The well known and enigmatic Vincent Price was born on the 27th of May, 1911 in St Louis, Missouri. His education was top class, at a private school in St Louis called the St Louis Country Day School. It was a private school, as befitted a child from a wealthy family such as his. His grandfather being the inventor of “Dr Price's Baking Powder” and his father being the president of a candy company. His education was completed at Yale, where he studied art history and fine art.

His interest in the theater began in the 1930s, and led to his first appearance on the stage in 1935, and three years later he made his screen debut in a film called Service de Luxe that saw him playing Robert Wade, an inventor who was looking for love with the kind of woman who wouldn't control him. This of course is not the kind of genre that he would come to be known for, and that he would remain famous for, for more than half a century more.

Instead he would come to be known for his work in horror movies, with his deep and powerful voice, combined with his large stature-standing 6' 4” tall, he was an imposing figure on the screen. In fact, his height gave him problems in his early career, as directors were unwilling to cast supporting actors who were taller than the leading man.

He first experienced the horror niche in the film 'Tower of London' in which he played the Duke of Clarence, a character murdered by that of Boris Karloff but his experience as a horror actor didn't really come into its own until the 1953 'House of Wax'. In the interim he played frequently suave villains in horror films, and even spent time on the radio as 'Simon Templar' in 'The Saint'.

Though 3-D movies had been attempted by this point, none of the major studios had released one until a couple of days before 'House of Wax' premièred. The competitor-'Man in the Dark' by Columbia Pictures was however a black and white movie, thus leaving 'House of Wax' the privilege of being the first color movie released by a major studio.

The movie itself featured a gruesome wax works museum that was actually the cover for a series of murders. Though seemingly just realistic wax models, each was actually the wax encased body of a victim of Professor Henry Jarrod-the wax sculptor of the museum.

1958 saw the release of the original of the movie 'The Fly'. This was remade in 1986 starring Geoff Goldblum, but the earlier version saw Vincent as the brother in law of the scientist in question. A year later he reprised the role, this time with his character trying to create the machine with the help of his nephew-son of the original creator of the teleportation machine.

“House on Haunted Hill” in 1959 saw him playing Frederick Loren in a plot that would be repeated many times-both in the imagination of children and on the big and the small screen.

Five people, who are strangers to him, are invited to a party with a bonus-if they can last the night out at this house they will receive a sum of money-$10,000. The house was otherwise empty and thus, with the doors locked at midnight by a caretaker, there is no way out when the murders begin.

Before they arrive at the House on Haunted Hill the mind games have begun with each arriving in a hearse with the warning that they may well need to leave that way. Each is given a gun, his only protection from whatever is inside.

Come the 1960s, Vincent Price had a long and fast string of successful horror movies, of which he was the star. The first, 'The House of Usher' is a tale of family madness and love gone wrong that included one of many people's greatest fears-the fear of being buried alive. Only, when the coffin is opened the body is missing, the cataleptic inhabitant having woken and escaped!

Seven more movies were released in the following four years including 'The Pit and the Pendulum', and 'Tales of Terror'. Themes included an undertaker who turned murdered to keep himself in business, and a man whose second marriage is tormented by the ghost of his first wife.

Dr. Robert Morgan was his character in the 1964 film, 'The Last Man on Earth'. The plot as the title suggests, saw every person on Earth die from a mysterious illness-all except the good doctor whose work in Panama saw him exposed to a dilute form of the virus that infects all of the world.

This is introduced by a vampire bat bite, and means that he alone can survive as the last man on Earth. He becomes a vampire hunter, each day tracking down and killing more in the manner that he learned when his own wife attacked him, and every night locking himself away safe from the walking un-dead who are trying to find him, to drink his blood.

It is his blood that it turns out would cure them-his immunity cures a woman he finds, who had been using a vaccine to keep the virus from rendering her a zombie too. And yet when more of her kind come looking, instead of taking the news and using it to find a cure-they kill him with one of his own stakes. The last man on Earth is dead. This movie was based on a novel called 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson-'I am Legend' (2007) starring Will Smith-.

Come the mid seventies, the tastes of movie goers were changing and so too Vincent Price's work needed to change if he wished to keep busy. Now, his voice, both powerful and so full of character came into its own as he began to work more on narrative and voice over’s, and also some stage work. 'Diversions and Delights' was a representation of a single night of Oscar Wilde's life, approximately a year before his death and saw Vincent as the leading man, talking of all of life's joys and woes.

An eight year run as the host of Mystery! began in 1981, in which he was seen to introduce an episode of the selected show, on PBS. These shows would be murder mystery, crime and similar themed shows, of which Rumpole of the Bailey is a fine example. Failing health forced his replacement by Diana Rigg in 1989.

In 1983 Vincent lent his voice to a track that many would come to know and love. His was the rapping voice over in Michael Jackson's video for the song Thriller. This wasn't his first jaunt into the musical world, having previously appeared as the voice of The Spider on Alice Cooper's 'Welcome to My Nightmare'.

It was however one of the biggest selling of all of Vincent Price's work. The album 'Thriller' was at its peak selling millions of copies a week, all around the world. On the album it was a version of the rap without music, and without a doubt his menacing voice added a character to it that helped to make it great. Yet Vincent received only a set fee for his work, no royalties-something that he soon regretted when he saw how popular it became.

It should also be noted that there was a lighter side to his career as well, with Vincent Price appearing in several episodes with Jim Henson's Muppets. In one he was seen to explain to Kermit the frog how he turns into a vampire, only to later be bitten on the neck by Kermit himself!


1989 brought him the honor of entering the St Louis Walk of Fame. This is an honor for people born in St Louis, or those who lived important formative years there, and who went on to contribute something to the culture of the United States of America. It is clear that after such a long career, that he certainly left his mark.

He continued to work until the end, with the latest release that he worked on being in 1993. He voiced Zig-Zag the Grand Vizier in the family movie 'The Princess and the Cobler' alongside other classic actors such as Sean Connery. In all he clocked up around 180 movie appearances or voice over’s and much more work besides that was not in character-too much in fact to discuss. His career spanned almost fifty five years, in which he was seldom resting.

After a lifetime as a cigarette smoker, he developed emphysema and also lung cancer. He also suffered from Parkinson's disease, and as his health deteriorated his ability to work was also diminished as his condition became impossible to hide. This was evident in the need to reduce his role in Edward Scissor Hands in 1990, in which he played the Inventor in just two scenes rather than the originally planned script.

Vincent Price sadly passed on October 25th, 1993 aged eighty two years as a result of the lung cancer. Following his cremation, his final resting place is the sea.