<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Boris Karloff (William Henry Pratt) (November 23, 1887 – February 2, 1969) was known as "The King of Horror." British-born Karloff sailed to Canada in 1909, where he worked at a variety of menial jobs before joining a touring theater company. After establishing himself as a popular stage villain, he arrived in Hollywood in 1917.

Numerous minor appearances in movies followed before he recreated his stage role as a killer in Howard Hawks's The Criminal Code (1931). After being spotted by James Whale in the Universal commissary, he landed the part of the Monster in Frankenstein (1931), and the rest is history.

A gentle man who enjoyed playing cricket and entertaining children, Karloff never minded being typecast as the bogeyman. A trouper to the end, he died of respiratory failure at the age of 81. He was portrayed by both Jack Betts and Amir Aboulela in Gods and Monsters (1998).

External Links

• Boris Karloff movies page at Scifans.com