What Happened to Vincent Price?

Legends. Legends are special and live on far after the legend themselves have passed from this plane of existence. There are many legends in the world of film and specifically the realm of horror, but none can compare with Vincent Price. He belongs with the greats of not only the horror genre but of film specifically. His career would wind up spanning the black and white film world but also the advent of color and television. He was a renaissance man with a love of art, his fans, and he would embrace his role in the world of horror wholeheartedly. Today on What Happened to This Horror Celebrity, we’re going to look back at the life of one of the world of horror’s true kings, Vincent Price.

Vincent Price was born on May 27th, 1911, in St. Louis Missouri. If this surprises you, well it came as a shock to me too many year ago when I found out one of my favorite actors of all time was born in the same state as me. For some reason, maybe he’s cultured demeanor or suave way of carrying himself, young me always assumed he was from Europe. But nope, Vincent Price was a Midwest boy. His family were part of the food industry, something that probably helped play a part in his later love of cooking. His grandfather invented cream of tartar which was sold as Dr. Price’s Baking Powder. His father (both his grandfather and father were named Vincent) was the head of the National Candy Company which was one of the largest candy companies in the US. The family was well to do.

Young Vincent would wind up with a degree in English as well as a minor in art history, something else that would come into play years later. He’d go to England and attend school there where he would find himself falling in love with the theater. In 1935 he’d start a career on stage and would eventually become well known for his role of Prince Albert in Victoria Regina which he’d perform on Broadway back in the states. A few years later, Price would become part of Orson Welles Mercury Theater.

Price would start working in films in the late 1930s. 1939 would see him star in Tower of London but he’d truly become part of a horror legacy in the Universal film The Invisible Man Returns. In 1946 he’d star in one of my favorite classic gothics Dragonwyck where he’d really step into the brooding, tortured character who is always doomed by their own actions. In 1953 Price would bring 3 Dimensions to the screen with his role in the classic House of Wax. The film was a remake of the original 1933 film, Mystery of the Wax Museum. But here we have glorious color to truly highlight the horrors on screen. We’d also have a young Charles Bronson as Price’s mute assistant and Carolyn Jones pre-Morticia Addams.

The 50s would really see Price start his climb into the upper echelon of horror royalty. The Mad Magician was another entry with Price playing a mad genius that would use 3D for a hook in 1954. Price would star in the original The Fly and it’s sequel The Return of the Fly. The ending scene of the lead character screaming “help me” as a spider comes to eat his human headed fly body eventually had to be shot with Price and his co-star standing back-to-back because they couldn’t stop laughing.

Price would end out the decade with two of his most famous black and white roles when he teamed up with the PT Barnum of movies, William Castle. House on Haunted Hill where he truly cemented himself as the sinister and suave character, we all know and love. House on Haunted Hill’s gimmick was a skeleton being released on a wire to slide above the audience in the theater. His other film, The Tingler, where Price played a doctor trying to find the source of human fear and discovers the creature who makes it. That gimmick had wires set up on certain seats in the audience that would actually deliver electric shocks to the person sitting there when The Tingler was released in the theater. These two films were really setting Price up for what I call Suave Horror. With his impeccable mustache, cultured voice, debonair air but ability to turn from cool to sinister with just an arched brow he created himself a blue print and one that many actors and artists in the coming decades would look to for inspiration like Jeffrey Combs, Julian Sands, and even the band Ghost with the original appearance of Cardinal Copia.

It would be in the 1960s though that Price would join forces with the late, great, Roger Corman to create what is considered the greatest adaptations of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, beginning in 1960 with House of Usher. Price would step into many different roles in these films, from villain, tortured victim, to even the hero. Usher was a great success and with Corman’s knack for finding talent and making every penny count, he would follow it up with The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia. Price was very good at making his villains likeable. Prince Prospero for instance is a real bastard but as the viewer, you, much like Francesca, want him to see the error of his ways before it is too late. But of course he doesn’t. Ligeia would see Price showing some of his romantic side before…well…the brooding cursed nature takes hold.

The Raven was one of the more pure comedies to come out of the run of films with Corman, though Tales of Terror had a big comedic heart too with its telling of The Black Cat. It’s a fun, wacky, and great bringing together of Price, Karloff, and Peter Lorre with Price playing the heroic wizard of the film. AIP followed this up with The Comedy of Terrors which would bring back Price, Karloff, Lorre and Basil Rathbone who had also co-starred in Tales of Terror. Richard Matheson would write the screenplay for Comedy of Terrors, and he would also be the writer of one of the greatest horror sci-fi novels of all time with I Am Legend, a story that would be retold a few times by Hollywood. But Vincent Price would star in the first adaptation of the book in 1964 titled The Last Man on Earth.

