Adoption of stage name Pratt began appearing in theatrical performances in
Canada in 1911. He was present in
Regina, Saskatchewan, in June 1912, the day the
Regina Cyclone destroyed much of the city. The theatre group he was with gave a benefit performance that night at the
Regina Theatre to assist in relief efforts. The next week, appearing in
Saskatoon, they donated half of the receipts from their performances to Regina relief. During this period, he chose
Boris Karloff as his stage name. Karloff always said he chose the first name "
Boris" simply because it sounded foreign and exotic, and that "Karloff" was a family name. Karloff's daughter, Sara, publicly denied any knowledge of Slavic forebears, "Karloff" or otherwise. It has been speculated by film historians that he took the stage name from a
mad scientist character named "Boris Karlov" in the novel
The Drums of Jeopardy by
Harold MacGrath, but the novel was not published until 1920, at least eight years after Karloff had been using the name on stage and in films. (
Warner Oland played "Boris Karlov" in a
film version in 1931.) Another possible influence was thought to be a character in the
Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy novel
The Rider, which features a "Prince Boris of Karlova", but, because the novel was not published until 1915, the influence may be backward, that Burroughs saw Karloff in a play and adapted the name for the character. One reason for the name change was to prevent embarrassment to the Pratt family. Whether or not his brothers (all dignified members of the
British Foreign Service) actually considered young William the "black sheep of the family" for having become an actor, Karloff apparently worried they felt that way. He did not reunite with his family until he returned to Britain to make
The Ghoul (1933), extremely worried that his siblings would disapprove of his new,
macabre claim to world fame. Instead, his brothers jostled for position around him and happily posed for publicity photographs upon their reunion with him. After the photo was taken, Karloff's brothers immediately started asking about getting a copy of their own. The story of the photo became one of Karloff's favorites.
Canadian and American stage work Karloff joined the
Jeanne Russell Company in 1911 and performed in towns including
Kamloops (
British Columbia) and
Prince Albert (
Saskatchewan). After the devastating tornado in Regina on 30 June 1912, Karloff, who was in the midst of an engagement at the Regina Theatre, and other performers helped with clean-up efforts. He later took a job as a railway baggage handler and joined the Harry St. Clair Company that performed in
Minot, North Dakota, for a year in an opera house above a hardware store. While he was trying to establish his acting career, Karloff had to perform years of manual labour in Canada and the United States to make ends meet. Among this work, he spent one year laying track, digging ditches, shoveling coal, clearing land, and working with surveying parties for the
B.C. Electric Railway Company, at the rate of $2.50 per day. From this gruelling work with the BCER and other employers, Karloff was left with back problems for the rest of his life. Because of his health, he did not serve in
World War I. During this period, Karloff worked in various theatrical stock companies across the U.S. to hone his acting skills. Some acting companies mentioned were the Harry St. Clair Players and the Billie Bennett Touring Company. By early 1918, he was working with the Maud Amber Players in
Vallejo, California, but because of the
Spanish flu outbreak in the San Francisco area and the fear of infection, the troupe was disbanded. He was able to find work with the Haggerty Repertory for a while (according to the 1973 obituary of
Joseph Paul Haggerty, he and Boris Karloff remained lifelong friends).
