Early Life & Career

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 27th, 1911. As a child, his parents - Marguerite Cobb Willcox and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr. - referred to him as "Bink". Vincent grew up in St. Louis, attending St. Louis Country Day school. He was passionate about art, and in his final year, he attempted painting, sculpting, and woodcutting. However, he eventually admitted publicly that he had no talent at all.

Vincent went on to Yale, where he eventually discovered his passion for theatre. After graduating in 1933, he pursued a career in acting, and snagged the role of Prince Albert in a Broadway production of Victoria Regina in 1935. Several more stage productions followed, and eventually Vincent was signed to a contract by Universal. In 1938, Vincent was cast in his first film - a screwball comedy called Service De Luxe.

Despite going on to play several somewhat sinister roles (such as the Duke of Clarence in 1939's Tower of London, Cardinal Richelieu in 1948's The Three Musketeers, and Carwood in 1949's The Bribe), Vincent Price was actually not cast in a true horror film until 1953's House of Wax. It was this film that changed the course of his career. Audiences now associated Vincent with horror, and before the 50s ended, he had starred in The Fly (1958), House on Haunted Hill (1958), The Return of The Fly (1959), and The Tingler (1959).

In the 1960s, Vincent starred in seven films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, each one directed by Roger Corman:

• House of Usher (1960)
• Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
• Tales of Terror (1962)
• The Raven (1963)
• The Haunted Palace (1963) - only the title was Poe's; the story was H.P. Lovecraft's.
• The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
• The Tomb of Ligeia (1965)

He also appeared in the very dark Witchfinder General (1968), directed by Michael Reeves.

However, Vincent was not bound to horrors. (The Raven, in fact, was much more of a comedy than a horror.) In 1963, Vincent starred in The Comedy of Terrors alongside Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and Basil Rathbone. He also appeared in far campier comedies, such as Beach Party (1963) and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965). Additionally, Vincent had a recurring role on the Batman television series, appearing as the devious Egghead in three separate episodes.

In 1971, Vincent appeared as the title character in the darkly humourous horror The Abominable Dr. Phibes, which became a cult classic almost immediately. He also starred in 1973's Theatre of Blood, in which he met Coral Browne, who would later become his third wife.

While Vincent's film career became a bit stagnant in the 1970s, he kept himself in the public eye, appearing on episodes of Here's Lucy, The Brady Bunch, Hollywood Squares, and The Muppet Show. In addition to that, he also did a voiceover on Alice Cooper's album, Welcome to My Nightmare.

In 1977, Vincent toured in the one-man stage play Diversions and Delights, in which he played Oscar Wilde. His performance garnered wonderful reviews.

Vincent continued his eclectic work into the 1980s. In 1982, he recorded the voiceover for Tim Burton's short stop-motion film called "Vincent" about a young boy who likes to fantasize he is, in fact, Vincent Price. In the same year, Vincent recorded the "rap" for Michael Jackon's Thriller album. Three years later, he provided the voice for Ratigan, the fiendish villian in Disney's The Great Mouse Detective.

Vincent's final film appearance was as the kindly old inventor in Edward Scissorhands (1991), reuniting him once again with director Tim Burton.


Marriages and Children

Vincent was first married in 1938 to actress Edith Barrett. Together they had one child - a son called Vincent Barrett Price. Vincent and Edith divorced in 1948, and Vincent married Mary Grant a year later. They too had one child - a daughter named Victoria.

Vincent and Mary divorced in 1973, and Vincent was married to Coral Browne in 1974. They remained married until Coral's death in 1991.


Passions

Vincent never lost his interest in fine art and collected all his life, eventually founding the Vincent Price Art Gallery at East Los Angeles College.

He had a great passion for cooking and published A Treasury of Great Recipes with his wife Mary in 1965.

Vincent also published a book in 1961 called "The Book of Joe - About a dog and his man". Vincent was a huge animal lover and particularly adored dogs; and this book was a tribute to his dog Joe.

Vincent was quite the Anglophile and visited England several times over the course of his life. Two of his three wives were British, and in his early career was sometimes referred to as "the Englishman from St. Louis" by the media.


Death

Vincent Price died on October 25th, 1993. A small service was held at the Hollywood Cemetery, and the next day Vincent's family took his ashes out to sea, scattering them off of Point Dume (on the coast of Malibu, California). They also scattered long-stemmed red roses and Vincent's favorite hat.


Sources

The Complete Films of Vincent Price - Lucy Chase Williams

Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography - Victoria Price