In 1963 Price would star in the possession story Diary of a Madman. That same year he’d star in the Corman directed The Haunted Palace, which was based off of HP Lovecraft’s The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward, even though it was released under the guise of an Edgar Allan Poe tale.

In 1968 Price would portray probably one of the most evil characters in his history as the very real Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General. It’s a brutal film and was actually going to be far more violent before the script was toned down. It was a hard shoot as well and Price and director Michael Reeves didn’t get along during it but would later come to an understanding. In 1969 he’d star in the voodoo driven The Oblong Box alongside Christopher Lee. During this time Price would also show up on numerous television series in guest roles with standouts like a villainous turn in The Man from UNCLE and especially Egghead in the Batman live action series.

In the 1970s Price entered another busy time. He’d star in An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe, retelling some of Poe’s greatest works. Scream and Scream Again would pair him up with two of the UK’s horror greats, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. This would be followed up by The Cry of the Banshee. In 1971 Price would take on one of my favorite roles he starred in, the strange and bizarre The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Here, you’re really rooting for the bad guy who is out to avenge the death of his wife on the operating table and the destruction of his own face, leaving him a ruined skull with a voice box and mask. Dr. Phibes is brilliant and ruthless and has a beautiful assistant named Vulnavia who helps him in his unique form of murder. Joseph Cotten would co-star as would the legendary Terry-Thomas who comes to a bad end. He’d return to the role the following year with Dr. Phibes Rises Again which would put him at odds with Robert Quarry, the man who would give unlife to Count Yorga.

In 1973 Price would give it to the critics in Theater of Blood, very much in the vein (that’s a joke) of Dr. Phibes where using a series of unique deaths, Edward Lionheart murders his critics based on works of Shakespeare. Diana Rigg stars as his daughter. The film is darkly comedic at times but it’s great to see Price eating the scenery in a role. In 1974 Price would don the role of another actor, this one also close to home in Madhouse, one of my other favorites of his that seems to not be as talked about. Madhouse follows Paul Toombes, known for his Doctor Death series of movies whose fiancée is murdered horribly one night during a party. Everyone suspects him of the murder but when he is brought back after a breakdown to star in a new series of Doctor Death films, people start dying around him again. The film uses footage from Price’s other movies intercut with new footage to create his Doctor Death work. It also brings back legends Peter Cushing and Robert Quarry to star alongside Price. It also has one of the creepiest ending shots I’ve seen and I’m still not sure how they did it.

Vincent would join Alice Cooper for his TV movie The Nightmare in 1975 as the actual Spirit of the Nightmare. He’d also host the Welcome to My Nightmare concert movie that same year.

Price actually loved doing kids shows and content for younger viewers and he made this very clear in the 70s. In 1977 he would be the host of the Muppet Show which themed a lot of the content in the scary way (they’d actually create a Muppet named Vincent Twice for Sesame Street in 1989 in homage to Price.) Kermit would famously bite Price in the neck during the appearance.

It would also be during the 70s that Price would take a role that many still don’t know exists. A local tv station in Ontario created a kids/teen show called The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. The series was a sketch comedy with skits that had psychedelic dancing werewolves, recurring characters, and used popular music at the time (this would later make it nearly impossible to be released on DVD in full.) At the time, the creators reached out to Price and asked if he’d host segments, and he agreed as he wanted to do more of children. Vincent Price flew out to Hamilton, Ontario and filmed all of his scenes for the entire run of 130 episodes in less than a week. According to people who were working on the shoot, Price disappeared during his last day of shooting making many think they’d angered the great actor. But he’d actually went and bought a large stock of beer that he brought back to share with the crew and spent the last hours in town drinking and telling stories about old Hollywood. Frightenstein is actually now avail to stream on some services like Tubi and Pluto TV. Some fans have uploaded episodes to YouTube. If you’ve never heard of this series, you really should check it out. Star Billy Van plays a number of characters in the show and if you love classics like The Munsters, you’re going to really dig the look. It’s wacky, fun, and Price is just having a great old time.

