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Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, known to film audiences for his work in the horror genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television.[1]

Key Information

Price's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements in film

After varied stage work, including a stint with the Mercury Theatre, Price's first film role was as a leading man in the 1938 comedy Service de Luxe. He became a character actor, appearing in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Laura (1944), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Dragonwyck (1946), The Three Musketeers (1948) and The Ten Commandments (1956). He established himself in the horror genre with roles in House of Wax (1953), The Fly (1958), House on Haunted Hill (1959), Return of the Fly (1959), The Tingler (1959), The Last Man on Earth (1964), Witchfinder General (1968), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Theatre of Blood (1973). He collaborated with Roger Corman on a series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, including House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Haunted Palace (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964). Price appeared in the television series Batman as Egghead.

Price voiced the villainous Professor Ratigan in Disney's animated film The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and appeared in the drama The Whales of August (1987), which earned him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male nomination. Price's final film was Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990). For his contributions to cinema, he received lifetime achievement or special tribute awards from Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films; Fantasporto; Bram Stoker Awards; and Los Angeles Film Critics Association.[citation needed] Price narrated animated films, radio dramas, and documentaries, and provided the narration in Michael Jackson's song "Thriller". For his voice work in Great American Speeches (1959), Price was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

Price was an art collector and arts consultant, with a degree in art history. He lectured and wrote books on art. The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is named in his honor.[2] Price was a gourmet cook and cookbook author.[3]

Early life and education

[edit]

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born on May 27, 1911, in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of the four children of Vincent Leonard Price, president of the National Candy Company,[4] and his wife Marguerite Cobb (née Wilcox) Price.[2] His grandfather was Vincent Clarence Price, who invented "Dr. Price's Baking Powder", the first cream of tartar-based baking powder, and it secured the family's fortune.[5] Price was of Welsh[6] and English descent and was a descendant, via his paternal grandmother, of Peregrine White, the first child born in colonial Massachusetts, being born on the Mayflower while it was in Provincetown Harbor in Massachusetts.[7]

Price attended the St. Louis Country Day School, and took a summer course[8] at Milford Academy in Milford, Connecticut.[9] In 1933, he graduated with a degree in English and a minor in art history from Yale University,[8] where he worked on the campus humor magazine The Yale Record.[10] After teaching for a year, he entered The Courtauld Institute of Art in London, intending to study for a master's degree in fine arts.[11][12]

Instead he was drawn to the theater, first appearing on stage professionally in 1935 in the play Chicago at the Gate Theatre in London.[13] Next he introduced the role of Prince Albert in Laurence Housman's play Victoria Regina, also at the Gate Theatre in 1935.[13] Later that year he moved to New York City to reprise the role of Prince Albert in the Broadway production of Victoria Regina, opposite Helen Hayes in the title role of Queen Victoria.[13][14] He played the role for two seasons at the Broadhurst Theatre, through June 1937. In 1938 he appeared in productions of The Shoemaker's Holiday and Heartbreak House with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre company. From 1941 to 1942, Price played Mr. Manningham in Angel Street, the Broadway production of Gas Light, which he helped bring to New York.[15][16][17]

Career

[edit]

Early film roles

[edit]
Price as Mr. Manningham in the play Angel Street (1941–1942)

Price started out in films as a character actor. He made his film debut in Service de Luxe (1938), and established himself in the film Laura (1944), opposite Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger.[18] He played Joseph Smith in the movie Brigham Young (1940) and William Gibbs McAdoo in Wilson (1944), as well as Bernadette's prosecutor, Vital Dutour, in The Song of Bernadette (1943), and as a pretentious priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944).

Price's first venture into the horror genre, for which he later became widely known, was in the Boris Karloff film Tower of London (1939). The following year, Price portrayed the title character in The Invisible Man Returns (a role he reprised in a voice-only cameo in the closing scene of the horror-comedy spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein released in 1948).[19] He reunited with Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Dragonwyck (1946). He also had many villainous roles in film noir thrillers such as The Web (1947), The Long Night (1947), Rogues' Regiment (1948), and The Bribe (1949), with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, and Charles Laughton.

Price's first starring role was as con man James Reavis in the biographical film The Baron of Arizona (1950). He did a comedic turn as the tycoon Burnbridge Waters, co-starring with Ronald Colman in Champagne for Caesar (also 1950), one of his favorite film roles.[20]

1950s

[edit]
House on Haunted Hill (1959) by William Castle

Price was active in radio, portraying the Robin Hood-inspired crime-fighter Simon Templar in The Saint, which ran from 1947 to 1951. In the 1950s, Price moved into more regular horror-film roles with the leading role in House of Wax (1953) as a homicidal sculptor,[21] the first three-dimensional film to land in the year's top 10 at the North American box-office. His next roles were The Mad Magician (1954), the monster movie The Fly (1958), and its sequel Return of the Fly (1959). That same year, Price starred in two thrillers by producer-director William Castle: House on Haunted Hill as eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren, and The Tingler as Dr. Warren Chapin, who discovered the titular creature. He appeared in the radio drama Three Skeleton Key, the story of an island lighthouse besieged by an army of rats. He had first performed the work in 1950 on Escape and returned to it in 1956 and 1958 for Suspense.[22]

Outside the horror realm, Price played Baka in The Ten Commandments, released in 1956. About this time, he also appeared in episodes of television shows such as Science Fiction Theatre, Playhouse 90, and General Electric Theater. In the 1955–56 television season, he was cast three times on the religion anthology series Crossroads. In the 1955 episode "Cleanup", Price portrayed the Reverend Robert Russell. In 1956, he was cast as Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas in "The Rebel", and as the Rev. Alfred W. Price in "God's Healing".

1960s

[edit]

In the 1960s, Price achieved a number of low-budget filmmaking successes with Roger Corman[23] and American International Pictures (AIP) starting with the House of Usher (1960), which earned over $2 million at the box office in the United States[24] and led to the subsequent Edgar Allan Poe adaptations of The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964),[23] and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964).[25] He starred in The Last Man on Earth (1964), the first adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend, and later starred as Felix Manderville in House of 1,000 Dolls (1967), which has been described as "quite possibly the sleaziest movie AIP ever made". A year later, Price portrayed witch hunter Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General, (US: The Conqueror Worm, 1968) set during the English Civil War.[26] Price also starred in comedy films such as Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and its sequel Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966). In 1968, he played the part of an eccentric artist in the musical Darling of the Day, opposite Patricia Routledge.[27]

In the 1960s, Price began his role as a guest on the television game show Hollywood Squares, becoming a semi-regular in the 1970s, including being one of the guest panelists on the finale in 1980.[28]

Price made many guest-star appearances in television shows during the decade, including The Red Skelton Show, Daniel Boone, F Troop, Get Smart, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He had a recurring role in the Batman TV series as the villain Egghead from 1966 to 1967. In 1964, he provided the narration for the Tombstone Historama in Tombstone, Arizona, which was still in operation as of 2016.[29] He also starred as the host of the Australian TV series If These Walls Could Speak, in which a short history of an historical building (supposedly narrated by the building itself) was covered, and as the narrating voice of the building.

