William Henry Pratt, the future actor known as Boris Karloff, was born in Camberwell, London, and brought up in Enfield.
A son of Edward John Pratt Jr, the Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Salt and Opium, Northern Division, Indian Salt Revenue Service, and his third wife, Eliza Sarah Millard.
His maternal grandmother was Eliza Julia Edwards, a sister of Anna Leonowens, whose stories about life in the royal court of Siam (now Thailand) were the basis of the musical "The King and I". Through her, Karloff could claim distant East Indian ancestry, as it seems that Eliza Edwards and her sister, Anna, were the children of a mixed-race marriage.
Karloff, however, often claimed Russian ancestry to explain his exotic looks, though his daughter Sara Karloff publicly denied any knowledge of Slavic forebears.
Orphaned in his youth, he was raised by his elder brothers and sister.
He attended Enfield Grammar School before moving to Uppingham School in Rutland, and eventually the University of London.
Karloff's first goal in life was to join the foreign service, (his brother, Sir John Henry Pratt, became a distinguished British diplomat), but instead he fell into acting.
In 1909, Karloff travelled to Canada, where he changed his name to something more in keeping with his new vocation while on his way to an acting job with the Jeanne Russell Theater Co. in Kamloops, British Columbia.
He spent years testing the waters in North America while living in smaller towns like Kamloops and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1912, while appearing in a play in Regina, Saskatchewan, Karloff volunteered to be a rescue worker following a devastating tornado. He also lived in Minot, North Dakota for a year, performing in an opera house above a hardware store.
For health reasons, he did not fight in the First World War.
Once he arrived in Hollywood, California, Karloff made many silent films, before appearing as the Monster in Frankenstein (1931), the film that made him a star. A year later, he played another iconic character, Imhotep, in The Mummy.
Karloff (who, in the wake of Frankenstein's success, was billed for a time only by his last name) was a very fine actor who played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. He gave an excellent performance in the 1934 John Ford epic The Lost Patrol.
In contrast to the characters he played on screen, Karloff was known in real life as a very kindly gentleman who gave generously especially to children's charities. Karloff was also a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was especially outspoken as regards working conditions on sets (some extremely hazardous) that actors were expected to deal with in the mid-1930s.
An enthusiastic performer, he was able to return to the Broadway stage in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a character enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Somewhat less successful was his work in the J. B. Priestley play The Linden Tree. He also appeared with Jean Arthur as Captain Hook in the play Peter Pan, and was nominated for a Tony Award for his work opposite Julie Harris in The Lark.
In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller and The Veil, the latter of which was never broadcast and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff successfully spoofed his image in the 1963 cult classic film The Terror, directed by Roger Corman, and appeared as "retired horror film actor" Byron Orlok (a lightly-disguised version of himself) in Peter Bogdanovich's critically acclaimed 1968 film Targets which was one of his final film appearances.
A son of Edward John Pratt Jr, the Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Salt and Opium, Northern Division, Indian Salt Revenue Service, and his third wife, Eliza Sarah Millard.
His maternal grandmother was Eliza Julia Edwards, a sister of Anna Leonowens, whose stories about life in the royal court of Siam (now Thailand) were the basis of the musical "The King and I". Through her, Karloff could claim distant East Indian ancestry, as it seems that Eliza Edwards and her sister, Anna, were the children of a mixed-race marriage.
Karloff, however, often claimed Russian ancestry to explain his exotic looks, though his daughter Sara Karloff publicly denied any knowledge of Slavic forebears.
Orphaned in his youth, he was raised by his elder brothers and sister.
He attended Enfield Grammar School before moving to Uppingham School in Rutland, and eventually the University of London.
Karloff's first goal in life was to join the foreign service, (his brother, Sir John Henry Pratt, became a distinguished British diplomat), but instead he fell into acting.
In 1909, Karloff travelled to Canada, where he changed his name to something more in keeping with his new vocation while on his way to an acting job with the Jeanne Russell Theater Co. in Kamloops, British Columbia.
He spent years testing the waters in North America while living in smaller towns like Kamloops and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1912, while appearing in a play in Regina, Saskatchewan, Karloff volunteered to be a rescue worker following a devastating tornado. He also lived in Minot, North Dakota for a year, performing in an opera house above a hardware store.
For health reasons, he did not fight in the First World War.
Once he arrived in Hollywood, California, Karloff made many silent films, before appearing as the Monster in Frankenstein (1931), the film that made him a star. A year later, he played another iconic character, Imhotep, in The Mummy.
Karloff (who, in the wake of Frankenstein's success, was billed for a time only by his last name) was a very fine actor who played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. He gave an excellent performance in the 1934 John Ford epic The Lost Patrol.
In contrast to the characters he played on screen, Karloff was known in real life as a very kindly gentleman who gave generously especially to children's charities. Karloff was also a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was especially outspoken as regards working conditions on sets (some extremely hazardous) that actors were expected to deal with in the mid-1930s.
An enthusiastic performer, he was able to return to the Broadway stage in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a character enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Somewhat less successful was his work in the J. B. Priestley play The Linden Tree. He also appeared with Jean Arthur as Captain Hook in the play Peter Pan, and was nominated for a Tony Award for his work opposite Julie Harris in The Lark.
In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller and The Veil, the latter of which was never broadcast and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff successfully spoofed his image in the 1963 cult classic film The Terror, directed by Roger Corman, and appeared as "retired horror film actor" Byron Orlok (a lightly-disguised version of himself) in Peter Bogdanovich's critically acclaimed 1968 film Targets which was one of his final film appearances.
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