{"id":18567,"date":"2023-05-19T14:39:08","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/?page_id=18567"},"modified":"2023-06-06T13:46:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T17:46:15","slug":"boris-karloff-biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/exhibitions\/boris-karloff-biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Karloff Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-black-color has-text-color\">Boris Karloff (English, 1887-1969) <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Karloff was widely known as a horror actor, including his career-defining portrayal of Frankenstein\u2019s monster in multiple films. Karloff also narrated the animated 1966 <em>How the Grinch Stole Christmas <\/em>and acted in other famous films such as <em>The Body Snatcher, The Mummy, <\/em>and<em> The Raven. <\/em>Ernest A. Bachrach\u2019s photograph <em>Horror Man <\/em>captures the eeriness of Karloff\u2019s presence from his role in <em>The Body Snatcher, <\/em>a 1945 film where Karloff\u2019s character robs graves and later commits murders to supply a doctor with bodies for his classes.<em>&nbsp; <\/em>Bachrach plays on Karloff\u2019s iconic status as a horror actor, focusing on his large shadow behind him, pained facial expression, and details of his hands clutching what looks to be a body in a sheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Born William Henry Pratt into an Anglo-Indian family, Karloff would act in 174 films. He was born bow-legged, with a lisp and a stutter, but used this early experience to his advantage in his physical portrayals of tortured characters. Karloff attended King&#8217;s College London toward a career in the British Government&#8217;s Consular Service, but drifted to Canada and performed various odd jobs before picking up roles in the stage and being discovered. He changed his name partially to avoid embarrassment to his family, respected members of the British Foreign Service, at a time when acting was not as respected as it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"714\" height=\"900\" data-id=\"18565\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2023\/05\/2012.10.14-714x900.webp\" alt=\"Earnest A. Bachrach, Horror Man (Boris Karloff in The Body Snatcher), 1945, gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 1\/4 in., Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in memory of Robert Andrew Johnson, 2012.10.14\" class=\"wp-image-18565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2023\/05\/2012.10.14-714x900.webp 714w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2023\/05\/2012.10.14-238x300.webp 238w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2023\/05\/2012.10.14-768x968.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2023\/05\/2012.10.14-1219x1536.webp 1219w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2023\/05\/2012.10.14-498x628.jpg 498w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2023\/05\/2012.10.14.webp 1523w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Earnest A. Bachrach, <em>Horror Man (Boris Karloff in The Body Snatcher)<\/em>, 1945, gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 1\/4 in., Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in memory of Robert Andrew Johnson, 2012.10.14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" data-id=\"14895\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2021\/01\/blank-image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14895\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"10\" height=\"10\" data-id=\"14895\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/files\/2021\/01\/blank-image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14895\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boris Karloff (English, 1887-1969) Karloff was widely known as a horror actor,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1626,"featured_media":0,"parent":1152,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-18567","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18567"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19263,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18567\/revisions\/19263"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/museum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}