1970s

[edit]

During the early 1970s, Price hosted and starred in BBC Radio's horror and mystery series The Price of Fear. He accepted a cameo part in the Canadian children's television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (1971) in Hamilton, Ontario, on the local television station CHCH-TV, filming all of his 400 segments over the course of only a few days.[30] In addition to the opening and closing monologs, his role in the show was to recite poems about various characters, sometimes wearing a cloak or other costumes.[31] He appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he portrayed one of two serial killers. That same year, he appeared as himself in Mooch Goes to Hollywood, a film written by Jim Backus.

Price was an admirer of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 1975 visited the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, where he had his picture taken with the museum's popular stuffed raven.[32] Price also recorded dramatic readings of Poe's short stories and poems, which were collected together with readings by Basil Rathbone.

In 1975, Price and his wife Coral Browne appeared together in an international stage adaptation of Ardèle, which played in the U.S. and in London at the Queen's Theatre. During this run, Browne and Price starred together in the BBC Radio play Night of the Wolf first airing in 1975.[33] Price greatly reduced his film work from around 1975, as horror itself suffered a slump, and he increased his narrative and voice work, as well as advertising Milton Bradley's Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture.[34]

Price provided a monolog for the Alice Cooper song "The Black Widow" on the Welcome to My Nightmare album in 1975, and he appeared in the corresponding TV special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare. He starred for a year in the early 1970s in the syndicated daily radio program Tales of the Unexplained. He made guest appearances in a 1970 episode of Here's Lucy, showcasing his art expertise, and in a 1972 episode of ABC's The Brady Bunch, in which he played a deranged archaeologist. In October 1976, he appeared as the featured guest in an episode of The Muppet Show. In 1977, Price recorded a cover version of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's 1962 Single record The Monster Mash produced by UK record producers Ken Burgess and Bob Newby and released in the UK by EMI Records.

Also in 1977, Price began performing as Oscar Wilde in the one-man stage play Diversions and Delights, written by John Gay and directed by Joe Hardy, and set in a Parisian theater on a night about one year before Wilde's death. The original tour of the play was a success in every city except for New York City. In the summer of 1979, Price performed the role of Wilde at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado, on the same stage from which Wilde had spoken to miners about art some 96 years before. He eventually performed the play worldwide.[5] Victoria Price stated in her biography of her father that several members of Price's family and friends thought that this was his best acting performance.[5]

In 1979, Price starred with his wife in the short-lived CBS series Time Express. That same year he hosted the hour-long television special America Screams, riding on several roller coasters and recounting their history.[35] During 1979–1980, he hosted the "Mystery Night" segment of the radio series Sears Radio Theater.

Later career

[edit]
Price on the red carpet at the 1989 Academy Awards

In 1982, Price provided the narrator's voice in Vincent, Tim Burton's six-minute film about a young boy who flashes from reality into a fantasy where he is Vincent Price.[36] That same year, Price provided the spoken-word sequence throughout the Michael Jackson song "Thriller",[37] and appeared as Sir Despard Murgatroyd in a television production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore (with Keith Michell as Robin Oakapple). In 1983, he played the Sinister Man in the British spoof horror film Bloodbath at the House of Death. He appeared in House of the Long Shadows with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine; he had worked with each of those actors at least once in previous decades, but this was the first time that all had teamed up. One of his last major roles, and one of his favorites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective in 1986.[38]

From 1981 to 1989, Price hosted the PBS television series Mystery! In 1985, he provided voice talent on the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as the mysterious "Vincent Van Ghoul", who aided Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and the gang in recapturing thirteen demons. He was a lifelong fan of roller coasters, and he narrated a 1987 thirty-minute documentary on the history of roller coasters and amusement parks, including Coney Island. During this time (1985–1989), he appeared in horror-themed commercials for Tilex bathroom cleanser.

In 1984, Price appeared in Shelley Duvall's live-action series Faerie Tale Theatre as the Mirror in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and the narrator for "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers". In 1987, he starred with Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, and Ann Sothern in The Whales of August, a story of two sisters living in Maine facing the end of their days. His performance in The Whales of August earned an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male.[39]

In 1989, Price was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[40] His last significant film work was as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990).[41]

In 1990, Price recorded the narration of the Phantom for the Phantom Manor attraction at Disneyland Paris. However, shortly after the ride opened in 1992, the narration was removed and replaced with one entirely in French, performed by Gérard Chevalier. Only Price's infamous laughter remained on the soundtrack. In 2018, during a major renovation, it was announced that parts of Price's narration would be restored. Since the 2019 reopening, the new tracks are dual-language; Price's original excerpts as well as previously unused material from his 1990 recording comprise the English-speaking portions, while actor Bernard Alane voices the Phantom in French.

Art

[edit]

Price, who studied art history at Yale, was an art lover and collector. He was a commissioner of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board.[42]

In 1957, impressed by the spirit of the students and the community's need for the opportunity to experience original artworks firsthand, Vincent and Mary Grant Price donated 90 pieces from their private collection and a large amount of money to establish the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California,[43] which was the first "teaching art collection" owned by a community college in the United States. They ultimately donated some 2,000 pieces; the collection contains over 9,000 pieces and has been valued in excess of $5 million.[44]

Price also spent time working as an art consultant for Sears, Roebuck and Co.[20] From 1962 to 1971, Sears offered the "Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art", selling about 50,000 fine-art prints to the general public. Works that Price selected or commissioned for the collection included some by Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí.[45][46] Public access to fine art was important to Price, who, according to his daughter Victoria, saw the Sears deal as an "opportunity to put his populist beliefs into practice, to bring art to the American public." In the 1960s, portraits of Native Americans painted by Charles Bird King were secured for Jacqueline Kennedy's White House restoration. Through the efforts of Vincent Price, these five paintings were paid for and donated to the White House Collection by Sears.[47]

Price amassed his own extensive collection of art, and in 2008, a painting bought for $25 by a couple from Dallas was identified as a piece from Price's collection. Painted by leading Australian modernist Grace Cossington Smith, it was given a modern valuation of AU$45,000.[48]

Cooking

[edit]

Price was a gourmet cook, and he authored several cookbooks with his second wife, Mary. These include:

  • A Treasury of Great Recipes (1965)
  • Mary and Vincent Price present a National Treasury of Cookery (1967)
  • Mary and Vincent Price's Come into the Kitchen Cook Book: A Collector's Treasury of America's Great Recipes (1969)
  • Cooking Price-Wise with Vincent Price (1971)

Mary and Vincent Price present a National Treasury of Cookery was a five-volume series, packaged in a boxed set and published by the Heirloom Publishing Company. These five books were combined into a single book two years later and published as Mary and Vincent Price's Come into the Kitchen Cook Book: A Collector's Treasury of America's Great Recipes. Most of the Prices' cookbooks remained in print throughout the 1970s. After being out of print for several decades, two of their books were reprinted; A Treasury of Great Recipes (in August 2015 by Calla Editions) and Mary and Vincent Price's Come into the Kitchen Cook Book (in November 2016 by Calla Editions), both featuring new forewords by their daughter Victoria Price. Cooking Price-Wise with Vincent Price was scheduled to be reprinted by Dover Publishing in October 2017 under the updated title Cooking Price-Wise – The Original Foodie.

