By Michael Childers

VVincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 - October 25, 1993) was an American film actor.

He is best remembered for his distinctive voice in a series of distinctive horror films. His tall 6' 4" stature and polished urbane manner was compared with the older Boris Karloff.

His career spanned seven decades and included theatre and radio work as well as his roles in numerous films.

During the 1940s, he appeared in a wide variety of films from straight-forward drama to comedy to horror (he provided the voice of The Invisible Man at the end of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948). He starred with Gene Tierney in two notable films Dragonwyck and Leave Her to Heaven. He played crime-fighter ‘The Saint’ Simon Templar, in a popular radio series that ran from 1947 to 1951.
In the 1950s, he moved into horror films, enjoying a role in the successful curiosity House of Wax and the classic monster movie The Fly. He also starred in the original House on Haunted Hill as the eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren.

In the 1960s, he had a number of low-budget successes with Roger Corman and American International Pictures including the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia.

He also appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theatre of Blood, in which he created a series of campy, tongue-in-cheek villains. He also recorded dramatic readings of Edward Alan Poe's short stories and poems, which were collected together with readings by Basil Rathbone.

He often spoke of his pleasure at playing ‘Egghead’ on the popular Batman television series.

In the 1970s Vincent Price increased his voice and narrative work doing voiceovers on Alice Cooper's first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare and Alice Cooper-The Nightmare and Michael Jackson's music video Thriller.

One of his last major roles, and one of his favourites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective.

His last significant film work was as the inventor in Edward Scissorhands in 1990.