- He appeared in 80 films before his breakthrough role in Frankenstein (1931).
- He celebrated his 51st birthday during the production of Son of Frankenstein (1939) and said that he had received the best birthday present ever: the birth of his daughter, Sara Karloff. He reportedly rushed from the set of Son of Frankenstein (1939) to the hospital in full makeup and costume as the Frankenstein Monster.
- He was Christopher Lee's next door neighbor for many years.
- According to his daughter, Sara Karloff, he had to have three major back surgeries in his lifetime as a result of carrying Colin Clive up the stairs of the windmill at the end of Frankenstein (1931).
- Suffered from chronic back pain for most of his adult life which, according to his daughter, Sara Karloff, was the result of the heavy brace that he had to wear as part of his costume as the Frankenstein Monster in Frankenstein (1931). He never let it slow him down, however, and kept on being active right up until the very end of his life when he could no longer do so due to age and illness.
- Karloff was considered such an anonymous actor by Universal at the time that he was not even invited to the December 6, 1931 premiere of Frankenstein (1931).
- In the final few years of his life walking, and even just standing up, became a painful ordeal for him. He was so respected in the film industry, however, that most, if not all, of the directors that he worked with during that time would actually go out of the way to change the film's script in order to place his character in a wheelchair just so that he could be made more comfortable.
- When told by a mutual friend that Bobby Pickett, who recorded and sang the hit rock and roll song "Monster Mash", was a huge fan of his, Karloff replied, "Tell him I enjoy his record very much." Pickett still considers that to be the greatest compliment that he has ever received, and Karloff eventually sang the song himself on a TV special.
- His first Broadway play was "Arsenic and Old Lace" in a role that was written especially for him. He played Jonathan Brewster, whose face has been changed by a disreputable plastic surgeon named Dr. Einstein so that he now looks like Boris Karloff. He also performed the role in the road company of this production.
- He was one of the 12 original founding members of the Screen Actors Guild and held Screen Actors Guild card #9. His daughter, Sara Karloff, recounts that due to the Hollywood studio heads' distrust of unions and their attempts to keep them from forming, he always carried a roll of dimes in his pocket. This was because he had to use pay phones whenever conducting union business since he knew that his home phone had been tapped.
- Although he will forever be linked to the Frankenstein Monster, Karloff actually played the Monster only three times--once in Frankenstein (1931), again in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and finally in Son of Frankenstein (1939). He played Dr. Frankenstein only once, in Frankenstein 1970 (1958).
- Both of Karloff's parents died when he was still a boy.
- He was the biggest star ever to lend his voice to a sound effect. Universal added his anguished scream over the dead Ygor from Son of Frankenstein (1939) to its stock sound effects library and used it for subsequent films, including House of Frankenstein (1944) (it was used as the cry when Daniel the hunchback falls from the roof of the building).
- He was considered a late bloomer in Hollywood; Frankenstein (1931) premiered when he was 44 years old.
- Never legally changed his name to Boris Karloff. Outside of the film industry, he always went by either William Pratt or Bill Pratt. He always signed contracts and documents as "William Henry Pratt a.k.a. Boris Karloff". His daughter, Sara Karloff, legally changed her last name to Karloff for professional reasons.
- He co-starred with Bela Lugosi in only eight films: Gift of Gab (1934) The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), You'll Find Out (1940), Black Friday (1940) and The Body Snatcher (1945).
- During the production of Frankenstein (1931) there was some concern that 7-year-old Marilyn Harris who played Maria, the little girl who was thrown into the lake by the Frankenstein Monster and then drowned, would be overly frightened by the sight of Karloff in his makeup and costume when it came time to shoot the scene. When the cast was assembled to travel to the location, Marilyn ran from her car directly up to Karloff, who was in full makeup and costume, took his hand and asked "May I drive with you?". Delighted, and in typical Karloff fashion, he responded, "Would you, darling?". She then rode to the location with "the Monster".
- Played cricket for the Enfield Cricket Club (just north of London, England) before emigrating, and the club has his picture hanging in the pavilion.
- Often thought of as a very large man, he was actually a slim man of medium height. He wore huge lifts and a lot of padding to give him the massive appearance of the Frankenstein Monster.
- His siblings pushed him toward a career in government service, but he turned to acting instead.
- Maintained an apartment in the Dakota, a famous apartment building in New York.
- His performance as the Frankenstein Monster was an inspiration for the Marvel Comics character the Hulk.
- 1956: he was a celebrity contestant on The $64, 000 Question (1955). The category he chose was children's fairy tales. He won the $32,000 level and quit due to tax considerations.
- The Evil Scientist in the Bugs Bunny short Water, Water Every Hare (1952) was based on Karloff, right down to his slight lisp and his heavy eyebrows.