The movie His Kind of Woman has a comedic scene in which Price, having invited Jane Russell and Robert Mitchum to dinner, receives bad news. He plays the entire scene holding a duck in his hand, ready to be cooked "soaked in sherry with only salt, sage, and pepper."

In 1971, Price hosted his own cooking program on British television, called Cooking Price-Wise produced for the ITV network by Thames Television, which was broadcast in April and May 1971. This show gave its name to Price's fourth and final cookbook later that year. Price promoted his cookbooks on many talk shows, one of the most famous instances being the November 21, 1975, broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, when he demonstrated how to poach a fish in a dishwasher.

Price recorded a number of audio cooking tutorials titled International Cooking Course. These were titled Bounty of Paradise, Classical Spanish Cuisine, Cuisina Italiana, Delights from the Sultan's Pantry, Dinner at the Casbah, Dining at Versailles, Exotic Delights from the Far East, Food of the Gods, Foods from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, La Cocina Mejicana, The Bard's Board, and The Wok. In addition to those, he recorded an audio wine course titled Wine Is Elegance. These audio recordings were released on 33⅓ LPs by Nelson Industries in 1977 and were also packaged in a 12-cassette boxed set titled Beverly Hills Cookbook – Cookbook of the Rich and Famous, Your Host Mr. Vincent Price.[49]

In August 1982, he co-hosted A Taste of China for Thames Television over five episodes. He also prepared a fish recipe on Wolfgang Puck's Cooking with Wolfgang Puck VHS, released in October 1987 by Warner Home Video.

Personal life

[edit]

Price married three times. His first marriage was in 1938 to former actress Edith Barrett; they had one son, poet and columnist Vincent Barrett Price. Edith and Price divorced in 1948. Price married Mary Grant in 1949, and they had a daughter, inspirational speaker Victoria Price, on April 27, 1962,[50] naming her after Price's first major success in the play Victoria Regina.[51] The marriage lasted until 1973. He married Australian actress Coral Browne in 1974; she had appeared as one of his victims in Theatre of Blood (1973). The marriage lasted until her death in 1991.[52]

Victoria Price's biography Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography (1999) details Price's early antisemitism[53] and initial admiration for Adolf Hitler. According to his daughter: "When he went to Germany and Austria as a young man, he was struck by a lot of things going on during the Weimar Republic and the dissolution of the empire... So when Hitler came into power, instead of seeing him as a dangerous force, he was sort of swept up in this whole idea that Hitler was going to bring German pride back."[54] However, Price became a liberal after becoming friends with New York intellectuals such as Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman in the 1930s,[54] so much so that he was "greylisted" under McCarthyism in the 1950s for having been a prewar "premature anti-Nazi" [citation needed]. After being unable to find work for a year, he agreed to requests by the FBI that he sign a "secret oath" to save his career.[55][56] Victoria said that her father became so liberal that "one of my brother's earliest memories is when Franklin Roosevelt's death was announced, my father fell backward off the sofa sobbing."[54]

Price denounced racial and religious prejudice as a form of poison at the end of an episode of The Saint,[57] which aired on NBC Radio on July 30, 1950,[58] claiming that Americans must fight against it because such prejudices within the United States fuel support for the nation's enemies.[59] He was later appointed to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board under the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration; he called the appointment "kind of a surprise, since I am a Democrat".[60]

Price was supportive of his daughter Victoria when she came out as a lesbian and joined PFLAG as an honorary board member. He was critical of Anita Bryant's anti-gay rights campaign in the 1970s. Price was also one of the first celebrities to film a public service announcement to help allay public fears about HIV/AIDS.[61][62][63][64] In an interview in 2015, Victoria said that her father confided in her his intimate relationships with men when she came out to him as a lesbian.[63][64]

Illness and death

[edit]
A view of Nicholas Canyon Beach from South Beach

Price suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and Parkinson's disease. His symptoms were especially severe during the filming of Edward Scissorhands, requiring his filming schedule to be shortened. His illness also contributed to his retirement from Mystery! in 1989.

Price died at age 82 of lung cancer on October 25, 1993, at his home in Los Angeles, California.[2] His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered off Nicholas Canyon Beach, near Point Dume in Malibu.[65][66]

Legacy

[edit]

The A&E Network aired an episode of Biography the night following Price's death, highlighting his horror-film career, but because of its failure to clear copyrights, the show was never aired again. Four years later, A&E produced its updated episode, titled Vincent Price: The Versatile Villain, which aired on October 12, 1997. The script was by Lucy Chase Williams, author of The Complete Films of Vincent Price.[67] In early 1991, Tim Burton was developing a personal documentary with the working title Conversations with Vincent, in which interviews with Price were shot at the Vincent Price Gallery, but the project was never completed and was eventually shelved.[68]

Price was an honorary board member and strong supporter of the Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum in Bristol, Connecticut, until his death in 1993. The museum features detailed life-sized wax replicas of characters from some of Price's films, including The Fly, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and The Masque of the Red Death.[69] A black-box theater at Price's alma mater, Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, is named after him.

"Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice" was a muppet who hosted "Mysterious Theater" on Sesame Street, spoofing Price's hosting of Mystery! Price was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons ("Sunday, Cruddy Sunday"). Price had his own Spitting Image puppet, who was always trying to be "sinister" and lure people into his ghoulish traps, only for his victims to point out all the obvious flaws. Rhythmeen, the ZZ Top album from 1996, includes a track named "Vincent Price Blues".

Starting in November 2005, featured cast member Bill Hader of the NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live has played Price in a recurring sketch in which Price hosts botched holiday specials filled with celebrities of the 1950s/'60s. Other cast members who played Price on SNL include Dan Aykroyd and Michael McKean (who played Price when he hosted a season-10 episode and again when he was hired as a cast member for the 1994–95 season).

