Vincent Leonard Price Jr.
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Film credits
9
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2
Awards
Vincent Price, born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1911, was a stage actor turned horror film star. He starred in House of Wax 1953, The Fly 1958, and The Fall of the House of Usher 1960. Price also voiced the narrator in Michael Jackson’s Thriller 1983 and wrote several cookbooks. He died in Los Angeles in 1993 at age 82.
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Vincent Price by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Vincent Price — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Vincent Leonard Price Jr.’s birth on May 27, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri came into a family with a sweet-tooth empire — his grandfather invented Dr. Price’s Baking Powder and his father headed the National Candy Company. Price attended Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, then studied English at Yale University, followed by art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. A tour of Europe’s cultural centers shaped his refined voice and persona.
Price began his acting career on stage at the Gate Theatre in London at age 23, playing Prince Albert in Victoria Regina. He made his film debut in the Universal comedy Service de Luxe 1938. Typecast in historical and romantic roles early on, he broke into horror with House of Wax 1953, playing the maniacal sculptor Henry Jarrod. That role led to a series of horror films including The Fly 1958, House on Haunted Hill 1959, and The Tingler 1959.
In 1960, Price began a productive collaboration with Roger Corman, starring as Roderick Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher. He made six more Poe adaptations, such as The Pit and the Pendulum 1961 and The Raven 1963. His later memorable roles include the vengeful Dr. Phibes in The Abominable Dr. Phibes 1971 and a Shakespearean ham in Theater of Blood 1973. He also voiced Professor Ratigan in Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective 1986 and played the inventor in Edward Scissorhands 1990.
Beyond film, Price performed on radio, narrated Michael Jackson’s Thriller 1983, and wrote several best-selling cookbooks. He also served as an art consultant for Sears Roebuck and lectured on art and poetry.
Price was married three times. His first marriage was to actress Edith Barrett from 1938 to 1948. He then married Mary Grant in 1949, with whom he had two children: Victoria and Vincent Barrett Price. After their divorce in 1973, he married actress Coral Browne in 1974, and he converted to Catholicism. Browne became an American citizen for him. Price was notoriously superstitious, keeping a horseshoe, crucifix, and mezuzah on his door. He collected art, cooked gourmet meals, and publicly supported gay rights, including when his daughter Victoria came out as lesbian.
Vincent Price earned the title The Master of Horror as the quintessential horror actor of the 20th century. His distinctive voice and suave menace influenced pop culture, including inspiring the original illustrations for Marvel’s Doctor Strange. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for both motion pictures and television, and a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1989. Posthumously, his narration on Thriller remains widely recognized, and the band Deep Purple dedicated a song to him in 2013. Price’s legacy as a renaissance man who blended horror with high culture endures.
Browse the complete filmography of Vincent Price — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Vincent Price — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Vincent Price's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Vincent Price — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Someone Called Actors Sculptors in Snow. Very Apt. in the End, It’s All Nothing.
I Don’t Play Monsters. I Play Men Besieged by Fate and Out for Revenge.
Gothic Is Just a Word Recalling a Multitude of Sins!
A Man Who Limits His Interests Limits His Life.
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.
I Sometimes Feel That I’m Impersonating the Dark Unconscious of the Whole Human Race. I Know This Sounds Sick, but I Love It.
Doing a Religious Picture Is a Boring Thing Because Everybody Is on Their Best Behavior Hoping for the Keys to the Kingdom, I Guess.
What’s Important About an Actor Is His Acting, Not His Life.
I Hate Being Old and Ill! Don’t Get Old If You Can Avoid It!
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.
The Horror Thriller Offers the Serious Actor Unique Opportunities to Test His Ability to Make the Unbelievable Believable.
Suddenly in the ’50S, a Whole New Group of Actors Came Out: Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman, Who Were Very Moody and Realistic. so Actors Like Myself and Basil Rathbone and so on Didn’t Really Fit into Those Realistic Dramas and We Began to Do Costume Pictures. This Was Really the Only Place We Could Go on Working If We Wanted to Survive as Actors. Most of the Things of My Later Career Have Been Costume Pictures. They Require a Certain Knowledge of the Language, They Require Enunciation and a Poetic Approach to the Language. Really, the One Thing We Have Over the Apes Is Our Language, Isn’t It? That’s About All.
Hollywood’s Worst Fault Is Typecasting. John Wayne, Cary Grant, Everyone Who Has Been a Success We All Had the Same Problem. and They Tell Me I’m Too Important to Play Small Character Roles; You Can’t Win!
I Played so Many Gentlemen at the Beginning of My Career That I Certainly Wanted to Play Some Villains and so I Got Kind of Stuck in Villains.