- His daughter, Sara Karloff, was not informed by her former stepmother and Karloff's widow, Evelyn Hope, that her father had died nor that he had been cremated. Allegedly, Evelyn had excluded everyone from his deathbed.
- In contrast to the image that he presented in most of his films, the private Karloff was, by every account, a quiet, bookish man off-screen. A true gentleman, he had many friends both in and out of show business, and he was particularly fond of children. For the latter, among other things, he recorded many successful albums of children's stories.
- Refused to reprise his role as the Frankenstein Monster in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), because he felt that parodies would not be liked by the audience. He did, however, agree to do publicity for the film and posed for pictures of himself going to see it.
- Shares a birthday with his daughter, Sara Karloff.
- Once did a TV commercial for A-1 Steak Sauce.
- Commemorated by a plaque on the wall of 36 Forest Hill Road, Camberwell, London.
- Pictured on two out of a set of five 32¢ U.S. commemorative postage stamps that were issued on September 30, 1997 and that celebrated "Famous Movie Monsters". He is shown on one stamp as the title character in The Mummy (1932) and on the other one as the Frankenstein Monster in Frankenstein (1931). Other actors that were honored in this set of stamps, and the classic monsters that they portrayed, are Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931) and Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man (1941).
- Insured himself against "premature aging" due to the heavy stage makeup and prosthetics that he often worked in.
- Although he was fond of embellishing his past and saying that "Karloff" was a last name that he had plucked from a relative, his daughter, Sara Karloff, made it absolutely clear that there was no such ancestor in his family tree, as he had no Slavic or Russian roots in his family whatsoever. As uncovered by Canadian historian Greg Nesteroff, the most likely truth is that William Henry Pratt took the stage name "Boris Karloff" from the character in a 1904 book by Harold MacGrath titled "The Man on the Box", which was first made into a play in 1905 and later into various film versions beginning in 1914. Prophetically, a passage in the book about "Count Karloff" seemed to foretell the actor's own spooky future, as a character says: ""I wonder if I'll run into Karloff." Karloff! The name chilled him, somehow.".
- He would mark his lines in the scripts of every film that he starred in. Jack Nicholson saw this, was impressed by it, and adopted the procedure himself as a result of it.
- Once frightened a passerby as he was watering his roses while in full makeup and costume as the Frankenstein Monster.
- Raised Bedlington Terriers while he lived in Brentwood, California. One day he was walking them with his 4-year old daughter, Sara Karloff, when they broke free from their leashes and ran up to a drunk man stumbling down the street. The drunk begged Karloff to give him a ride to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, claiming that he "just saw three sheep bark!". Ever the gentleman, Karloff obliged him.
- Received a Tony Award nomination in 1956 for his dramatic role in "The Lark".
- He was a distant cousin of Quentin Crisp. Karloff's real name was William Henry Pratt while Crisp's was Denis Pratt. Karloff appeared in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) while Crisp appeared in the remake of it, The Bride (1985).
- He was the youngest of eight sons.
- Karloff got the role in The Criminal Code (1930), a breakthrough role for him before he starred in Frankenstein (1931), because he was broke. He could not go to the Masquers Club because he could not pay his dues and he could not afford his second choice, a donut for a cup of coffee, so he went to Actors' Equity, where he learned that there was casting for the role.
- A photograph of him keeping wicket while C. Aubrey Smith was batting was included in a display in the Long Room at Lord's Cricket Ground in 2004. The display was to celebrate Sussex (the oldest county side) winning the County Championship for the first time and the photograph was included because Smith had been a captain of Sussex CCC.
- His hobbies included growing roses, drinking tea, playing cricket and watching rugby on TV.
- Rejected by the British Army in World War I because of a heart murmur.
- Karloff was one of the 12 original founding members of the Screen Actors Guild and held Screen Actors Guild card #9.
- According to his daughter, Sara Karloff, his favorite film out of all the ones that he had starred in was Targets (1968) and his favorite actor was George Kennedy.
- When he died, his obituary in "The New York Times" featured a photograph of his most famous role, the Frankenstein Monster; unfortunately, the image that was used in the newspaper was actually Glenn Strange in full makeup as the Monster, not Karloff.
- Was on very good terms with fellow actor Christopher Lee.
- Karloff had Indian heritage on his father's side of the family, which gave him a dark skin color. In many of his films, he was cast in roles such as Arabians and Native Americans.
- He was raised by his seven older brothers and a stepsister.
- Although he came close to it in a deleted scene from The Mummy (1932), much like fellow horror actor Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff never once got to share a kiss with a female co-star in a romantic scene during his entire career in Hollywood. This was, in part, attributed to the fact that Karloff was dark-skinned due to his Indian heritage, and as such it would not have been acceptable in the old school Hollywood of his time.
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