In 1999, a frank and detailed biography of Price written by his daughter, Victoria, was published by St. Martin's Press. In late May 2011, an event was held by the organization Cinema St. Louis to celebrate what would have been Price's 100th birthday. It included a public event with Victoria at the Missouri History Museum and a showcase of ephemeral and historic items at the gallery inside the Sheldon Concert Hall.[70][71]

In an unusual convergence of widely different generational and cultural backgrounds, the genteel Price was a friend of the English hard rock band Deep Purple and in 1975, he appeared on Roger Glover's live version of The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast as a narrator.[72] Decades later, in 2013, Deep Purple released "Vincent Price", a single the band members dedicated to him.[72] That same year, American director and writer John Waters composed a "heartfelt and appreciative" retrospective on Price for Turner Classic Movies, which recognized the actor as its "Star of the Month" in October 2013 and showcased then a selection of his most popular films.[73] The tribute was repeatedly broadcast on TCM to promote and complement those televised presentations. In sharing with viewers his feelings about Price, Waters at one point describes the actor's screen appeal, especially when he was featured in darker roles:

One raise of his eyebrow and you knew you were about to be thrilled by a debonair, evil, yet sympathetic villain...I can't imagine these films without Vincent Price in them. He was just a fine actor, never pretentious. The audiences that went to see him were all-inclusive, from the poorest people to the richest. Nobody disliked him. Vincent Price was classless, even though he was classy, an exaggerated gentleman. He gave upscale a good name, and he was always handsome, dignified, charming, and a little bit sinister.[73]

Filmography

[edit]
Main article: List of Vincent Price works

Bibliography

[edit]

Audio books

[edit]
  • Price, Vincent (1974). A Graveyard Of Ghost Tales. Caedmon Records (TC 1420) (LP record (57 minutes)).

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Vincent Price

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from Grokipedia
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art collector, and author recognized for his distinctive baritone voice and elegant depictions of antagonists in horror cinema. Born in , , to a prosperous family tied to the baking industry, Price pursued education in art history and English at before advancing his studies in fine arts at the University of London and the Courtauld Institute. His theatrical career commenced on the London stage in 1935, followed by Broadway appearances, transitioning to film in 1938 with roles in dramas such as Laura (1944). Price achieved prominence in the horror genre through collaborations with director William Castle and American International Pictures, embodying suave yet sinister characters in films including House of Wax (1953), where he portrayed a deranged sculptor, and The Fly (1958), featuring his narration of the transformation sequence. He starred in Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, such as House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), and The Raven (1963), which highlighted his theatrical flair and vocal prowess, solidifying his status as a horror icon. Beyond acting, Price curated affordable art programs for Sears Roebuck in the 1960s and donated ninety artworks from his personal collection in 1957 to East Los Angeles College, establishing what became the Vincent Price Art Museum, the first teaching collection at a community college. In his later years, Price lent his voice to animations like Professor Ratigan in (1986) and the inventor in (1990), his final film role, while also authoring cookbooks and hosting television programs that showcased his interests in and . He succumbed to in at age 82, leaving a legacy encompassing over 100 films, extensive stage and radio work, and advocacy for accessible arts education.

Early Life and Education

Family Background and Childhood

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born on May 27, 1911, in , , the youngest of four children to Vincent Leonard Price Sr., president of the National Candy Company, and Marguerite Cobb Wilcox. The family's wealth stemmed from the candy manufacturing enterprise founded by Price's grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, a and homeopath who expanded operations amid economic challenges in the late , establishing a prosperous legacy in . This affluence afforded the Prices a comfortable residence in the city's affluent areas, including near Washington University, reflecting the stability of Midwestern business elites. Raised in a household shaped by traditional conservative values common to early 20th-century society, Price's parents exemplified Republican-leaning perspectives influenced by their social and economic circles. The era's Midwestern cultural norms, marked by emphasis on family enterprise, private education, and social hierarchies—including latent racial and class-based prejudices amid segregation—formed the backdrop of his formative years, though Price would later publicly advocate against such divisions in his adult life. Family dynamics prioritized discipline and cultural refinement, with exposure to through parental interests, as evidenced by later donations to the in memory of his parents. Price's early personal traits emerged in this environment without formal performance training, including a budding affinity for noted from childhood, alongside informal inclinations during family gatherings that echoed local traditions. Private schooling reinforced a structured upbringing, nurturing traits of and that aligned with the family's refined yet insular . These influences cultivated a foundation of and expressiveness, distinct from the era's prevailing materialistic pursuits, setting the stage for his independent explorations beyond familial expectations.

Formal Education and Early Influences

Price attended St. Louis Country Day School, completing his secondary education there before pursuing higher studies. Following this, he enrolled at in 1929, where he majored in English with a minor in , graduating in 1933. His coursework emphasized the history of European art, including classical influences and the works of Old Masters, laying the groundwork for his enduring interest in and . After graduation, Price traveled to for postgraduate studies, enrolling at the to pursue a fine arts degree and engaging in direct examination of art and architecture across the continent. These experiences, involving on-site observation of historical sites and collections, cultivated his preference for tangible, empirical engagement with cultural artifacts over detached theoretical analysis, shaping the informed connoisseurship that characterized his public persona. During these European sojourns, encounters with theater productions abroad redirected his ambitions toward performance, prompting him to forgo conventional career paths in favor of artistic expression rooted in the dramatic traditions he observed. This shift was informed by the interdisciplinary synthesis of his art historical training and live theatrical immersion, fostering a multifaceted cultural .

Professional Career

Stage and Theater Beginnings

Vincent Price's professional acting career commenced on stage in 1935, following his studies at and travels in , where he developed an interest in theater. His debut included appearances with Orson Welles's , contributing to his early exposure in live performance settings that emphasized classical diction and poised delivery. That same year, Price transitioned to Broadway with his breakthrough role as Prince Albert opposite in Laurence Housman's Victoria Regina, which premiered on December 26, 1935, at the . The production, a biographical drama spanning Queen Victoria's life, showcased Price's suitability for period roles through his physical resemblance to the historical figure and his gentle, refined stage manner, as noted by contemporary reviewers. The play enjoyed a successful run, returning for additional performances and totaling 314 showings by its close in June 1936, providing Price with critical experience in sustained ensemble work amid the vibrant pre-World War II New York theater scene. By 1938, Price further demonstrated versatility in George Bernard Shaw's , portraying Hector Hushabye in the Mercury Theatre's Broadway revival directed by at the Mercury Theatre. This , set against the backdrop of impending global conflict, highlighted Price's ability to blend dramatic intensity with comedic nuance, building on the vocal command and physical presence refined in earlier roles. The production's association with Welles's innovative company offered rigorous training in ensemble dynamics and , fostering the adaptability that later proved essential for transitioning to film while underscoring the financial precarity of stage work, which often relied on short runs and limited salaries despite artistic acclaim.

