Elsa Lanchester

Elsa Lanchester, on playing the title part in "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935): "The most memorable thing I did in that film, I believe, was my screaming. In almost all my movies since, I've been called upon to scream. I don't know if it's by chance, but I would like to think that I'm not hired for that talent alone."

Lanchester said that her spitting, hissing performance was inspired by the swans in Regent's Park, London. "They're really very nasty creatures," she said. Lanchester was only 5'4" but for the role was placed on stilts that made her 7' tall. The bandages were placed so tightly on her that she was unable to move and had to be carried about the studio and fed through a straw. She needed to be fed by her dresser since even her fingers were wrapped. Her shock hairdo was held in place by a wired horsehair cage. According to one story, one of her stand-ins had a screaming attack of claustrophobia.

Although the Bride of Frankenstein is one of most iconic Universal monsters, she only had 3 minutes of screen time in the entire film.

"It annoys me when mothers drag the poor dears to me and demand the children say something to Frankenstein's bride. Can you imagine an actress being overexposed by a picture she made 40 years ago?"