Reasons to be a Boris Karloff Fan

1. Responsible for two influential cinematic icons - the Frankenstein Monster and the Mummy. No other actor has yet achieved this level of exposure.
2. At the height of his stardom, he was billed only by last name: KARLOFF (or occasionally, Karloff the Uncanny). This is a very rare accolade, representative of his sterling work in The Mummy (1932), The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935) The Walking Dead and The Invisible Ray (both 1936).
3. Lent his majestic presence to what many (myself included) consider to be the greatest horror films ever made. Standing tall among his other achievements are Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Black Cat, The Black Room (1935), The Walking Dead, Son of Frankenstein (1939), Isle of the Dead (1944), Bedlam (1946) and Targets (1968). Most revered and acclaimed of all are the glorious monoliths to the silver screen's finest twin decades of talking horror - Bride of Frankenstein (1935), an ingenious, operatic fantasia on the classic tale, and The Body Snatcher (1945), turning in his most fiendishly evil and disturbing performance as Cabman Gray.
4. His showstopping Broadway performance as Bishop Cauchon in The Lark during the fifties earned him a Tony nomination. By most accounts, he lost under very unfair circumstances.
5. Also had unprecedented Broadway success as Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace throughout the forties, in which he spoke the immortal line, "He said I looked like Boris Karloff!" It's now one of the most celebrated stage comedies in history.
6. Won a Grammy for his narration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Later used it as a doorstop. That takes some serious panache!
7. His marvellous vocal presence earned him the perennially successful tribute song, Monster Mash. It still gets far more airtime than any other record at Halloween, being uniquely catchy and ghoulishly groovy.
8. His mere presence in a film has jump started the careers of several Hollywood luminaries. Among them are The Body Snatcher's Robert Wise (his success on that Val Lewton chiller led to The Sound of Music and West Side Story); young Jack Nicholson from The Raven and The Terror (both 1963; his multiple Academy Award nominations verify his worthiness); and Peter Bogdanovich, who got his directorial break with 1968's Targets (Paper Moon). He is also indirectly responsible for the rise of Christopher Lee and the advent of the entire Hammer horror cycle, by turning down The Curse of Frankenstein (1957).
9. Originated the role of Captain Hook (on Broadway, yet again) in Leonard Bernstein's dark version of Peter Pan.
10. Played opposite Lord Laurence Olivier (himself!) in the West End to raise money for charity. And, yes, probably gave him a run for his money.
11. He has featured on two separate US postage stamps. This places him on a par with the Queen of England, who, to be quite honest, is only there by birthright.
12. Made an appearance in one of the earliest colour films, House of Rothschild (1934). Was later the star attraction in the big budget melodrama The Climax (1944), photographed in Technicolor. This process was not only expensive and rather innovative, but it reinstated faith in Boris's box office appeal.
13. Was fully prepared to suffer for his art. Most infamous was his makeup in The Mummy. It took a marathon eight hours to equip, had no special compartments for visits to the toilet (God forbid!), ensured that he collapsed from oxygen starvation, and kept him fully awake for well over twenty-four hours. I fear we shall not see his like again...
14. By all accounts, he was the most kind and generous human being. Virtually no one (minus Susanna Foster) has said a bad word about this gentleman and gentle man.
15. Served in World War II on night watch duty, despite the fame and glamour of his cinematic and Broadway success glittering around him.
16. In the best tradition of Bette Davis, "he did it the hard way." A solid twenty years or so of bit parts, hard labour, truck driving, rationing out soup tins, drifting in and out of stock and rep companies, five failed marriages, learning dozens of scripts to perform on rotation, ecetera, ecetera, loomed ahead before late bloom stardom at 44. This also shaped and guaranteed his humbleness regarding his fame.
17. Owned a pig named Violet. That's reason enough to make somebody great.
18. Worked at age eighty-two, in wheelchair and with oxygen mask equipped, for the sheer love of his craft. He was a well-off man, he didn't need to do it... but he carried on all the same. This also ended up killing him, when a torrential flood on The Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968) aggravated his troublesome emphysema. He died as he wished, "with my boots and my grease-paint on."

There you have it. The foundations of a great actor. And with no spotty, squint-eyed, midgety Daniel Radcliffe in sight. God bless cinema history!