Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993 TAG: 9310280077
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MYRNA OLIVER LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD LENGTH: Medium
He died Monday night at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 82.
The veteran actor succumbed to lung cancer after a long battle with the disease, according to his personal assistant, Reg Williams.
Tall, graceful, worldly and well-spoken - he was educated at Yale and the University of London - Price became a popular lecturer on college campuses and guest on television talk shows, passing along such non-blood-thirsty tidbits as how to cook fish in a dishwasher.
But unlike most actors who gained fame in their younger years, Price retained box-office appeal well into in his 70s, when he was still reaching into new entertainment venues, performing briefly in Michael Jackson's music video "Thriller" and as the voice of the rat in Disney's animated "The Great Mouse Detective."
Although something of a 20th century Renaissance man, Price was remembered best by mass audiences as a horrifying ghoul.
"I think I've made 110 pictures and only 20 of them have been in the thriller category," he said in 1986. "But that is what people remember. I guess it all started with `The House of Wax,' one of the greatest successes in that field. I've been stuck with it ever since."
The "House of Wax" (1953) gave the genre and Price an extra boost because it introduced the short-lived technique of three-dimensional movies. As the evil proprietor of a wax museum who chose to coat real bodies with wax - after he had killed them - the actor literally reached out to audiences wearing special viewing glasses for the three-dimensional effect.
Price's other horror films included a series based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe (whom Price considered the greatest American author) - "The Raven," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The House of Usher," "Tales of Terror," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Tell-Tale Heart."
He was still a force in film at age 80 when he performed a typical role as the kindly creator of a fantasy teen, "Edward Scissorhands." His character died before he had completed the youth's hands, leaving dangerous metal scissors at the ends of his wrists.
Although his distinguished speech caused many to think Price was a native of Britain, he was actually born in St. Louis, the youngest of four children of well-to-do Margaret and Vincent Leonard Price. His grandfather had made a fortune in baking powder, but lost it in the economic crash of 1892. His father was able to save and make a success of one subsidiary, the National Candy Company, which provided sweets for the nation's five-and-dime stores.
Price frequently borrowed Poe's climactic line from "The Raven" when asked all too frequently if he objected to being typecast as a villain:
"Nevermore."
"It's the fact that you are typecast that gives you your fame," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. "I'm not the least bit disappointed that I'm remembered primarily for my horror roles.
"We were all very serious about those pictures," he said of his colleagues in the fright fraternity. "Boris (Karloff), Basil (Rathbone), Peter (Lorre) and I knew we weren't doing `Hamlet,' but we also thought we were doing marvelous entertainment."
"I've just done everything," he told another questioner, "but I feel that I've had a good life. I haven't been as `successful' as some people, but I've certainly had more fun."
by CNB