orig. William Henry Pratt
born Nov. 23, 1887, London, Eng.
died Feb. 2, 1969, Midhurst, West Sussex
British-U.S. actor.
He immigrated to Canada from England in 1909 and acted with touring companies before moving to Hollywood, where he played minor roles in films from 1919. His tender, sympathetic performance in Hollywood's first important monster film, James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), received so much critical praise that he became an overnight sensation. He acted in more than 100 films, specializing in horror pictures such as The Mummy (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939), and his name became synonymous with the horror genre. He returned to the stage for highly acclaimed performances on Broadway in Arsenic and Old Lace (1941) and as Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1950). His most famous television performance was in the animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966), for which he provided the voices of both the Grinch and the narrator.
Boris Karloff.
AP/Wide World Photos