Born William Henry Pratt in London, England, on November 23, 1887, actor Boris Karloff was born into a family of British diplomats. He married stage actress Olive Wilton in 1909, and Karloff himself was bitten by the acting bug. The marriage didn’t last long, and he soon left Britain for North America, where he honed his skills as an actor. He made his film bow in 1916, and by 1919 Karloff was appearing in films frequently. Throughout the 1920s, Karloff acted in dozens of films but never had the breakthrough role he needed. But in 1931, when Bela Lugosi turned down the role of the monster in the Universal Studios film Frankenstein, Karloff finally found success at age 43.

Universal’s horror films kept the struggling studio afloat in the difficult times of Depression-era America. Studio executives hit upon the idea of putting their two most famous horror actors, Karloff and Bela Lugosi, in a film to boost box office revenues. Karloff and Lugosi first costarred in the 1934 film The Black Cat. The film was indeed a success, ensuring Karloff and Lugosi would be teamed again. In total, they made seven films together, including The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), and Black Friday (1940). Their final film teaming came in the 1945 RKO release The Body Snatcher.

Although in his later years he was very ill and often confined to a wheelchair, into the 1960s Boris Karloff worked steadily, often for American International Pictures in such films as The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966; with Aron Kincaid and Tommy Kirk) and Bikini Beach (1964; with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello). One of his final acting assignments came in the brilliant low-budget Peter Bogdanovich effort Targets (1968), in which Bogdanovich also acted. Karloff passed away at age 81 on February 2, 1969, after a long battle with emphysema. A few Mexican and Spanish-made films, shot between 1966 and 1968, were released after his death, including Cauldron of Blood (1970; with Jean-Pierre Aumont).