, Vincent teamed up with director Roger Corman for a series of classic adaptations of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The series started with House of Usher (1960), and was followed by, The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Tower of London (1962), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Raven (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Tomb of Ligeia (1965).

In 1962, Vincent starred in a hilarious spoof of horror movies, The Comedy of Terrors. The film also starred Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, and fellow horror legend Boris Karloff. Vincent’s skill at comedy was undeniable, and he starred in several comedies during the 1960s, most notably Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), and Darling of the Day (1968).

From 1962 to 1971, Sears, Roebuck sold the Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art, selling about 50, 000 pieces of fine art to the general public. Because of his lifelong devotion to fine art, Vincent was chosen to commission works for the collection. He was also a talented gourmet cook, who wrote several cookbooks, and even hosted a TV show called Cooking Pricewise.

One of Vincent’s favorite roles came when he played Egghead on the popular Batman TV show. He was also a popular guest on the game show, The Hollywood Squares.

During the 1970s, Vincent continued to work steadily. He hosted a radio show, The Price of Fear, for BBC radio, and made several dramatic readings of works by Edgar Allan Poe. Although his film career slowed during this period, he made appearances in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Theatre of Blood (1973). He also recorded a voiceover for Alice Cooper’s first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, and made guest appearances in several popular TV shows, including Here’s Lucy (starring Lucille Ball) and The Brady Bunch.

In 1974, Vincent married for the final time, to Coral Browne. The union lasted until Coral’s death in 1991.

In 1982, Vincent was introduced to a whole new generation of fans when he recorded a menacing “rap” for the title track of Michael Jackson’s classic album Thriller. He teamed up with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine to make The House of Long Shadows in 1983. In 1986, he played one of his last important roles, as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective. His role in the movie was a personal favorite.

From 1981 until 1989, Vincent hosted the PBS television series Mystery! He also appeared in commercials for Tilex™ bathroom cleanser, spoofing his horror star image. In 1989, he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

A lifelong smoker, Vincent eventually succumbed to lung cancer on October 25, 1993. The disease had forced his role in his final film, Edward Scissorhands (1990) to be dramatically reduced.

Despite his fame as a horror star, perhaps it is his roles in several comic films that most closely resemble the real Vincent Price, for those who knew him best remember him as a considerate, kind man with a brilliant sense of humor. Movie star, writer, gourmet cook, and art collector—Vincent Price remains one of Hollywood’s most talented and beloved legends.

Birth Name: Vincent Leonard Price, Jr.
Nicknames: King of the Grand Guignol, Bink, Merchant of Menace, Renaissance Man
Birth Date: May 27, 1911
Star Sign: Gemini
Birth Place: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Death Date: October 25, 1993
Death Place: Los Angeles, California, USA
Cause of Death: Lung cancer and emphysema
Burial: Ashes scattered off the California coast of Malibu, together with his favorite gardening hat.
Height: 6 ft. 4 in. (ca. 193 cm)
Hair Color: Light Brown
Eye Color: Blue
High Schools: Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, St. Louis
University: Yale University & University of London
Parents: Margeurite Cobb and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr.



Siblings: James Mortimer, Lauralouise, and Harriet
Marriages and Children:

* Edith Barrett (1938-1948, divorced), son Vincent Barrett Price III

 

* Mary Grant (1949-1973, divorced) daughter, Victoria Price

 

* Coral Browne (1974-1991, her death)




Essential Movies:

House of Long Shadows (1983)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)
The Last Man On Earth (1964)
The Comedy of Terrors (1964)
The Raven (1963)
Tales of Terror (1962)
Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
House of Usher (1960)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
House of Wax (1953)
Laura (1944)




His Stars at the Walk of Fame can be found at:

6201 Hollywood Blvd. (motion pictures)
6501 Hollywood Blvd. (television)

Vincent’s alma mater, St. Louis Country Day School, has a black box theater named after him.


Vincent was well-known for being very superstitious. He often joked that he had a crucifix, a mezuzah, and a horseshoe on his front door.


In 1951, Vincent donated over 90 items of original artwork to the East Lose Angeles College, in Monterey Park, California. The Vincent Price Art Gallery, as it came to be called, remains today, and is one of his most enduring legends. It currently contains over 2,000 pieces, and is valued at over five million dollars.


Vincent was an enthusiastic gourmet chef, and wrote several cookbooks.


Vincent had his own mail-order book club in the 1970s, called “Vincent Price Books”, specializing in mystery and detective novels.


Vincent was an ardent fan of Shakespeare, and considered Theater of Blood (1973) one of his favorite roles, as a result.


Vincent once revealed that when he and Peter Lorre were viewing Bela Lugosi’s body at Lugosi’s funeral, Lorre quipped, “Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart, just in case?”


Both Vincent’s parents were Republicans, and he voted for Wendell Willkie in the 1940 Presidential election. But his political views changed, and he later became an active Democrat.


In 1955, during an appearance on the game show “The $64, 000 Question”, Vincent won $32, 000.


Vincent often attended showings of his movies in full costume, frequently playing pranks on movie goers.

"I would like to be remembered by something I strongly believe in—that there is a great difference between earning a living, and knowing how to live. I think an awful lot of people earn a living to put it in their bellies. It should be put in your head. When you get to old age, it is the experience of life that is really the only thing that sustains you. The thing that sustains me is what I’ve learned about how to live."

***

"Art is the furniture of the eye and the mind."

***

"I don't play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge."

***

"We exponents of horror do much better than those method actors. We make the unbelievable believable. More often than not, they make the believable unbelievable."

***

"[Tim Burton's Vincent (1982)] was immortality - better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard."