In 1981 Price would portray the vampire Eramus in the anthology film The Monster Club, another of my favorites of his and I believe the only time he’s ever played a vampire. The film takes place over an evening at said Monster Club where John Carradine’s horror writer is told stories by Price’s vampire. There’s also some awesome musical segments and a striptease that gives new meaning to the phrase boner. In 1982 Price would join forces for the first time with director Tim Burton for his short, animated film Vincent that was inspired by Price. It’s beautiful, gothy, and 100 percent Burton. In 1983 the greats of horror would all join forces in the horror comedy House of Long Shadows. The film would see Price with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, John Carradine. The film was a parody in many ways of the films that the four had starred in previously through their careers. That same year Vincent Price would be introduced to a whole new generation of fans with one of the biggest moments and songs in music history with Thriller. The Michael Jackson music video and record of the same name changed the world of pop music forever. Vincent Price’s “rap” in the song and his iconic laugh were perfect for it.

Vincent Price kept busy during the 80s and would return to the parody world in 1984 with the awesomely titled Bloodbath at the House of Death where he played the aptly titled Sinister Man. This is another one not enough people talk about and is just wickedly funny. It skewers films like The Omen and supernatural investigations like The Legend of Hell House as well as Carrie. Price’s character is just a sarcastic bastard, and I love it.

Continuing his love for working in kid friendly content, Price would join the world of Scooby Doo in 1985 with The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as Vincent VanGhoul, basically Price himself if he were a wizard/magician. The character would return very recently in a direct to DVD finale to the story with Maurice Lamarche in Scooby Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost.

In 1986 Price was the host in the anthology film Escapes, released direct to video. That same year one of his favorite roles he would ever play happened when he stepped into the world of Disney as the villain Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective. Price actually sang in the film which followed Basil, the mouse who lives in Sherlock Holmes’s 221 B Baker Street apartments and happens to be a detective too.

In 1987 Price would once again be the guide through a handful of horror stories in the anthology film From a Whisper to a Scream. Price’s health was starting to decline in the late 80s, but it didn’t slow him down much. In fact he would co-star in the Oscar nominated The Whales of August the same year. In 1988 he would play one of the main villains in Dead Heat, the zombie buddy action cop comedy horror film starring Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo.

Vincent Price would rejoin with Tim Burton for one of his last on-screen roles as The Inventor who gives life to Edward Scissorhands. It’s a beautiful role for one of his last and in a way is a passing of the torch to actor Johnny Depp who would go on in roles in a number of horror films himself.

Vincent Price’s last on-screen role would be in the TV Movie The Heart of Justice in 1992 alongside actor Dermot Mulroney. I actually spoke with Mulroney about working with Price in this and he was very excited to share that, in his mind, Price is his furthest back touchstone to early Hollywood in his career. It meant a great deal to him to work with an icon like him.

Vincent Price passed away only a week before Halloween on October 25th of 1993 at the age of 82. It was right around the launch of the Sci-Fi Channel, and they included a tribute to Price when they launched.

Vincent Price was more than a horror actor though. Growing up during the times he did, there were moments were Price crossed paths with extremism and even Nazi sympathizers and ideals. But Price would not let that taint him. He would eventually become one of the most anti-hate actors in Hollywood. He denounced racism and prejudice and would become an ally to the LGBTQ community and was supportive of his daughter Victoria when she came out to him.

Price loved art. He was passionate about it and felt that it was something that everyone, no matter their income, class, or position should have access to and be touched by. He had an extensive collection and would partner with Sears on offerings for shoppers. Price donated a number of pieces of his own collection to the Vincent Price Art Museum in California.

Vincent Price was as well known for his cooking and love of cooking as he was his art and acting. Price wrote a handful of cook books over the years and would host his own cooking show in 1971. He also recorded tutorials on how to cook as well, even on LPs.

Vincent Price was a one of a kind and while there are many who are inspired by him I can’t think of any one else that can really replicate him. He was smart, kind, funny, and could chill you with a look or a cackle. He embraced his horror pedigree with grace and wit. He enjoyed it as is evident by the interviews and chats he would have over the years. He cared about his fans and was able to span decades easily. Price was afraid to go weird or make fun of himself. He was thrilled to be a Muppet and to make kids laugh and scream in equal measure.

Vincent Price’s legacy lives on through his work and the ones inspired by him. You can find him peeking out through performances, in music, in writing, or in a young fan dipping their toes in the blood of horror’s past. Join us at that House on Haunted Hill, the parties there are killer.