Boris Karloff

The long-reigning king of Hollywood horror, Boris Karloff was born William Henry Pratt on November 23, 1887 in South London. The youngest of nine children, he was educated at London University in preparation for a career as a diplomat. However, in 1909 he emigrated to Canada to accept a job on a farm, and while living in Ontario, he began pursuing acting, joining a touring company and adopting the stage name Boris Karloff. His first role was as an elderly man in a production of Molnar's The Devil, and for the next decade, Karloff toiled in obscurity, traveling across North Ame...