***

"A lot of the recent actresses look and act like my niece. Now, she's a good girl, but I wouldn't pay to see her."

***

"A man who limits his interests limits his life."

***

"I think that art, and the appreciation of art, is curiosity about life and the capacity for wonder. This expression… really sums up my entire philosophy of life… the capacity for wonder."

***

""Gothic" is just a word recalling a multitude of sins!"

***

"Doing a religious picture is a boring thing because everybody is on their best behavior - hoping for the keys to the kingdom, I guess."

***

"Someone called actors "sculptors in snow". Very apt. In the end, it's all nothing."

***

"The wonderful thing about Hawaii is, there, it doesn't take any words at all to say "I love you." You can say it with a pineapple and a twenty."

***

"What's important about an actor is his acting, not his life."

***

"So you want to know what frightens me. The other night someone rang me up from the States at one o'clock in the morning. Now, I have to get up at six when I'm filming, so I wasn't very pleased. 'Do you ever get nightmares after seeing one of those horror scenes?' he asked me. 'Yes I do,' I said. 'I have these nightmares all the time that some silly son-of-a-bitch is going to phone me up in the middle of the night. That really frightens me!"

***

"I hate being old and ill! Don't get old if you can avoid it!"

***

"I sometimes feel that I'm impersonating the dark unconscious of the whole human race. I know this sounds sick, but I love it."

***

Vincent had great style as a person… He was just a warm and generous man."

***

"He had a wicked sense of humor. He was absolutely delightful. I loved him"

***

"I don’t think I have met anyone quite as interesting as my father."

***

"Vincent was so funny. I told him every time I saw him, ‘You missed your calling. You should have been a comedian. You are just the funniest man I ever met.’ He just cracked me up all the time."

***

"Hell of a nice guy. Enchanting fellow; couldn't have been nicer. I loved working with Vincent."

***

"He’s a perfectly wonderful, terrible man. Everybody adores him. He has the most marvelous sense of humor in the world. He seems so grand, and he’s just a naughty boy!"

***

"I think a lot of people have fond memories of just sitting around, scaring themselves watching Vincent Price movies. But I think the reason those movies worked was because always underneath that, you saw this man that was having fun. And he really had fun with his life. It was a life well lived."

***

"I asked Vinnie if he ever planned to direct a film. He agreed that his stature could lose him interesting parts, but directors of films didn't seem to him to have a very good time and he liked to enjoy himself."

***

"He had a line that went something like this: “Actors are lucky. Most people work hard to earn money so they can play. Actors get paid for playing.” That last sounds dull. I guess, I didn't listen carefully enough. When Vinnie expressed the same 'content', it wasn't dull, it was amusing. On the whole, actors in Hollywood behaved in a fairly expected way. Vincent Price was definitely an exception and a most valuable one."

***

"I remember that he was a big one for jokes. He was a laughing man; he had a lot of mischief and humor in him, always. And he had a good, self deprecating sense of humor... He was one of the most charming, and one of the funniest men, that I met... "

***

"Vincent had such a sense of humor. He was so funny. He would say the darnedest things to keep everything happy on the set. .... The warmth of Vincent's personality is what I think of most often. I think he was the nicest man I ever worked with. He was it."

***

"I thought Vincent was an excellent actor; he was terribly polished. And he looked very good."

***

"Vincent was very warm; he wasn't aloof or standoffish. He could laugh. He wasn't full of self-importance. I think everybody, had affection for Vincent."

***

"He had such authority and strength on screen. He was a wonderful villain...."

***

"He certainly was an extremely professional person. He was also great fun. Charming...."

***

"He dressed in rather cultivated and rather studied way, I always thought. He had the air of somebody who- he was extremely literate, he had a marvelous education- and it showed. One was always awed by Vincent, one always felt, my gosh, here was a man one could listen to, and give pause."

***

"Vinnie, Vinnie, Vinnie! He was absolutely crazy. He had great, sharp humor, and he was laughing all the time; but in pictures, they always made him so stiff. He just had lots of fun."

***

"He had great charm. He was totally free of any affectation at all, really, personally. He was a very caring person.... He was versatile and demonstrated it."

***

"Vincent was a good actor. I had great respect for him, and great admiration for his abilities, which were considerable, there's no question of that."

***

"I enjoyed working with Vincent Price. He was very respectful, and I found that unusual. I knew that I wasn't known, and yet he was very respectful of me and kindly - he didn't have to be. He was professional, and I appreciated that. I remember that just before the scene where he kills me with the knife, he was tickling me and I was laughing, and I couldn’t stop laughing after that!"

***

"Vincent was a presence."

***

"I liked Vincent best as a heavy. He had a sinister quality which he could portray which was quite marvelous and penetrating."

***

"He was a sexy man; he had an aura about him, a sensuality."

***

"Aside from having the most eloquent voice on earth, he has enormous personal charm and charisma. I d working with Vincent Price; he made everything seem easy. He is such a superb actor, and extraordinarily generous... but I must say, for all of his intensity in the film, off-screen he had a wickedly witty sense of humor. He kept us laughing."

***

"He could modify lines, improvise to a certain extent, come up with bits of business on his own. He was a great gentleman. He was one of the finest actors I've ever worked with."

***

"Instead of pouring out about all the films he'd done, like many actors, Vincent never talked once about himself. He only talked about African art and parts in Africa he'd been to. Amazing; it was a revelation. I was staggered. That's the kind of person he was."

***

"First place, physically he was a dominating man. He also had a dominating voice. He also played all kinds of roles. Vincent really had everything; he could play anything."

***

"One of the greatest things that Vincent Price—really a…sweet man, very, very smart—ever told me was :'Buy art.' That's a good piece of advice that I'll treasure forever."

***