Trivia of Boris Karloff

 Trivia of Boris Karloff (23 November 1887 - 2 February 1969)

*He never legally changed his name to Boris Karloff. Outside of film industry he always went by William or Bill Pratt. He always signed contracts and documents as "William Henry Pratt aka Boris Karloff". His daughter, Sara Karloff, legally changed her last name to Karloff for professional reasons.

*Although he will forever be linked to Frankenstein's Monster, Karloff actually played Frankenstein's creation only three times--once in the original Frankenstein (1931), again in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and finally in Son of Frankenstein (1939). He played Dr. Frankenstein only once, in Frankenstein 1970 (1958).

*During the production of Frankenstein (1931) there was some concern that seven-year-old Marilyn Harris, who played Maria, the little girl thrown into the lake by the creature, would be overly frightened by the sight of Karloff in costume and make-up when it came time to shoot the scene. When the cast was assembled to travel to the location, Marilyn ran from her car directly up to Karloff, who was in full make-up and costume, took his hand and asked "May I drive with you?". Delighted, and in typical Karloff fashion, he responded, "Would you, darling?". She then rode to the location with "The Monster".

*He was the biggest star to lend his voice to a sound effect. Universal added his anguished scream over the dead Ygor from Son of Frankenstein (1939) to its stock sound effects library and used it for subsequent films, including House of Frankenstein (1944) (the cry when Daniel the hunchback falls from the roof).

*Beginning in 1940, he dressed as Santa Claus at Christmas to hand out presents to physically disabled children in a Baltimore hospital.

*He has four roles in common with his neighbour who also an actor Christopher Lee :(1) Karloff played Frankenstein's Monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939) while Lee played him in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), (2) Karloff played the Mummy in The Mummy (1932) while Lee played him in The Mummy (1959), (3) Karloff played Dr. Fu Manchu in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) while Lee played him in The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) and (4) Karloff played Grigori Rasputin in The Black Prophet (1953) while Lee played him in Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966).

*He appeared with Bela Lugosi in eight films: Gift of Gab (1934) The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), You'll Find Out (1940), Black Friday (1940) and The Body Snatcher (1945).

*Moved back to England permanently for the last few years of his life as he wanted to die there. Even then he was still getting offers of work despite his ill health. He also was regularly visited by actor Vincent Price whenever Price was in Britain.