Early Hollywood career in
The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932). and Karloff in
Frankenstein (1931) Once Karloff arrived in Hollywood, he appeared in small roles in dozens of
silent films, but the work was sporadic and he often had to take up manual labour such as digging ditches or delivering construction plaster to make ends meet. (According to Karloff, his first film was a
Frank Borzage picture at
Universal for which he received $5 as an extra; the title of this film has never been traced.) His first certain screen role was in a film serial,
The Lightning Raider (1919) with
Pearl White. He was in another serial that same year,
The Masked Rider (1919), the earliest of his film appearances that has survived. Karloff could also be seen in
His Majesty, the American (1919) with
Douglas Fairbanks,
The Prince and Betty (1919),
The Deadlier Sex (1920) with
Blanche Sweet, and ''
The Courage of Marge O'Doone (1920). He played an Indian in The Last of the Mohicans'' (1920) with
Wallace Beery and he would often be cast as an Arab or Indian in his early films. Karloff's first major role came in a film serial,
The Hope Diamond Mystery (1920). He was Indian in
Without Benefit of Clergy (1921) and an Arab in
Cheated Hearts (1921) and villainous biracial hired hand in
The Cave Girl (1921). He was a maharajah in
The Man from Downing Street (1922), a Nabob in
The Infidel (1922) and had roles in
The Altar Stairs (1922),
Omar the Tentmaker (1922) (as an Imam),
The Woman Conquers (1922),
The Gentleman from America (1923),
The Prisoner (1923) and the serial
Riders of the Plains (1923). Karloff did a Western,
The Hellion (1923), and a drama,
Dynamite Dan (1924). He could be seen in
Parisian Nights (1925),
Forbidden Cargo (1925),
The Prairie Wife (1925) and the serial
Perils of the Wild (1925). Karloff went back to bit part status in
Never the Twain Shall Meet (1925), directed by
Maurice Tourneur, but he had a good support part in
Lady Robinhood (1925) starring
Evelyn Brent in the titular role. Karloff went on to be in
The Greater Glory (1926),
Her Honor, the Governor (1926),
The Bells (1926) (as a mesmerist),
The Nickel-Hopper (1926) with
Mabel Normand,
The Golden Web (1926),
The Eagle of the Sea (1926),
Flames (1926),
Old Ironsides (1926) with Wallace Beery and
Esther Ralston,
Flaming Fury (1926),
Valencia (1926),
The Man in the Saddle (1926) with
Hoot Gibson,
Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927) (as an African),
Let It Rain (1927), ''
The Meddlin' Stranger (1927), The Princess from Hoboken (1927), The Phantom Buster (1927) with Buddy Roosevelt, and Soft Cushions'' (1927). Karloff had roles in
Two Arabian Knights (1927),
The Love Mart (1927) with
Noah Beery Sr.,
The Vanishing Rider (1928) (a serial),
Burning the Wind (1928),
Vultures of the Sea (1928), and
The Little Wild Girl (1928). He was in ''
The Devil's Chaplain (1929), The Fatal Warning (1929) for Richard Thorpe, The Phantom of the North (1929), Two Sisters (1929), Anne Against the World (1929), Behind That Curtain (1929) with Warner Baxter, and The King of the Kongo'' (1929), a serial directed by Thorpe. One day while he was sitting at a bus stop in the pouring rain,
Lon Chaney Sr., 'The Man of a Thousand Faces', spotted Karloff and offered him a ride. Chaney told him to "find something different that will set you apart and is different from anything someone else has done or is willing to do and do it better". Karloff had an uncredited bit part in
The Unholy Night (1930) directed by
Lionel Barrymore, and bigger parts in
The Bad One (1930),
The Sea Bat (1930) starring
Charles Bickford and directed by Lionel Barrymore and
Wesley Ruggles, and
The Utah Kid (1930) directed by Thorpe. A film which brought Karloff recognition was
The Criminal Code (1931), a prison drama directed by
Howard Hawks in which he reprised a dramatic part he had played on stage. In the same period, Karloff had a supporting role as a mob boss in Hawks'
gangster film Scarface starring
Paul Muni and
George Raft, but the film was not released until 1932 because of censorship problems. He did another serial for Thorpe,
King of the Wild (1931), then had support parts in
Cracked Nuts (1931) with
Wheeler and Woolsey, ''
Young Donovan's Kid (1931) with Jackie Cooper, Smart Money (1931) with Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney in their only film together, The Public Defender (1931) with Richard Dix, I Like Your Nerve (1931) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Loretta Young, and Graft'' (1931) with
Regis Toomey and future agent
Sue Carol. Another significant role in the autumn of 1931 saw Karloff play a key supporting part as an unethical newspaper reporter in
Five Star Final with Edward G. Robinson, a film about tabloid journalism which was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture. He could also be seen in
The Yellow Ticket (1931) with
Elissa Landi,
Lionel Barrymore and
Laurence Olivier during Olivier's memorable first round in Hollywood,
The Mad Genius (1931) with
John Barrymore,
The Guilty Generation (1931) with
Robert Young and
Tonight or Never (1931) with
Gloria Swanson.