Entry into Film and Early Roles

Price signed with and made his screen debut in the 1938 romantic comedy Service de Luxe, directed by Rowland V. Lee, where he portrayed inventor Robert Wade, a client of a high-society service agency who develops a romantic interest in the agency's manager. The film, released on October 14, 1938, highlighted Price's poised, aristocratic demeanor in a non-horror setting, though it underperformed commercially, leading Universal to terminate his contract shortly thereafter. In 1940, Price transitioned to 20th Century Fox under a new contract, securing his first role with the studio as Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, in the historical drama Brigham Young: Frontiersman, directed by Henry Hathaway and released on August 30, 1940. This supporting part emphasized his ability to convey earnest conviction in biographical contexts, distinct from the sinister personas that would later define his career. Price continued in supporting capacities at Fox during the early 1940s, demonstrating dramatic range in roles such as the atheistic Imperial Prosecutor Vital Dutour in The Song of Bernadette (1943), a portrayal of skepticism toward religious visions that culminates in personal reckoning with illness, and William Gibbs McAdoo, son-in-law and Treasury Secretary under Woodrow Wilson, in the Technicolor biopic Wilson (1944). These films, produced amid World War II, aligned with studio priorities for patriotic and historical narratives, with Price's refined delivery suiting ensemble casts focused on American heritage rather than individual stardom. Amid wartime constraints, Price supplemented his film work with radio broadcasts, appearing in suspense dramas on programs like that entertained and bolstered public morale through serialized storytelling. His early cinema efforts yielded reliable but secondary visibility, underscoring the pragmatic navigation of Hollywood's competitive landscape before specialization in .

Rise in Horror and Genre Films (1940s–1960s)

Price's transition into horror gained momentum in the 1940s with roles that capitalized on his resonant voice and imposing presence, such as Geoffrey Radcliffe in The Invisible Man Returns (1940), where he portrayed a man wrongly accused who gains invisibility to seek justice. This Universal Pictures production marked an early foray into the genre, blending suspense with supernatural elements amid the studio's monster revival post-World War II. By the late 1940s, he appeared as the mad scientist Dr. Herman von Frankenstein in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), injecting aristocratic menace into the comedy-horror hybrid that grossed over $3 million domestically, demonstrating his versatility in blending terror with humor. The 1950s solidified Price's genre stature through standalone horrors that exploited low-budget innovations and his signature baritone narration. In House of Wax (1953), he played Professor Henry Jarrod, a sculptor preserving victims in wax, with the film's 3D technology and drawing audiences to over $4.3 million in U.S. rentals, revitalizing ' horror output. The Fly (1958) featured him as brother to the disfigured scientist, emphasizing tragic in a narrative of scientific hubris that earned critical acclaim for its effects and Price's restrained menace. House on Haunted Hill (1959), directed by , showcased Price as eccentric host Frederick Loren in a haunted mansion challenge offering $10,000 for survival, employing gimmicks like the skeleton-on-a-wire "Emergo" to boost its $1 million-plus on a modest budget, with Price's calm, inviting delivery heightening the eerie tension. Price's partnership with Roger Corman from 1960 onward produced eight Edgar Allan Poe-inspired films for American International Pictures, elevating him to horror icon status through gothic atmospheres and campy villainy tempered by elegant restraint. The Fall of the House of Usher (1960), budgeted at $270,000, grossed over $2 million in the U.S., launching the cycle with Price as the decaying Roderick Usher, whose portrayal merged psychological decay with visual opulence. Subsequent entries like The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) saw him as the tormented Spanish nobleman, blending sadistic flair with vulnerability; critics noted his ability to convey "menacing yet elegant" aristocracy, contributing to the series' profitability amid 1960s drive-in demand for colorful, quick-turnaround genre fare. The cycle's success—spanning Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964)—stemmed from AIP's exploitation model targeting youth markets, where Price's refined menace contrasted lurid sets, though it entrenched typecasting that confined him largely to horror, limiting broader dramatic opportunities despite his theatrical background. This era's market-driven shift from Price's earlier varied roles reflected studios' post-1950s emphasis on genre profitability over prestige, with his embrace of the niche fostering cult longevity but drawing critiques for pigeonholing a versatile performer.

Television, Voice Work, and Later Projects (1970s–1990s)

In the 1970s, Price made frequent guest appearances as a celebrity panelist on the daytime game show , participating in episodes alongside hosts Peter Marshall and regulars like , where his dry wit and horror-themed quips entertained audiences. He also hosted eerie introduction segments on the Canadian children's television series (1971), reading poems by William Cook that blended whimsy with humor, contributing to the show's . Transitioning into voice work during the , Price provided narration and character voices for animated projects, capitalizing on his resonant . He voiced the celebrity warlock Vincent Van Ghoul in the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985), appearing in all 13 episodes to guide the protagonists in capturing escaped phantoms. Similarly, he lent his voice to the cunning antagonist Professor Ratigan in Disney's (1986), delivering a performance that drew on his theatrical flair for villainy. A landmark narration came in 1982 when Price recorded the spoken-word introduction for track, improvising lines over four hours to create an ominous rap that enhanced the song's horror theme; the parent album achieved unprecedented commercial success, certified 33 times platinum in the United States by the RIAA for 33 million units sold. This collaboration exemplified Price's ability to infuse with gothic atmosphere, broadening his appeal beyond . Price's later projects included poignant roles that highlighted his enduring screen presence despite declining health. In Tim Burton's (1990), he portrayed the reclusive Inventor, a sympathetic creator figure who narrates the film's framing story, marking one of his final on-screen appearances and a fitting that evoked his earlier mad-scientist archetypes. While some observers critiqued his proliferation in campy television spots as potential overexposure that veered into , Price's vocal versatility and selective engagements sustained his cultural relevance, effectively linking classic horror tropes to contemporary media and .

Artistic Pursuits

Art Collecting and Curation

Vincent Price amassed a personal collection of artworks informed by his training in at and the Courtauld Institute, focusing on pieces that demonstrated strong aesthetic form and emotional resonance independent of prevailing fashions. In 1943, alongside his then-wife , he co-founded the Little Gallery in , to display and sell selected contemporary and historical works, marking an early foray into curation as a means of direct public engagement. From the early 1950s, Price donated portions of his holdings to , initiating a teaching collection; in 1957, he and his wife contributed ninety specific objects, formally establishing the Vincent and Mary Grant Price Art Gallery on campus. These gifts, which grew cumulatively to comprise about three-fourths of the gallery's roughly 1,500 pieces by 1990—with an appraised value surpassing $5 million—prioritized pedagogical utility, enabling students to study originals in prints, drawings, and sculptures rather than relying solely on reproductions. In 1962, , Roebuck and Company appointed Price to curate its "Vincent Price Collection of ," a commercial line featuring thousands of affordable lithographs, etchings, and reproductions of masters including Picasso, , Chagall, and Whistler, distributed via catalogs and retail outlets until 1971. This program sold over 50,000 items, with Price personally selecting acquisitions to emphasize accessible quality over rarity, thereby challenging art-world barriers by integrating curation with mass-market economics. Price's selections across personal and commercial efforts stemmed from a conviction that visual art's value lay in its direct perceptual effects on observers—rooted in compositional and human response—rather than speculative pricing or validation, as he articulated in promoting reproductions' in " and satisfying a need" for broad cultural participation.

