Laughton made his first color film in Paris as Inspector Maigret in The Man on the Eiffel Tower ( 1949 ) and, wrote the Monthly Film Bulletin, " appeared to overact " alongside Boris Karloff as a mad French nobleman in a version of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Door in 1951.

After earning fame in Frankenstein, Karloff appeared as the Frankenstein monster in two other films, The Bride Of Frankenstein in 1935 and The Son Of Frankenstein in 1939, with the latter also featuring Lugosi.

From 1945 to 1946, Karloff appeared in three films for RKO produced by Val Lewton: Isle Of The Dead, The Body Snatcher, and Bedlam.

In the 1960s, Karloff appeared in several films for American International Pictures, including The Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, and The Terror, the latter two directed by Roger Corman, and Die, Monster, Die!

During the 1950s, Karloff appeared on British TV in the series Colonel March of Scotland Yard, in which he portrayed John Dickson Carr's fictional detective Colonel March, who was known for solving apparently impossible crimes.

" In 1966, Karloff also appeared with Robert Vaughn and Stefanie Powers in the spy series The Girl from U. N. C. L. E., in the episode " The Mother Muffin Affair.

Massey and Karloff had appeared together in the 1932 James Whale suspense film The Old Dark House.

She appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein ( 1935 ) with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive, taking over the role from Mae Clarke, who had played it in the original Frankenstein ( 1931 ).

The Chaneys appeared on US postage stamps as the Phantom of the Opera and the Wolf Man, with the set completed by Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy.

* Cyril Gore, a Boris Karloff sound-alike who often appeared as a butler or doorman ; his catchphrase was " Follow me down this cor-ree-dor.

Between 1945 and 1946, Boris Karloff appeared in three films for RKO produced by Lewton: Isle of the Dead, The Body Snatcher, and Bedlam.

The following year Thesiger appeared ( as a Scottish butler ) with Karloff in The Ghoul,

The films in which she appeared included Blue Skies, Forever Amber, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff .. Perhaps her best-known film roles were as Myrtle Mae Simmons in the 1950 film adaptation of Mary Chase's play, Harvey, and as Roberta in the 1952 Three Stooges short subject Cuckoo on a Choo Choo.

Clarke also appeared in the modest pre-code Universal film Night World ( 1932 ), with Lew Ayres, Boris Karloff and Hedda Hopper.

Although Baba had initially begun gaining public attention in the West as early as 1932 as the result of contacts with some celebrities of the time ( such as Charles Laughton, Tallulah Bankhead, Boris Karloff and others ) and from the rather disillusioned account of Paul Brunton ( A Search in Secret India, 1934 ), he achieved additional attention over three decades later through the work of Pete Townshend of The Who.

Film critic Roger Ebert, who had given negative reviews to all three of Curtis's 1980 films, said that Curtis " is to the current horror film glut what Christopher Lee was to the last one-or Boris Karloff was in the 1930s ".

Three months later, three of the six and eighteen others became the guild's first officers and board of directors: Ralph Morgan ( its first president ), Alden Gay, Kenneth Thomson, Alan Mowbray ( who personally funded the organization when it was first founded ), Leon Ames, Tyler Brooke, Clay Clement, James Gleason, Lucile Webster Gleason, Boris Karloff ( reportedly influenced by long hours suffered during the filming of Frankenstein ), Claude King, Noel Madison, Reginald Mason, Bradley Page, Willard Robertson, Ivan Simpson, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Starrett, Richard Tucker, Arthur Vinton, Morgan Wallace and Lyle Talbot.

Among the cast was Houseman's ex-wife, Zita Johann, who had co-starred with Boris Karloff three years earlier in Universal's The Mummy.

Lon Chaney, Jr. took over the part from Karloff in The Ghost of Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi portrayed the role in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and Glenn Strange played the monster in the last three Universal Studios films to feature the character ( House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein ); but their makeup replicated the iconic look first worn by Karloff.