Stardom Karloff acted in eighty-one films before being discovered by
James Whale and cast in
Frankenstein (1931). Karloff's role as
Frankenstein's monster was physically demanding – it necessitated a bulky costume with four-inch platform boots – but the costume and extensive makeup produced an iconic image. The costume was a job in itself for Karloff with the shoes weighing each, which further aggravated his back problems. Universal Studios quickly copyrighted the makeup design for the Frankenstein monster that
Jack P. Pierce had created. It took a while for Karloff's stardom to be established with the public – he had small roles in
Behind the Mask (1932),
Business and Pleasure (1932) and
The Miracle Man (1932). As receipts for
Frankenstein and
Scarface flooded in, Universal gave Karloff third billing in
Night World (1932), with
Lew Ayres,
Mae Clarke and
George Raft. and Karloff in
The Old Dark House (1932) '' (1932) '' (1935) and Karloff in
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Karloff was reunited with Whale at Universal for
The Old Dark House (1932), a horror film based on the novel
Benighted by
J. B. Priestley, in which he finally enjoyed top billing above
Melvyn Douglas,
Charles Laughton,
Raymond Massey and
Gloria Stuart; he was billed simply as "KARLOFF", a custom that Universal continued for several years. He was loaned to
MGM to play the titular role in
The Mask of Fu Manchu (also 1932), for which he had top billing. Back at Universal, he was cast as
Imhotep who is revived to life in
The Mummy (1932), an original story inspired by the unsealing of
Tutankhamun's tomb, conceived to continue the success of the
Dracula and
Frankenstein adaptations.
The Mummy was as successful at the box-office as his other two films and Karloff was now established as a star of horror films. Like
Frankenstein,
The Mummy would spawn a line of sequels, although Karloff would not reprise the iconic 1932 role. Karloff returned to England to star in
The Ghoul (1933), then made a non-horror film for
John Ford,
The Lost Patrol (1934), for which his performance was highly acclaimed. Karloff was third billed in the
Twentieth Century Pictures historical film
The House of Rothschild (1934) with
George Arliss, which was highly popular. Horror had become Karloff's primary genre, and he gave a string of lauded performances in
Universal's horror films, including several with
Bela Lugosi, his main rival as heir to
Lon Chaney's status as the leading horror film star. While the long-standing, creative partnership between Karloff and Lugosi never led to a close friendship, it produced some of the actors' most revered and enduring productions, beginning with
The Black Cat (1934) and continuing with
Gift of Gab (1934), in which both had cameos. Karloff reprised the role of Frankenstein's monster in
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) for James Whale. Then he and Lugosi were reunited for
The Raven (1935). Billed only by his last name during this period, Karloff had
top billing above Lugosi in all their films together despite Lugosi having the larger role in
The Raven. For
Columbia, Karloff made
The Black Room (1935) then he returned to Universal for
The Invisible Ray (1936) with Lugosi, more a science fiction film. Karloff was then cast in a
Warner Bros. horror film,
The Walking Dead (1936). Because the
Motion Picture Production Code (known as the Hays Code) began to be seriously enforced in 1934, horror films declined in the second half of the 1930s. Karloff worked in other genres, making two films in Britain,
Juggernaut (1936) and
The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936) which was released in the U.S. as
The Man Who Lived Again. He returned to Hollywood to play a supporting role in
Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), then starred in a crime drama,
Night Key (1937). At Warners, he did two films with
John Farrow, playing a Chinese warlord in
West of Shanghai (1937) and a murder suspect in
The Invisible Menace (1938). Karloff went to
Monogram to play the title role of a Chinese detective in
Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), which led to a series. Karloff's portrayal of the character is an example of Hollywood's use of
yellowface and its portrayal of East Asians in the earlier half of the 20th century. He had another heroic role in ''
Devil's Island'' (1939). Universal found reissuing
Dracula and
Frankenstein led to success at the box-office and began to produce horror films again starting with
Son of Frankenstein (1939). Karloff reprised his role, with Lugosi also starring as Ygor and top-billed
Basil Rathbone as Dr. Frankenstein. This was Karloff's first Universal film since the original
Frankenstein in which Karloff was not top billed as "KARLOFF", a custom that the studio had used for eight films in a row while Karloff was at the height of his career. Basil Rathbone held top billing for
Son of Frankenstein, and since Rathbone, Karloff and Lugosi were all billed above the title, billing Basil, Boris and Bela was hard to resist. Karloff was never billed by simply his last name again. Regarding
Son of Frankenstein, the film's director
Rowland V. Lee said his crew let Lugosi "work on the characterization; the interpretation he gave us was imaginative and totally unexpected ... when we finished shooting, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he stole the show. Karloff's monster was weak by comparison." After
The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939) and
Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939) he signed a three-picture deal with Columbia, starting with
The Man They Could Not Hang (1939). Karloff returned to Universal to make
Tower of London (1939) with Rathbone, playing Mord, the murderous henchman of King
Richard III. in
British Intelligence (1940) Karloff made a fourth Mr Wong film at Monogram
The Fatal Hour (1940). At Warners he was in
British Intelligence (1940), then he went to Universal to do
Black Friday (1940) with Lugosi. Karloff's second and third films for Columbia were
The Man with Nine Lives (1940) and
Before I Hang (1940). In between he did a fifth and final Mr Wong film,
Doomed to Die (1940). Karloff appeared at a celebrity baseball game as Frankenstein's monster in 1940, hitting a gag home run and making catcher
Buster Keaton fall into an acrobatic dead faint as the monster stomped into home plate. Karloff finished a six-picture commitment with Monogram with
The Ape (1940). He and Lugosi appeared with
Peter Lorre in a comedy at
RKO, ''
You'll Find Out (1941), then he went to Columbia for The Devil Commands (1941) and The Boogie Man Will Get You'' (1941).
Professional expansion and further success , Boris Karloff (seated),
Raymond Hatton and
Grant Withers in
Doomed to Die (1940) An enthusiastic performer, he returned to the Broadway stage in the original production of
Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a homicidal gangster enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff.
Frank Capra cast
Raymond Massey in the
1944 film, which was shot in 1941, while Karloff was still appearing in the role on Broadway. The play's producers allowed the film to be made conditionally: it was not to be released until the production closed. (Karloff reprised his role on television in the anthology series
The Best of Broadway (1955), and with
Tony Randall and
Tom Bosley in a
1962 production on the
Hallmark Hall of Fame. He also starred in a radio adaptation produced by Screen Guild Theatre in 1946.) In 1944, he underwent a spinal operation to relieve a chronic arthritic condition. Karloff returned to film roles in
The Climax (1944), an unsuccessful attempt to repeat the success of
Phantom of the Opera (1943). More liked was
House of Frankenstein (1944), marking Karloff's "retirement" from playing the Monster, where instead, he comes full circle to play the villainous Dr. Niemann, a mad scientist fixated on life-experiments much like Henry Frankenstein, and pass the torch to actor
Glenn Strange, who would play the Monster in subsequent films. Karloff made three films for producer
Val Lewton at RKO:
The Body Snatcher (1945), his last teaming with Lugosi,
Isle of the Dead (1945) and
Bedlam (1946). In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg of the
Los Angeles Times, Karloff discussed his arrangement with RKO, working with Lewton and his reasons for leaving Universal. Karloff left Universal because he thought the Frankenstein franchise had run its course; the entries in the series after
Son of Frankenstein were B-pictures. Berg wrote that the last installment in which Karloff appeared—
House of Frankenstein—was what he called a " 'monster clambake,' with everything thrown in—Frankenstein, Dracula, a hunchback and a 'man-beast' that howled in the night. It was too much. Karloff thought it was ridiculous and said so." Berg explained that the actor had "great love and respect for" Lewton, who was "the man who rescued him from the living dead and restored, so to speak, his soul." Horror films experienced a decline in popularity after the war, and Karloff found himself working in other genres. For the
Danny Kaye comedy
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Karloff appeared in a brief but starring role as Dr. Hugo Hollingshead, a psychiatrist. Director
Norman Z. McLeod shot a sequence with Karloff in the Frankenstein monster make-up, but it was deleted from the finished film. Karloff appeared in a film noir,
Lured (1947) with
Lucille Ball, and as an Indian in
Unconquered (1947). He had support roles in
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947),
Tap Roots (1948), and
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949). , New York, in 1950. He played children's music and told stories and riddles. Although the programme was meant for children, Karloff attracted many adult listeners as well. During this period, Karloff was a frequent guest on radio programmes, whether it was starring in
Arch Oboler's Chicago-based
Lights Out productions (including the episode "Cat Wife") or spoofing his horror image with
Fred Allen or
Jack Benny. In 1949, he was the host and star of
Starring Boris Karloff, a radio and television anthology series for the
ABC broadcasting network. He appeared as the villainous
Captain Hook in
Peter Pan in a 1950 stage musical adaptation which also featured
Jean Arthur. Karloff returned to horror films with
The Strange Door (1951) and
The Black Castle (1952) co-starring Lon Chaney Jr. He was nominated for a
Tony Award for his work opposite
Julie Harris in
The Lark, by the French playwright
Jean Anouilh, about
Joan of Arc, which he reprised years later on TV's
Hallmark Hall of Fame. Colonel March on
Colonel March of Scotland Yard in 1955. During the 1950s, he appeared on British television in the series
Colonel March of Scotland Yard, in which he portrayed
John Dickson Carr's fictional detective Colonel March, who was known for solving apparently impossible crimes.
