Other highlights of that decade included the 1942 debut of Fearless Fosdick as Abner's " ideel " ( hero ); the 1946 Lena the Hyena Contest, in which a hideous Lower Slobbovian gal was ultimately revealed in the harrowing winning entry ( as judged by Frank Sinatra, Boris Karloff and Salvador Dalí ) drawn by noted cartoonist Basil Wolverton ; and an ill-fated Sunday parody of Gone With the Wind that aroused anger and legal threats from author Margaret Mitchell, and led to a printed apology within the strip.

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 ).

One of their grandsons was the actor William Henry Pratt, better known as Boris Karloff.

His New York stage debut in 1931 immediately led to film offers and Laughton's first Hollywood film was The Old Dark House ( 1932 ) with Boris Karloff, in which he played a bluff Yorkshire businessman marooned during a storm with other travelers in a creepy remote Welsh manor.

William Henry Pratt ( 23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969 ), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.

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

Karloff was bow-legged, had a lisp, and stuttered as a young boy.

However, the novel was not published until 1920, at least eight years after Karloff had been using the name on stage and in silent films ( Warner Oland played " Boris Karlov " in a movie version in 1931 ).

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.

Karloff always claimed he chose the first name " Boris " because it sounded foreign and exotic, and that " Karloff " was a family name.

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.

Once Karloff arrived in Hollywood, he made dozens of silent films, but work was sporadic, and he often had to take up manual labour such as digging ditches or delivering construction plaster to earn a living.

A key film which brought Karloff recognition was The Criminal Code ( 1931 ), a prison drama in which he reprised a dramatic part he had played on stage.

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 would revisit the Frankenstein mythos in several later films as well, starring with the role of the villainous Dr. Niemann in House of Frankenstein ( 1944 ), in which the Monster was played by Glenn Strange.

Norman Z. McLeod filmed a sequence in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Karloff in the Monster make-up, but it was deleted.

Actor William Henry Pratt ( 1887-1969 ), better known as Boris Karloff was born at 36 Forest Hill Road.

* Karloff Lagarde, Jr. ( born 1970 ), Mexican athlete in professional wrestling

Jack Pierce ( born Janus Piccoula ; May 5, 1889 – July 19, 1968 ) was a Hollywood makeup artist most famous for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in Universal Studios ' 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, along with various other classic monster make-ups for Universal Studios.

Boris Karloff lived out his final years in England at his cottage, ' Roundabout ,' in the Hampshire village of Bramshott.

For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1737 Vine Street for motion pictures, and 6664 Hollywood Boulevard for television.

Lewton promoted Wise to his superiors at RKO, beginning a collaboration which would produce the notable horror film The Body Snatcher starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, a film which in its stylization and atmosphere deliberately evoked the groundbreaking horror films of the 1930s, while presenting a psychological horror film more in tune with the uncertainty of the 1940s.

Even though the film was released in 1944, it was shot in 1941, at which time Karloff was still contracted to the Broadway play, and could not be released for the filming, unlike his costars Josephine Hull, Jean Adair and John Alexander.

Pierce began transforming Karloff at 11: 00 am, applying cotton, collodion and spirit gum to his face ; clay to his hair ; and wrapping him in linen bandages treated with acid and burnt in an oven, finishing the job at 7: 00 pm.

Karloff finished his scenes at 2: 00 am, and another two hours were spent removing the make-up.

When the police respond and start to close in on him he flees and resumes his shootings at a Reseda drive-in theater where an aging horror film icon, Byron Orlok ( Boris Karloff ) is making a final promotional appearance before retirement.

Pierce's reputation was as bad-tempered, or at least extremely stern, but his relationship with Karloff was a good one.

In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg, of the Los Angeles Times, Karloff credited Lewton with saving him from what Karloff saw as the overextended Frankenstein franchise at Universal Pictures.

* Boris Karloff performed a moving rendition of the song on The Jonathan Winters Show in 1968 at the age of 80.

* Homer briefly works at the " Boris Car Loft ", a reference to Boris Karloff.

By 1919, Karloff found regular work as an extra at Universal Studios.

After Frankenstein and starring in several high profile films such as Bride of Frankenstein and Scarface, Karloff spent the remainder of the 1930s continuing to work at an incredible pace, but progressively more into less financially successful films.

In the 1960s, Karloff was a fixture at Roger Corman's American International Pictures.

In spite of the presence of Karloff, The Old Dark House was largely ignored at the American box office, although it was a huge hit in Whale's native England.

Aubrey Smith came to Hollywood in 1929, and teamed up with Boris Karloff of the Overseas Cricket Club to teach cricket at UCLA in 1932.

A photograph of the Hollywood Cricket Club taken at UCLA in 1932 includes H. B Warner ( who Aubrey Smith used to play cricket with for the Actors ' XI in England ), Boris Karloff and Harrow-educated Frank Somerset, who later became Secretary of the Screen Actors ' Guild ( also founded in May 1933 ).

With actors such as Boris Karloff, Aubrey Smith, Ronald Coleman, Leslie Howard ( who joined for social reasons, despite disliking cricket ), David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Elsa Lanchester and Merle Oberon attending matches at the Griffith Park ground on Sundays the British colony in Hollywood set the tone for tea on lawn.

Her work in Cavalcade earned her a contract at Warner Bros. where she became a reliable supporting player, working with Paul Muni, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, Warren William, Leslie Howard, George Arliss, Humphrey Bogart, Boris Karloff and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Lindsay was cast four times as the love interest of James Cagney in Warner films from 1933-1935.

1998-Commemorative blue plaque added to 36 Forest Hill Road, birthplace of Boris Karloff ( William Henry Pratt )

* Hollywood actor Boris Karloff was a resident of Forest Hill.