Actor, writer, and gourmet, born in St Louis, Missouri. He traveled through Europe, studied at Yale, and became an actor. He made his screen debut in 1938, and after many minor roles, he began to perform in low-budget horror movies such as House of Wax, achieving his first major success with The Fall of the House of Usher. Known for his distinctive, low-pitched, creaky, atmospheric voice and his quizzical, mock-serious facial expressions, he went on to star in a series of acclaimed Gothic horror movies, such as The Pit and the Pendulum and The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

He abandoned films in the mid-1970s, going on to present cooking programs for television - he wrote "A Treasury of Great Recipes" (1965) with his second wife, Mary Grant - but he had two last roles in The Whales of August and Edward Scissorhands. He also recorded many Gothic horror short stories for the spoken-word label Caedmon Records.


Price and Christopher Lee were born on the same day (27th May) and Peter Cushing was born on the 26th. Was notoriously superstitious. He once joked that he kept a horseshoe, a crucifix and a mezzuza on his front door. Son, Vincent Barret Price, born in 1940. He was the Wednesday night host for CBS Radio's "Sears Mystery Theater" (1979). He was still Wednesday's host when it became "The Mutual Radio Theater" on Mutual Radio (1980). His ashes were scattered off the Californian coast of Malibu together with his favorite gardening hat. Although always a gentleman, he was considered an eccentric and often engaged in over-the-top theatrics while discussing his favorite subjects, cooking and poetry. Made a short speech about the black widow on Alice Cooper's "Welcome To My Nightmare" album. Appeared in several movies with "house" in the title -- most of them horror movies -- including The House of the Seven Gables (1940), House of Wax (1953) and House on Haunted Hill (1959). He often expressed an interest in doing Shakespeare, which is why Theater of Blood (1973) was one of his favorite roles. He starred in "How to Make a Movie," a short film that was included in the "Vincent Price: Moviemaking the Hollywood Way," a home movie outfit sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. He was a longtime member of St. Victor's, and his wife Coral Browne was buried there with a Mozart Requiem Mass accompanied by a full orchestra. Provided quasi-"rap" voiceover for Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983) (TV). In 1951, Price founded the Vincent Price Gallery and Art Foundation on the campus of the East Los Angeles Community College. It is celebrating its 45th year. Played "the spirit of the nightmare" in Alice Cooper's 1975 television special, Alice Cooper: The Nightmare (1975) (TV). According to Price, when he and Peter Lorre went to view Bela Lugosi's body at Lugosi's funeral, Lorre, upon seeing Lugosi dressed in his famous Dracula cape, quipped, "Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?" He would often attend showings of his films in costumes; often to play pranks on movie-goers. Converted to Catholicism shortly after marrying Coral Browne, a Roman Catholic. According to Price's daughter, the Australian-born Browne then became an American citizen for him. Price voted for Republican candidate Wendell Willkie in the 1940 presidential election, since both his parents were conservatives. Shortly thereafter, his political views altered completely, and he later became one of the most active liberal Democrats in Hollywood. Won $32,000 in an appearance on the game show "The $64,000 Question" (1955). A transcript of an on-stage Q&A with Price (from a 1990s Fangoria convention) appears in Tom Weaver's book "Attack of the Monster Movie Makers" (McFarland & Co., 1994).