Christopher Lee appeared alongside Karloff in the episode "At Night, All Cats are Grey" broadcast in 1955. A little later, Karloff co-starred with Lee in the film
Corridors of Blood (1958). Karloff appeared in
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1952) and visited Italy for
The Island Monster (1954) and then returned to Hollywood to appear in
Sabaka (1954). Karloff, along with
H. V. Kaltenborn, was a regular panelist on the
NBC game show,
Who Said That? which aired between 1948 and 1955. Later, as a guest on NBC's
The Gisele MacKenzie Show, Karloff sang "Those Were the Good Old Days" from
Damn Yankees while
Gisele MacKenzie performed the solo, "Give Me the Simple Life". On
The Red Skelton Show, Karloff guest starred along with actor
Vincent Price in a parody of Frankenstein, with
Red Skelton as "Klem Kadiddle Monster". He served as host and one of the stars of the anthology series
The Veil (1958), a 12-episode Hal Roach TV series which was never broadcast at all due to financial problems at the producing studio; the complete series was later rediscovered in the 1990s and eventually released on DVD. Karloff made some horror films in the late 1950s:
Voodoo Island (1957),
The Haunted Strangler (1958),
Frankenstein 1970 (1958) (this time as the Baron), and
Corridors of Blood (1958). Karloff donned the Frankenstein Monster make-up for the last time in 1962 for a Halloween episode of the TV series
Route 66, which also featured
Peter Lorre and
Lon Chaney Jr. During this period, he hosted and acted in a number of television series, including
Thriller and Britain's
Out of This World.
Spoken word recordings and horror anthologies He recorded the title role of
Shakespeare's
Cymbeline for the Shakespeare Recording Society (
Caedmon Audio 1962). He also recorded the narration for
Sergei Prokofiev's
Peter and the Wolf with the
Vienna State Opera Orchestra under
Mario Rossi. Records he made for the children's market included
Three Little Pigs and Other Fairy Stories,
Tales of the Frightened (volume 1 and 2),
Rudyard Kipling's
Just So Stories and, with
Cyril Ritchard and
Celeste Holm,
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, and
Lewis Carroll's
The Hunting of the Snark. Karloff was credited for editing several horror anthologies, commencing with
Tales of Terror (Cleveland and NY: World Publishing Co, 1943) (compiled with the help of Edmond Speare). This wartime-published anthology went through at least five printings to September 1945. It has been reprinted recently (Orange NJ: Idea Men, 2007). Karloff's name was also attached to
And the Darkness Falls (Cleveland and NY: World Publishing Co, 1946); and
The Boris Karloff Horror Anthology (London: Souvenir Press, 1965; simultaneous publication in Canada - Toronto: The Ryerson Press; US pbk reprint NY: Avon Books, 1965 retitled as ''Boris Karloff's Favourite Horror Stories''; UK pbk reprints London: Corgi, 1969 and London: Everest, 1975, both under the original title), though it is less clear whether Karloff himself actually edited these.
