Vincent Price

Born: May 27th 1911
Where: St Louis, Missouri

A cultured, debonair stage star with a smooth voice, Price gained initial attention in England and made his Hollywood debut in 1938.

At first, Price was cast in historical roles such as Raleigh in the 1939 costume drama The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.

Before long, Price became associated -almost exclusively- with the horror genre, though not before he played the scientist-turned-fly's brother in the 1958 cult classic The Fly.

In the early 1960s, Price began appearing in movies produced by American International Pictures, a busy studio that specialised in churning out low-budget teen genre fare for drive-ins.

He often worked with top director Roger Corman, for whom he starred in a series of stylish gothic chillers loosely based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

His other memorable horror and sci-fi turns include William Castle's House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again.

Price was also a fine arts collector, a chef and a lecturer of some note. He published books on art and cuisine, ranging from Drawings of Delacroix to The Come Into the Kitchen Cook Book, co-authored with second wife Mary Price (nee Grant).

He never hesitated to spoof his onscreen image as the Master of Menace, playing Egghead on the TV series Batman, supplying the narration for Michael Jackson's Thriller, and serving an eight-year stint as the sinister host of the TV series "Mystery!".

His last major role in a feature came in 1987. He played Mr. Maranov, the transplanted Russian nobleman who charms Bette Davis and Lillian Gish in Lindsay Anderson's The Whales of August.

Price was a major influence on quirky genre filmmaker Tim Burton, who idolised his screen persona and actually turned this adoration into the subject of an animated short, Vincent, in 1982.

Narrated by Price, this surprisingly dark Disney production told the sad tale of a boy obsessed with the actor.