Advocacy and Institutional Contributions

Vincent Price served on the of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for several decades, contributing to efforts aimed at expanding public access to through institutional programming and policy advocacy. He also held positions on related bodies, including the UCLA Art Council from approximately 1953 to 1969 and the White House Commission on Fine Arts, where he promoted initiatives to integrate art appreciation into broader educational and cultural frameworks. In 1959, Price published I Like What I Know: A Visual , a work blending personal anecdotes with commentary on his acquisitions to illustrate principles of aesthetic and encourage wider public engagement with . The , released by Doubleday, detailed his evolving tastes up to age 48 and served as an accessible primer on discerning quality in visual works, reflecting his belief in 's democratizing potential without reliance on elite gatekeeping. Price's most notable push for arts accessibility came through his curation of the Vincent Price Collection of for , Roebuck and Co., launched in 1962 and running until 1971, which offered original paintings, prints, and sculptures at prices affordable to middle-class consumers via catalog and in-store sales. This initiative resulted in over 50,000 pieces sold, contributing to a measurable uptick in household art ownership during the post-war era by bypassing traditional gallery markups and targeting non-specialist buyers. Contemporary reactions to the Sears project divided along lines of : proponents credited it with empirically expanding art consumption beyond urban elites, as evidenced by sales volumes that outpaced initial projections and introduced works by established artists to suburban markets; critics, including some in periodical press, dismissed it as a that risked trivializing high art's intrinsic value by associating it with mass retail. Price defended the venture as a pragmatic extension of his institutional , arguing it aligned with causal incentives for broader cultural participation rather than preserving scarcity for prestige.

Culinary Interests

Development of Gourmet Expertise

Price's gourmet pursuits originated in his exposure to European culinary traditions during travels beginning in the late , including a formative high-school tour that introduced him to diverse flavor combinations and cooking methods abroad. These experiences, extending into amid his early career, cultivated an appreciation for ingredient-driven profiles, such as the balance of acids, fats, and herbs in French , refined through repeated tastings rather than formal instruction. Following his 1938 marriage to actress , Price incorporated these influences into personal practice, hosting intimate dinner parties that featured adapted global recipes, including dishes emphasizing spice-umami interactions and French techniques prioritizing precise reductions for depth. Lacking training, he acquired skills empirically by observing and querying chefs encountered during shoots and trips, focusing on verifiable fundamentals like for Maillard reactions over transient trends. This self-directed expertise complemented his demanding film schedule, serving as a therapeutic hobby where he experimented with on-location ingredients to recreate restaurant profiles at home, eschewing fads in favor of enduring repertoires like and mole poblano, validated by consistent sensory outcomes. Price's approach underscored causal realism in , linking specific component ratios—such as wine reductions enhancing meat tenderness—to reproducible taste elevations, honed through iterative home trials.

Publications and Public Sharing

Vincent Price co-authored A Treasury of Great Recipes: Famous Specialties of the World's Foremost Restaurants Adapted for the American Kitchen with his second wife, , in 1965 through Ampersand Press. The volume assembles more than 200 recipes obtained directly from celebrated establishments across Europe, the United States, Mexico, and other regions, with adaptations emphasizing precise measurements and standard ingredients to facilitate replication in average home settings. This methodical approach contrasted with contemporaneous often reliant on imprecise, experiential directives, prioritizing accessibility over exclusivity. The book's reception underscored its practical value, evidenced by its sustained relevance and the release of a 50th edition in 2015, which included updated introductions while preserving the original content. No verified sales data positions it as a perennial bestseller, though its inclusion in culinary canon discussions reflects broad acknowledgment among enthusiasts. Beyond print, Price disseminated culinary techniques via television, notably hosting Cooking Price-Wise, a 1971 series on in the , featuring demonstrations of international dishes adapted for everyday preparation. These segments aligned with his advocacy for home cooking as a democratized , drawing on inspirations to encourage viewer experimentation without specialized equipment.

Personal Life

Marriages, Family, and Relationships

Price married actress on April 23, 1938; the couple had one son, Vincent Barrett Price, born August 30, 1940, in . Their marriage ended in divorce in 1948 amid the demands of Price's burgeoning acting career. In 1949, Price wed costume designer Mary Grant on August 25; they collaborated on projects including cookbooks in the late 1960s and had one daughter, , born in 1962. The marriage dissolved in 1973, with Grant citing Price's heavy workload as a primary factor, though underlying incompatibilities contributed to the strain; she received custody of their daughter. Price's third marriage was to actress in 1974, which lasted until her death on May 29, 1991; the union produced no children. Price raised his children within the Hollywood milieu, balancing paternal involvement with frequent absences due to his extensive professional commitments, including film shoots and tours that kept him away from home for prolonged periods. later described her father as engaged when present but often distant owing to career demands, a dynamic she explored in her 1999 biography of him. His son, Vincent Barrett Price, pursued writing as a , , and educator. Price cultivated intellectual friendships in artistic and literary circles, including collaborations with , who penned content for a 1970s television episode featuring Price, reflecting shared affinities for fantasy and the . These bonds emphasized mutual creative pursuits over personal drama.

Political and Social Perspectives

Vincent Price was born into a prosperous Presbyterian family in , , where traditional Midwestern values and Republican leanings predominated among relatives, shaping his early worldview that included initial admiration for authoritarian figures like and latent common in some conservative circles of the era. By the mid-1930s, however, exposure to such as and prompted a shift toward , support for , and alignment with Democratic politics, though he retained a personal aversion to expansive government ideologies in favor of individual moral action. This evolution positioned him as a "premature anti-Nazi," earning suspicion from McCarthy-era investigators who greylisted him in the for prewar associations deemed too progressive, despite his explicit disavowal of in a letter to the FBI stating opposition to "Communist ideologies" and " in any form." On social issues, Price publicly condemned racial and religious prejudice as "poison" in a July 30, 1950, Radio broadcast concluding an episode of The Saint, urging listeners to actively combat it through personal resolve rather than institutional mandates, reflecting a preference for cultural and individual remedies over collective interventions. He endorsed the Committee for the First Amendment's resistance to probes into political beliefs and later championed Native American preservation efforts, yet his engagements remained rhetorical and supportive rather than involving sustained or endorsements of sweeping changes. Such stances drew right-wing critiques for perceived liberal sympathies in and associations, while left-leaning observers noted insufficient radicalism, as his focus emphasized personal enrichment and opposition to bigotry without aligning with broader ideological movements. Price extended advocacy to the LGBTQ+ community as an honorary board member of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (), one of the earliest such organizations, prioritizing tolerance through cultural exposure over political mandates, consistent with his lifelong emphasis on individual aesthetic and ethical development amid family conservatism. His daughter , in biographical accounts, highlighted this balance, portraying a man influenced by social circles yet anchored in empirical opposition to , voting patterns that mirrored early Republicanism before shifting leftward, and a pragmatic realism favoring personal agency against systemic overreach.

