James Whale, who grew up poor in an English mining town, learned to put on plays in a World War I German prison camp. Postwar theatre work took him to the London stage, then Broadway, then a contract with Paramount, as dialog director for Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels. He began his contribution to the horror film genre with his move to Universal, directing Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, notable for its sympathetic presentation of the monster, and The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein, both notable for the humor he injected into horror. As horror movies lost favor, he retreated to a more private and hedonistic life including painting and all-male pool parties, at one point separating from his longtime lover David Lewis, suffering several strokes, finally committing suicide by drowning in his pool (he was afraid of water). His suicide note, to Lewis, read "The future is just old age and illness and pain.... I must have peace and this is the only way."


Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Columbarium of Memory, Niche #20076. Because Whale's status as a director at Universal under the Carl Laemmle regime grew until he was given total control over his films, many of his films carry the credit "A James Whale Production", even though Whale never actually produced his films; the producing chores were always handled by someone else. Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 1197-1202. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987. Retired from making films in 1941, except for his 1949 unreleased comeback, the film "Hello Out There".