I Like to Be Seen, I Love Being Busy and I Believe in Being Active. I Know Some People Think I’ve Lowered Myself as an Actor, but My Idea of Professional Decline Is Not Working.
The Best Parts in Movies Are the Heavies. the Hero Is Usually Someone Who Has Really Nothing to Do. He Comes Out on Top, but It’s the Heavy Who Has All the Fun.
Horror Movies Don’t Date Because They Were Dated to Begin With, They Were Mannered and Consciously so Gothic Tales with an Unreality. They Have the Fun of a Fairy Tale.
To Me, Films That Deal with Drug Addiction, Crime and War Are the Real Horror Films. in a World Where Slaughter and Vicious Crimes Are Daily Occurrences, a Good Ghoulish Movie Is Comic Relief.
Little-known facts about Vincent Price — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
At Bela Lugosi’s funeral, Peter Lorre quipped about driving a stake through his heart.
Price often attended showings of his films in costumes and played pranks on moviegoers.
He was an avid opera lover and gourmet chef, writing cookbooks and cooking for co-stars.
Price was close friends with Cassandra Peterson, who played Elvira.
Shortly before his death, he cited his favorite role as Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective 1986, with original songs written for him.
His role in Edward Scissorhands 1990 was intended to be larger, but illness limited him to two scenes.
While playing Egghead on Batman 1966, he started an egg-throwing fight.
Later in life, he often signed autographs as Dolores Del Rio to keep her name alive.
Price was notoriously superstitious and kept a horseshoe, crucifix, and mezuzah on his front door.
Sesame Street created a puppet in his likeness, and he considered it a great honor.
He ran a mail-order book club, Vincent Price Books, in the 1970s.
His ashes were scattered off the California coast of Malibu with his favorite gardening hat.
Between 1977 and 1980, he gave over 800 performances of his one-man show Diversions and Delights as Oscar Wilde.
His 6’4 frame sometimes made it hard to get roles early in his career.
He once signed an autograph as Boris Karloff for a fan who mistook him, fifteen years after Karloff’s death.
He was an art connoisseur and champion of Native American art, serving on the Indian Arts and Crafts Board under Eisenhower.
He won $32,000 on the game show The $64,000 Question.
The song Vincent Price by Deep Purple is dedicated to him.
He narrated Michael Jackson’s Thriller, choosing a $20,000 upfront fee over a percentage of album sales.
He attended the opening night of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
He played the Spirit of the Nightmare in Alice Cooper’s TV special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare 1975.
Born on the same day as Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing a day earlier, all three appeared together in Scream and Scream Again and House of the Long Shadows.
He had to do ten takes of the final scene in The Fly 1958 due to laughing.
His appearance inspired the original illustrations for Marvel’s Doctor Strange.
He earned a BA in art history from Yale and wrote a syndicated art column.
He often expressed interest in Shakespeare, making Theater of Blood 1973 one of his favorite roles.
He made a speech about the black widow on Alice Cooper’s album Welcome to My Nightmare.
His father’s company made jelly-beans and jawbreakers.
He converted to Catholicism after marrying Coral Browne.
He was considered an eccentric gentleman, often theatrical about cooking and poetry.
In 1964, he narrated a history of Tombstone, Arizona for the O.K. Corral diorama, working for lunch.
He recorded English narration for Phantom Manor at Euro Disneyland, though it was later replaced.
During the 1970s, he cited George C. Scott as his favorite current actor and Cary Grant as all-time favorite.
He founded the Vincent Price Gallery at East Los Angeles Community College in 1951.
He was supportive of his daughter’s lesbianism and critical of Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign.
He was good friends with Peter Lorre, John Carradine, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Adam West.
In 1948, he helped open the Modern Institute of Art in Hollywood, which closed within two years.
His likeness appeared on Milton Bradley games like Hangman and Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture.
He arrived in London in 1934 to study art and fell in love with theatre.
He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for motion pictures and television.
He received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1989.
He narrated The Hilarious House of Frightenstein 1971, remembered by Canadians.
His wife Coral Browne was buried with a Mozart Requiem Mass at St. Victor’s.
He was a strong supporter of human equality since the late 1950s.
He and Peter Lorre starred in the unsold pilot Collector’s Item.
He was a vocal supporter of the gay rights movement.
He appeared in eight horror movies with house in the title.
His family started the company that makes Magic Baking Powder.
The last film he saw in cinemas was Aladdin 1992, which he loved.
He appeared in three Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Song of Bernadette 1943, Wilson 1944, and The Ten Commandments 1956.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Vincent Price.
Celebrities similar to Vincent Price — same craft, ranked by reach.
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