Boris Karloff

English-born actor, real name William Pratt, who emigrated to Canada in 1909.

Karloff is best remembered for his roles in Universal horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939). His popularity following Frankenstein was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or "Karloff the Uncanny".

Others films include Scarface (1932), The Old Dark House (1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), The Mummy (1932), The Ghoul (1933), The Raven (1935), Tower of London (1939) and many others.

Karloff’s best-known non-horror role is as the voice of the Grinch in the television animated special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)

In contrast to his screen image, Karloff was known in real life as a very kind gentleman who gave generously, especially to children's charities. Beginning in 1940, Karloff dressed up as Santa Claus every Christmas to hand out presents to physically disabled children in a Baltimore hospital.

This is a great Karloff rarity (and probably unique). In their March 15th issue in 1968, Life magazine ran an article entitled The Truth About Frankenstein, about how Mary Shelley created the monster 150 years earlier. They coupled this with the fact that the wonderful Boris Karloff was now 80 and ran a colour front cover of his face illuminated by innumerable birth candles.  The copy alongside his face read "Boris Karloff at 80 celebrates an old friend's birthday." (of the Monster. Karloff famously said "My dear old monster. I owe everything to him. He's my best friend." I suspect the article carried this quote.)

This is a very fine example of that Time cover, from the collection of the great John Street. The Time banner has been neatly trimmed off to leave an 8" x 10" image in very good condition, without tears, stains, folds or creases . Most important, there's a superb Boris Karloff signature in black ink across the glowing stems of the candles. (John Street was a wonderful writer of fan letters and developed a pen-pal friendship with Boris Karloff, who lived In Britain from the mid-1950s)

(The third scan shows the reverse of the front cover. with a typical 1960s advert.)