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How you came to know Vincent Price may depend on your age. For some, they’re old enough to remember seeing his movies in the theaters. Others of us first met him while watching movies at home on Friday or Saturday nights when local TV stations showed re-runs of scary movies. (If that’s way before your time but you’re familiar with Svengoolie Saturday nights on MeTV, it was a lot like that.)
No matter how you know of him, one thing you’re probably aware of is what a prolific actor he was. IMDB lists 211 acting credits for him! That counts all his films, TV show appearances, and voice work, of which he’s best known for his plethora of cult horror films from the 1950s and 1960s.
I’ve always admired his work, even if I didn’t always enjoy all of his movies. (Some were better than others and some just haven’t aged well at all —and yet I’m still a sucker for old Vincent Price movies and will watch when I come across one!)
But I never really knew much about him beyond that he was an actor. When I added some things to the Skareporium, I learned something surprising about him that I’d never known before. It led me on a mini-quest to learn what else I didn’t know about him. Here’s what I discovered.
1. Vincent Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri.
He hailed from the midwest? That shocked me. With his suave looks and cultured voice, I assumed he’d have posh New England roots. Which, in a way he did. He just didn’t grow up out east.
2. He had Mayflower ancestors.
Rotten Tomatoes revealed that he was “born into a wealthy family with descendants tracing back to the Mayflower…”
Okay, this fits more of the vision I had of him.
3. He was highly educated.
This I would’ve guessed, but I didn’t know that he not only attended Yale but also the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.
4. He was a gourmet chef and cookbook author.
This is what fueled my quest to know more about Vincent Price. When I added the Creepy Cookbooks shelf to the Skareporium and was looking for books to add, I came across Mary and Vincent Price’s Come into the Kitchen Cook Book. It’s a book he wrote with his second wife.
It’s not full of macabre meal ideas like most of the other books in that section, but a cookbook authored by horror icon Vincent Price? Yeah, that was good enough to get it added to the shelf.
He actually wrote several other cookbooks, including Cooking Price-Wise: A Culinary Legacy, which includes a forward from his daughter, and A Treasury of Great Recipes: Famous Specialties of the World’s Foremost Restaurants Adapted for the American Kitchen. The 50th Anniversary Edition of that book includes a forward from both his daughter and Wolfgang Puck.
5. He inspired Tim Burton.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “As Price’s film acting career declined, his earlier work in the horror genre only grew in appreciation amongst the genre’s diehard fans, one of whom was a young director named Tim Burton.”
Burton fans may remember Vincent Price as the Inventor in Edward Scissorhands. What a thrill and coup it must’ve been for Burton to have Price as part of the movie! Except, it actually wasn’t the first time they’d worked together.
In 1982, Burton made Vincent, a short film that paid tribute to his inspiration and which Price narrated.
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Did you already know all this about Vincent Price or was any of it news to you too?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I’d heard most of these, but not the cooking part. I can totally picture him as an accomplished chef! Did you know Grandmama on Bewitched was also highly educated? It kind of fits her stage demeanor, too.
Ha, I wonder if our ancestors were related!
NO! I didn’t know that about Grandmama but that makes sense. It DOES fit her stage demeanor!
How wild would that be?!