Horror Master Vincent Price Dies

HOLLYWOOD - Vincent Price, art historian and collector, gourmet cook, author, raconteur and multifaceted "Merchant of Menace" best known for his blood-curdling roles in horror films, died last 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-bloodthirsty 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."

Coincidentally, Price is to be the subject of the Arts & Entertainment Network's "Biography," airing at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. today.

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 a boost because it introduced 3-D movies. As the evil proprietor of a wax museum who coated real bodies with wax - after killing 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 Allan 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."

Price frequently borrowed Poe's line from "The Raven" when asked 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. "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."

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.

Graduating from Yale (where he majored in art history and English) in 1933, Price worked as an apprentice teacher at the Riverdale Country Day School in New York. He drove a bus, coached soccer and supervised a dormitory in addition to teaching art history.

Financed by a $900 gift from his parents, he went to England, seeking a master's degree in art history at the University of London. But he soon was cutting classes in favor of bit parts in London's West End theaters.

Within a couple of months, he auditioned successfully for the lead part of Albert to Helen Hayes' Queen Victoria in a play about the royal couple, "Victoria Regina."

"To my amazement, the play was a hit," he wrote years later in Art & Antique magazine. "The classes I missed became faraway guilts."

Price dropped out as a student and went to Broadway with the play. After two years in the show, he signed a contract with Universal Pictures. When no film roles materialized, he returned to theatre. During his lifetime, Price appeared in more than 75 plays, including his one-man show devoted to the writings of Oscar Wilde, which he performed more than 800 times.

In 1937, Price joined Orson Welles' famed Mercury Theater, beginning with a role in "The Shoemaker's Holiday."

He finally shifted to Hollywood in 1938, when he was 27, and in 1939 began establishing himself in horror films, appearing with Rathbone and Karloff in "Tower of London."

He later played an Egyptian architect in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," which required eight years to film and was released in 1956.

He also dabbled in radio theater, portraying Simon Templar on "The Saint."

TV audiences may remember him as Egghead, arch-villain of "Batman" in the 1960s, or the host of PBS' "Mystery" series in the 1980s. He also appeared on more than 300 episodes of "Hollywood Squares" and once tied for the top prize on "$64,000 Question" when the subject was art.

During World War II, when there was little acting to do, Price and some friends opened a small art gallery in Beverly Hills, Calif.

He wrote an art column for a time, syndicated to more than 80 newspapers, and served as chairman of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Indian Arts & Crafts Board. He was also on the UCLA Art Council and was an art juror for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Among Price's honors was the George Washington Carver Institute's award for outstanding contributions to art, science, education and betterment of race relations.

Price was married to actress Edith Barrett, mother of his son, Vincent Barrett Price; to designer Mary Grant, mother of his daughter, Mary Victoria; and to actress Coral Browne, who died in 1991.