A lover, and some might even say expert on art and food, a brilliant dramatic actor, and an even more brilliant character actor who chewed the scenery so well in his performances that he might as well have seasoned and sauteed them first. A man who could bring such charm to his role that even the lowest budget picture he might have worked on had an air of class to it regardless of the plot or dialog. Yes, my friends, it’s finally time – – to talk about my idol, Vincent Price.
I legitimately tried to think of one role he was lackluster in, one part Mister Price was just obviously in need of a paycheck. Even the many many advertisements he sponsored later in his life. Nothing came to mind. He was just that good. What’s more, half of his villains I couldn’t help but love. Except, of course, for the rare few he played an absolute bastard. Don’t let that fool you though, he was very good at that too.
Born in 1911 in St. Louis to a pretty well-off family, he had the good fortune to begin life with a good education, unsurprisingly getting a bachelors in history and language at Yale. This was also where he began to act, and later in life he would return to a production he likely knew very well, playing Sir Despard Murgatroyd in Ruddigore which I can’t recommend enough if you’re fond of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Expanding his education at the University of London, studying art and even more history, his acting career began. In fact, he worked with Orson Welles’s Mercurey Theatre. It wasn’t long before he moved on to Broadway, and in 1938 his film acting career began. Dragonwyck (1946) is probably one of my absolute favorite early pictures of his before he truly blossomed as a well-known horror actor in particular. His roles were so varied that it would be impossible to list them all here without turning this short tribute into a lengthy biography, but suffice it to say House of Wax (1953) really marks when the horror element of his career took off.
He did fantastic voice-work in radio, and if you ever get the chance you absolutely have to dig up some episodes of The Saint, wherein he played a sort of detective crime-fighter with a Robin Hood flair.
Vincent was also a bit of an art philanthropist, donating 2000+ works from his collection over the years to the LA College and helping create the country’s first teaching art collection. He wrote many wonderful cookbooks (one of which I’ve had my eye on for several years, A Treasury of Great Recipes). If the world had a dozen more people like Vincent Price, I can’t imagine we wouldn’t have a modern renaissance. Sadly, however, there was only one. A legend in his or anyone else’s time. All that being said, here is a wonderful tribute by LordStoneRaven.
Hallow-Holics Anonymous 