Illness and Death

Health Decline and Diagnosis

Price, a lifelong heavy smoker, experienced progressive respiratory difficulties attributable to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including emphysema, which compounded his health decline in later years. These issues, linked causally to prolonged tobacco use, prompted medical evaluation leading to his diagnosis of lung cancer, which he battled for approximately five years prior to 1993. The disease manifested amid ongoing symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue, consistent with both emphysema and emerging malignancy in smokers. Empirical associations between heavy smoking and lung cancer incidence, with relative risks exceeding 20-fold for long-term users, underscore the primary causal pathway in Price's case, absent contrary evidence of other etiologies.

Final Days and Immediate Aftermath

Vincent Price died on October 25, 1993, at his home in , , at the age of 82, from complications of after a five-year battle with the disease. He also suffered from in his final years. In accordance with his wishes, no public funeral was held. Price's body was cremated, and his ashes, along with his favorite gardening hat, were scattered at sea off in . His daughter, , oversaw post-death matters related to his estate, including the management of rights and the publication of drawing from family archives. donations from his collection to institutions such as the County Museum of Art were confirmed and cataloged following his passing, with no reported disputes over disposition. Contemporary media coverage focused on Price's distinctive voice and film contributions, with outlets like and publishing obituaries that emphasized his versatility beyond horror roles, without noting any irregularities in estate handling or family conflicts.

Legacy

Vincent Price established the archetype of the suave, aristocratic villain in horror cinema during the 1950s and 1960s, portraying characters who combined elegance, wit, and subtle menace in films such as House of Wax (1953), where he played a deranged sculptor seeking revenge, and House of Usher (1960), adapting Edgar Allan Poe's tale of familial decay. His commanding presence and distinctive voice elevated B-movies produced by , influencing the genre's shift toward gothic and elements that emphasized atmospheric dread over mere spectacle. Price's approach brought class to typically villainous roles, making antagonists more charismatic and memorable, as noted by film historians who credit him with redefining horror performance standards. Price's legacy extended beyond film, profoundly impacting later creators and popular media. Director , who idolized Price from childhood, featured his narration in the 1982 stop-motion short Vincent, a tribute to Poe-inspired gothic aesthetics, and cast him in (1990) as an inventor, marking one of Price's final roles. Additionally, Price's spoken-word introduction to (released November 30, 1982) infused the track with macabre flair, contributing to the album's unprecedented commercial success, with over 70 million copies sold worldwide and the song's video doubling album sales through its horror-themed narrative. Critics have argued that Price's heavy involvement in low-budget horror schlock led to , overshadowing his earlier dramatic versatility and barring him from major awards like Oscars, as market demand for quick, formulaic B-movies prioritized volume over prestige, sustaining his career but cementing a public image tied to genre gimmickry. While some skeptics viewed his stylized villainy as theatrical excess diminishing serious status, horror purists praise Price for elevating campy productions with genuine charisma and defending the genre's artistic value, as he articulated in essays like "In Defense of Horror Films." This duality reflects causal realities: audience appetite for accessible thrills fueled his prolific output, fostering innovation in horror's performative tropes despite trade-offs in critical acclaim.

Broader Cultural Recognition

Vincent Price's engagement with the arts extended beyond acting, establishing him as a prominent collector and advocate whose contributions led to the naming of the Vincent Price Art Museum at in , which opened in 2011 and houses a collection reflecting his support for community arts education. Price served on the board of directors for the County Museum of Art for decades and amassed a personal collection of , underscoring his role in promoting accessible cultural appreciation. In the culinary realm, Price co-authored A Treasury of Great Recipes with his wife Mary in 1965, compiling simplified versions of dishes from renowned international restaurants, which anticipated trends in celebrity-driven and global . The book's 50th anniversary edition, published in by Calla Editions, revived interest in its recipes, including adaptations that influenced later chefs like , who cited Price's work as an early inspiration for elevating restaurant fare to home kitchens. This publication highlighted Price's efforts to democratize gourmet cooking, blending his public persona with practical expertise derived from extensive travels. Price received the Life Career Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in 1986, recognizing his overarching impact on genre and broader entertainment, complemented by two stars on the for motion pictures and recording. These honors affirmed his renaissance-man versatility, bridging high art, epicurean pursuits, and media narration, though his eclectic output occasionally drew observations of breadth over specialized depth from film critics assessing his non-horror endeavors.

Recent Developments and Reassessments

In 2025, the feature-length documentary The Vincent Price Legacy, produced by Wicked Vision Distribution GmbH and directed by Laurent Ohmansiek, premiered at the International Fantastic on May 9, marking the first comprehensive dedicated to Price's life and influence. Featuring interviews with contemporary figures including and , alongside archival footage and family insights, the documentary reassesses Price's career as extending far beyond horror stereotypes, emphasizing his 57-year span across , theater, , and cultural . It portrays Price as a "Renaissance man" whose articulate persona and artistic pursuits shaped modern interpretations of villainy and storytelling. Digital platforms have enabled renewed engagement with Price's oeuvre, with his films gaining visibility on streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Roku channels, where titles such as House on Haunted Hill (1959) and The Comedy of Terrors (1964) attract viewers interested in mid-century genre cinema. The Vincent Price Estate operates an official YouTube channel, launched to curate and distribute high-quality audio recordings, rare interviews, and visual archives, thereby preserving elements like his narration work and ensuring accessibility for scholarly and fan analysis. Recent scholarly and critical reassessments, informed by Price's daughter Victoria Price's biographical accounts, challenge the mid-20th-century notion of him as a "one-note" horror performer by documenting his proficiency in over 100 films across , , and historical epics, as well as his roles as an art collector, , and cookbook author. These evaluations highlight empirical evidence of his versatility, such as narrations for Disney's The Adventures of and (1949) and advocacy for accessible fine arts, positioning him as a bridge between and popular entertainment whose influence persists in and multimedia horror revivals.

