FACE OF THE DAY

By Alison Kerr

From The Herald (Glasgow), 05.08.1998

To many twentysomethings, the first experience of Vincent Price's blood -curdlingly unctuous tones was probably the poem he narrated as part of Michael Jackson's 1982 megahit "Thriller." The fact that in his seventies, Price was working on pop videos with the world's top music star is proof - were it needed - of the cult status that he that still commanded 10 years after his last screen appearance.

It also signalled a new phase in his career, during which his standing as elder statesman of horror was consolidated with an animated tribute film by Tim Burton and a part in his 1990 gothic fantasy Edward Scissorhands.

Born in St Louis in 1911, Price followed a degree at Yale with a course in art history in London, and it was there that he embarked on his acting career in a play which transferred to Broadway and won him a movie contract.

After an initial attempt at leading-man roles failed, Price found his niche playing debonair but dubious characters in a string of movies at Twentieth Century-Fox, the most memorable being Laura (1944).

The second and best known stage of Price's Hollywood career began when he starred as the demented and disfigured sculptor in the 3-D horror movie House of Wax (1953). Thereafter, he was primarily associated with horror. Price's collaboration with director Roger Corman not only revived the genre, but also brought the work of Edgar Allan Poe to a new generation of viewers. When straight horror movies started to bomb at the box office, Price began to camp it ups in such spoofy horrors as the Dr Phibes films.

Three times married, Price was not only one of Hollywood's most charismatic screen villains, but also a respected art collector and adviser, a distinguished cook, an author, and an admired lecturer. He died in 1993.

Vincent Price stars in The Fall of the House of Usher (Scottish, 12 midnight).