Vincent Price is best remembered for his roles in horror movies, specifically the
Roger Corman adaptations from Edger Allan Poe. Although these gave him a wide
variety of characters to play and were striking enough, they type cast him for the
remainder of his career. Price did not start out with the intentions of becoming an
actor but rather an art historian. He obtained degrees in Art History and English at
Yale and then taught school for a year. He felt that he needed to further his education
though as the students seemed to know more than he did! Price returned to college to
take his Masters in Fine Arts at the Courtauld Institute in London, he also studied
briefly in Vienna.

It was while in London In 1934 that the theatre bug hit him, theatre tickets were
relatively cheap and Price took advantage of this. He first appeared as an actor at the
Gate Theatre, at the time a private experimental theater, as the judge and a policeman
in the play "Chicago'. He also appeared here as Albert in 'Victoria Regina', the role
that was to bring him to Broadway and the public's attention. The show's producer
Gilbert Miller, decided to take the play to New York and open with Hellen Hayes
( the number one actress in America at the time), in the leading role. Miller also
decided to take Vincent Price to New York to play opposite her. The play opened on
the 26th December 1935 and ran for three years.

The programme notes in the original 1936 playbill give an interesting insight into
Vincent Price's entrance to the theatrical profession....

"Vincent Price's appearance as leading man to Helen Hayes marks his professional as
well as his American debut on the stage. This extraordinary circumstance is due to the
fact that although Mr. Price has had stage aspirations since he was ten years old, he
was forced to earn his living as a schoolmaster until mere chance decreed otherwise.
He was studying the history of German art at the Courtauld Institute in London when
a friend took him to London's Gate Theater, where casting of Maurine Watkins'
"Chicago" was in process. American accents being at a premium, Mr. Price was
thrust into the production and found himself doubling as a burly policeman and a
venerable judge. His remarkable resemblance to Prince Albert led to his being offered
the important role of the Price Consort in the ensuing production of "Victoria Regina".
He received glowing notices and was subsequently signed by Gilbert Miller for the
American production."

How accurate that "he was forced to earn his living as a schoolmaster until mere
chance decreed otherwise." is probably an exageration, his father did own the
National Candy Company in St Louis.

Price's love of art never left him and he used his education to good advantage. He
was responsible, in 1951, of founding the Vincent Price Gallery, with his then wife
Mary Grant Price on the campus of East Los Angeles Collage. Price had been invited
to lecture on the ''Aesthetic Responsibilities of the Citizen,'' he arrived to find he was,

''speaking in a Quonset hut on a mud flat.''

He was so struck by the students' spirits and the need for the community to have the opportunity to experience original art works first hand, Price donated some ninety
pieces which established the first ''teaching art collection'' owned by a community
college in the United States. Over the decades, Price and other patrons continued to
contribute art with the goal of illustrating diverse periods, styles, mediums, and
techniques: from Egyptian sculpture circa 600 BC to 1990s serigraphs. He continued
to maintain a hands on interest in the gallery with selecting exhibits and developing a
fund raising programme to which he leant his name and support. In 1991, he was
quoted,

''We just wanted it to serve the community. We didn't want to make publicity out of
it, since everything actors do is suspect! We just shut up and let it grow.''

Price's love of American Indian Art led to another little known side of him, his work
for Native Americans, he worked for 15 years with the Department of the Interior
and was quoted as saying in an interview,

"I have an enormous respect for the American Indian. I think we shut them off, at a
period when they might have become the most creative people on the face of the
earth. But we killed them off."

Prior to his movie career Price joined Orson Wells' Mercury Theatre for a brief spell,
here he claimed, everyone in the company had a disagreement with Wells at some
point or another. Price's first movie was "Service De luxe" in 1938 and he went on to
play such diverse historical characters as Raleigh, Clarence, Richelieu, Charles II and
the Mormon Joseph Smith. He was also cast in several films as a charming but effete
young man, notably in 'Laura' (1944) and 'The Fly' (1958). The occasional horror
role came his way too at this time, he revelled in the old Lionel Atwell part of the
demented sculpter in "The House of Wax" (1953). Price's niche in the horror movie
genre was carved in 1960 with the classic movie "The Fall of the House of Usher".
Price did return to the stage in later years. He toured his one man show of Oscar
Wilde throughout America for many years to great acclaim. It was a demonstration
of the excellence performing skills of Vincent Price and an escape from the type
casting.

In his later years, Price became involved with the rock industry, he was involved in
music videos with performers including Alice Cooper, Ringo Starr, and Michael
Jackson. Price had his own ideas why he was chosen for this honour.

"I have great admiration for rock `n roll, but not when it's done badly. My God! You
know, I have a theory about how I get selected for these things. I think they've based
a lot of their stuff on my movies. They go out and do the rock `n roll, and they're all
high, and making the noise and flying around, and then they go back to their hotel
room, turn on the TV, and there I am! Alice and I met a couple of times, and I liked
him, then he asked me to do 'Welcome to My Nightmare'. Then one time I got a call
and they said would you come and do a recording with Michael Jackson, called
'Thriller'. I said, "sure, I'll do anything." So I went and did it, and I didn't think
anything would happen with it, then it came out and sold 40 million copies! I didn't
do it for the money, because I didn't have a percentage of it. It was just fun to do.
You know to be identified with the most popular record ever made is not just
chopped liver! It has really done me a lot of good, because it has given me a new
audience. "

As if Price didn't have enough to occupy himself during his career as an actor, he
began another career as a TV chef which ran for several series. He had a reputation
as an outstanding cook and collector of recipes. He also found time to write a book ,
"Joe".

Towards the end of his life, he was struck with a great personal loss. His beloved
third wife, Coral Browne, succumbed to breast cancer two days after Vincent
Price's 80th birthday on May 29th, 1991. In the Autumn of that year a memorial
service was held at London's Farmers Church, many of Coral Browne's friends
from the Theaterand Film attended. Price's own frail health made it impossible for
him to be at the memorial in person. A letter written by Price was read out by
director John Schlesinger --

"Dear John:

When I was courting Coral, the first gift she gave me was a photo of herself simply
signed, "Remember Coral" -- not really a challenge as the problem was, how could
you forget her? I've come to believe remembering someone is not the highest
compliment -- it is missing them. I find I miss every hour of Coral's life -- I miss her
morning cloudiness, noon mellowness, evening brightness. I miss her in every corner
of our house, every crevice of my life. In missing her, I feel I'm missing much of life
itself. Over her long illness, as I held her hand or stroked her brow, or just lay still
beside her, it was not the affectionate contact we'd known as we wandered down
the glamorous paths we'd been privileged to share in our few years together; we
were marching towards the end of our time and we both knew it. But, in our looks,
our smiles, the private, few, soft-spoken word, there was hope of other places, other
ways, perhaps, to meet again.

One fact of Coral I'll always miss, her many, many devoted friends -- many here,
today, in this beautiful church, celebrating her life more than mourning her death,
andmissing the liveliness of her wit, her personal beauty, her outgoing self. I love
them all for loving her. Many of you have shared more of her life than I have, but
that very private and intense passion for her is mine alone.

She survived that last long year on the love of her friends, their caring and concern
-- and very especially yours, dear John. I miss you all, and though we may not
meet as often, nor in the great good company of my wife, you are in my memory
locked.