Selected Works

Key Film Roles

Vincent Price's early film career included dramatic roles that showcased his suave demeanor before his pivot to horror. In Laura (1944), directed by Otto Preminger, he played Shelby Carpenter, a charming but scheming Southern suitor entangled in a murder mystery, earning praise for his sophisticated villainy in this film noir classic. Price's breakthrough in horror came with House of Wax (1953), directed by André de Toth, where he portrayed Professor Henry Jarrod, a disfigured sculptor who murders to replenish his exhibits; the film, Warner Bros.' first color 3D production, grossed over $23 million against a $1.1 million budget and solidified Price's status as a horror . In The Fly (1958), directed by Kurt Neumann, Price starred as François Delambre, the brother of a transformed by a experiment gone awry, blending sci-fi elements with horror in a role that highlighted his ability to convey tragic sympathy amid grotesque terror; the film achieved 95% critical approval on and drew significant audiences for its innovative effects. Price hosted and starred in (1959), directed by , as eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren, who lures guests to a haunted mansion with a $10,000 bet to survive the night; marketed with gimmicks like "Emergo" 3D, it became a box-office success and exemplified Price's flair for campy suspense. Later, in Theater of Blood (1973), directed by , Price delivered a self-parodic performance as Edward Lionheart, a Shakespearean actor exacting revenge on critics through theatrical murders inspired by the Bard's plays; the horror-comedy earned 88% on and critiqued artistic pretension while showcasing Price's versatility. One of his final roles was a poignant cameo in (1990), directed by , as The Inventor, a gentle creator who fashions scissors for hands on his artificial son; this fantasy drama marked Price's last on-screen appearance and resonated for its warmth, contrasting his horror legacy.

Written and Audio Contributions

Vincent Price published I Like What I Know: A Visual Autobiography in 1959, chronicling his lifelong engagement with through personal anecdotes, early acquisitions funded by childhood savings, and reproductions of collected works spanning his first 48 years. The memoir underscores his empirical approach to art appreciation, rooted in direct observation and historical context rather than abstract theory, reflecting acquisitions like a Cézanne purchased in 1932. In collaboration with his second wife, Mary Price, he co-authored A Treasury of Great Recipes: Famous Specialties of the World's Foremost Restaurants Adapted for the American Kitchen in 1965, assembling approximately 200 dishes from establishments such as Madrid's and New York's , with detailed adaptations including ingredient quantities and preparation steps verified through personal trials. The volume achieved best-seller status and later for its practical utility, though its pre-metric U.S. customary measurements necessitate conversions for contemporary international use, potentially introducing minor scaling errors without adjustment. Price's audio contributions included narrations of Edgar Allan Poe's works, such as "The Gold-Bug," "The Imp of the Perverse," and "The Raven," featured in a 5-hour collection recorded with , emphasizing dramatic intonation to convey psychological tension empirically derived from Poe's textual rhythms. He also supplied the eerie spoken-word prologue for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" track in 1982, delivering a 42-second horror poem scripted by that enhanced the song's atmospheric dread and contributed to the album's certification of over 34 million U.S. sales by 1984. Additionally, in 1990, Price recorded the English narration for Paris's attraction, voicing the ghostly host in a manner echoing his Poe interpretations to guide riders through the haunted storyline. These recordings, preserved in reissues and park audio, demonstrate his vocal precision in evoking empirical sensory responses like unease through cadence and timbre.

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  69. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MT__BGwHdGw
  70. https://www.silverscreensuppers.com/category/vincent-price
  71. https://www.whosdatedwho.com/dating/edith-barrett-and-vincent-price
  72. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7454910/
  73. https://www.facebook.com/themonsterclub/posts/vincent-price-with-coral-browne-price-married-three-times-his-first-marriage-was/2977523332274918/
  74. https://www.instagram.com/p/C7cElMLuPF1/?hl=en
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  76. https://quirksreviews.tripod.com/id14.html
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  78. https://www.facebook.com/pamelynferdin/posts/vincent-price-tries-to-scare-me-with-a-rubber-snake-during-a-rehearsal-of-curios/1567356386798066/
  79. https://www.facebook.com/pamelynferdin/posts/with-the-great-vincent-price-on-a-special-halloween-episode-of-curiosity-shop-19/1269139583286416/
  80. https://www.grunge.com/238517/essential-facts-about-horror-legend-vincent-price/
  81. https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/13m19vh/til_vincent_price_was_greylisted_under/
  82. https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2023/10/31/vincent-price-and-the-secret-letter-to-the-fbi/
  83. https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/13u11b6/vincent_prices_message_on_racism_and_prejudice_at/
  84. https://www.facebook.com/usnationalarchives/posts/vincent-price-was-an-american-actor-who-was-best-known-for-his-brilliant-and-ter/713295584179371/
  85. https://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/A-Dairy-Number/the-lyrical/An-appreciation-of-Vincent-Price-and-his-last-film/
  86. https://www.facebook.com/100080656655030/posts/vincent-prices-advocacy-and-support-for-the-lgbtq-community-is-a-lesser-known-bu/624406273591256/
  87. https://josephcrusejohnson.blogspot.com/2009/02/vincent-price.html
  88. https://northernstar.info/5596/news/city/vincent-price-dies-of-lung-cancer-at-age-82/
  89. https://duboselawfirm.com/celebrities-who-died-from-lung-cancer/
  90. https://www.webmd.com/lung-cancer/ss/slideshow-celebrities-lung-cancer
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  92. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001637/bio/
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  95. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/26/obituaries/vincent-price-a-suave-but-menacing-film-presence-is-dead-at-82.html
  96. https://aoidemagazine.com/vincent-price-renaissance-man-and-master-of-horror/
  97. https://starsandletters.blogspot.com/2015/04/vincent-price-man-behind-villain.html
  98. https://www.facebook.com/groups/tcmfansite/posts/2329111510863782/
  99. https://screenrant.com/vincent-price-most-iconic-horror-movie-actor-reason/
  100. https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/36390/vincent-price-tim-burton-short-film/
  101. https://timburton.fandom.com/wiki/Vincent
  102. https://geektyrant.com/news/vincent-price-chose-20000-dollars-over-a-percentage-of-michael-jacksons-thriller-album-proceeds
  103. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-a-fine-actor-like-Vincent-Price-abandon-good-roles-to-star-in-horror-schlock-movies
  104. https://pandorazwieback.com/vincent-price-defends-horror-movies/
  105. https://www.facebook.com/groups/314017265780371/posts/2043852466130167/
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  112. https://www.horrornewsnetwork.net/trailer-arrives-for-feature-length-documentary-on-vincent-price/
  113. https://boundingintocomics.com/movies/movie-news/the-storied-life-of-horror-icon-vincent-price-is-celebrated-in-new-documentary-the-vincent-price-legacy
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  117. https://crypticrock.com/interview-victoria-price-reflections-on-vincent-price/
  118. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037008/
  119. https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2016/05/03/vincent-price-in-otto-premingers-laura/
  120. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045888/
  121. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1010030-house_of_wax
  122. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051622/
  123. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1007600-fly
  124. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070791/
  125. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/theatre_of_blood
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  129. https://www.openculture.com/2015/08/5-hours-of-edgar-allan-poe-stories-read-by-vincent-price-basil-rathbone.html
  130. https://genius.com/Michael-jackson-voice-over-intro-voice-over-session-from-thriller-lyrics
  131. https://insidethemagic.net/2018/04/disney-connections-the-many-voices-of-vincent-price/
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