The film comprises three horror stories: " The Wurdulak " ( based on the novella The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, and starring Boris Karloff ), " The Drop of Water " and " The Telephone ".

* Black Sabbath ( 1963 )-a portmanteau Italian horror film, introduced by Boris Karloff, in three segments, the last of which is based on Alexei Tolstoy's vampire story The Family of the Vourdalak ( 1839 ) about a father ( played by Karloff ) who returns to the family home as a vampire.

For the three animated adaptations, three actors were used: Boris Karloff in the original 1966 short, Hans Conried in Halloween is Grinch Night, and Bob Holt in The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat ( all three of them would die shortly after the production of their respective specials and would be unable to reprise the role ).

He paid Leo Gordon $ 1, 600 to write a script, and made a deal with Boris Karloff to be available for three days filming for a small amount of money plus a deferred payment of $ 15, 000 that would be paid if the film earned more than $ 150, 000.

In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg of the Los Angeles Times, Karloff discussed his three-picture deal with RKO, his reasons for leaving Universal Pictures and working with producer Lewton.

However, producer Allan Sherman later admitted that these celebrity ' secrets ' ( such as Boris Karloff being afraid of mice ) were frequently concocted by the show's staff, and the celebrities merely played along.

The 1945 film The Body Snatcher, produced by Val Lewton and directed by Robert Wise, starred Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Karloff starred in a few acclaimed Val Lewton produced horror films of the 1940s and by the mid-1950s, he was a familiar presence on television hosting his own series including Thriller and The Veil and guest starring on such variety programs as The Donald O ' Connor Show.

Frankenstein was the first in a series which lasted for many years, although Karloff only featured as the monster in Bride of Frankenstein ( 1935 ), again directed by Whale, and Son of Frankenstein ( 1939 ).

* December 18 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS, becoming an annual Christmas tradition.

Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein ( 1931 ), Bride of Frankenstein ( 1935 ), and Son of Frankenstein ( 1939 ).

His popularity following Frankenstein was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as " Karloff " or " Karloff the Uncanny ".

Another possible influence was thought to be a character in the Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy novel H. R. H. The Rider which features a " Prince Boris of Karlova ", but as the novel was not published until 1915, the influence may be backward, that Burroughs saw Karloff in a play and adapted the name for the character.

Whether or not his brothers ( all dignified members of the British foreign service ) actually considered young William the " black sheep of the family " for having become an actor, Karloff himself apparently worried they did feel that way.

Due to the years of difficult manual labour that Karloff had had to perform in Canada and the U. S. to make ends meet whilst he was trying to establish his acting career, he was left with back problems from which he suffered for the rest of his life.

Another significant role in the fall of 1931 saw Karloff play a key supporting part as an unethical newspaper reporter in Five Star Final, a harshly critical film about tabloid journalism which was nominated for an Oscar as Best Picture of 1931-32.

The costume was a job in itself for Karloff with the shoes weighing 13 pounds each, and Karloff having to sleep in between two books to avoid ruining his monster makeup.

Karloff donned the headpiece and neck bolts for the final time in 1962 for a Halloween episode of the TV series Route 66, but the episode featured Karloff playing himself, who, within the story, was playing " the Monster.

While the long, creative partnership between Karloff and Lugosi never led to a close mutual friendship ( though their legendary " feud " was just an act for publicity ), it produced some of the actors ' most revered and enduring productions, beginning with The Black Cat.

" Berg continues, " Mr. Karloff has great love and respect for Mr. Lewton as the man who rescued him from the living dead and restored, so to speak, his soul.

An enthusiastic performer, he returned to the Broadway stage in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a homicidal gangster enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff.

Because Ravenscroft was uncredited for his contribution to How the Grinch Stole Christmas !, his performance of the song was often mistakenly attributed to Karloff.

Karloff recorded the title role of Shakespeare's Cymbeline for the Shakespeare Recording Society ( Caedmon Audio ).