Tales of the Frightened (Belmont Books, 1963), though based on the recordings by Karloff of the same title, and featuring his image on the book cover, contained stories written by
Michael Avallone; the second volume,
More Tales of the Frightened, contained stories authored by
Robert Lory. Both Avallone and Lory worked closely with Canadian editor and book packager Lyle Kenyon Engel, who also ghost-edited a horror story anthology for horror film star
Basil Rathbone.
Final roles and work in a scene from the 1963 film
The Terror Karloff went to Italy to appear in
Black Sabbath (1963) directed by
Mario Bava. He made
The Raven (1963) for
Roger Corman and
American International Pictures (AIP). When
The Raven had successfully wrapped shooting with time left in Karloff's contract, Corman conscribed a new story with the same sets to feature Karloff in
The Terror (1963), with
Jack Nicholson in the leading role and Karloff playing a baron who murdered his wife. He made a cameo in AIP's
Bikini Beach (1964) and had a bigger role in that studio's
The Comedy of Terrors (1964), directed by
Jacques Tourneur, and travelled to England to make
Die, Monster, Die! (1965) co-starring Nick Adams. British actress
Suzan Farmer, who played his daughter in the film, later recalled Karloff was aloof during production "and wasn't the charming personality people perceived him to be", probably because he was in such intense pain in the 1960s. In 1966, Karloff also appeared with
Robert Vaughn and
Stefanie Powers in the spy series
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., in the episode "The Mother Muffin Affair", Karloff performing in drag as the titular character. That same year, he also played an Indian
Maharajah on the installment of the adventure series
The Wild Wild West titled "The Night of the Golden Cobra". Karloff's last film for AIP was
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). In 1967, he played an eccentric Spanish professor who believes himself to be
Don Quixote in a whimsical episode of
I Spy titled "Mainly on the Plains", which he filmed in Spain.
Cauldron of Blood, shot in
Spain around the same time, and co-starring
Viveca Lindfors, was only released in 1970 after Karloff's death. In the mid-1960s, he enjoyed a late-career surge in the United States when he narrated the made-for-television animated film of
Dr. Seuss'
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and also provided the voice of the
Grinch, although the song "
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung by the American voice actor
Thurl Ravenscroft. The film was first broadcast on
CBS-TV in 1966. Karloff later received a
Grammy Award for "
Best Recording For Children" after the recording was commercially released. Because Ravenscroft (who never met Karloff in the course of their work on the show) was uncredited for his contribution to
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, his performance of the song was at times misattributed to Karloff. He appeared in
Mad Monster Party? (1967) and went to England to star in the second feature film of the British director
Michael Reeves,
The Sorcerers (1967). Karloff starred in
Targets (1968), the first feature film directed by
Peter Bogdanovich, featuring two separate plotlines that converge into one. In one, a disturbed young man kills his family, then embarks on a killing spree. In the other, a famous horror-film actor confirms his retirement, agreeing to one last appearance at a drive-in cinema. Karloff starred as the retired horror film actor, Byron Orlok, a thinly disguised version of himself; Orlok (named both for Karloff himself and
Count Orlok) was facing an end-of-life crisis, which he resolves through a confrontation with the crazed gunman at the drive-in cinema. Around the same time, he played the occult expert Professor Marsh in a British production titled
The Crimson Cult (
Curse of the Crimson Altar, also 1968), which was the last Karloff film to be released during his lifetime. He ended his career by appearing in four low-budget
Mexican horror films:
Isle of the Snake People,
The Incredible Invasion,
Fear Chamber and
House of Evil. This was a package deal with Mexican producer
Luis Enrique Vergara. Karloff's scenes for all four films were directed by
Jack Hill and shot back-to-back within one month in Los Angeles in the spring of 1968. The films were later completed in Mexico and theatrically released in the early 1970s. Karloff was originally slated to travel to Mexico to shoot the films, but he had emphysema and crippling arthritis. Only half of one lung was still functioning and he required oxygen between takes, so Hill arranged for Karloff to film his scenes in California. Due to the unexpected sudden death of the producer Vergara, all four Mexican films were embroiled for a while in legal actions and were only released posthumously in 1971, with the last,
The Incredible Invasion, not released until 1972, more than two years after Karloff's death. ==Death==