Boris Karloff, More Than 'Frankenstein' Quiz

Answer: Camberwell, London, England

Boris Karloff was born on November 23, 1887 in Camberwell, London, England. He had seven brothers and one sister.

Answer: true

He was nine years old when he played his first role in the Enfield parish production of "Cinderella" in December, 1896. He never wanted to attend college but entered Kings College at the insistence of his brothers. As his interest in acting grew, his grades suffered, and he left college and moved to Canada.

After running into a theatrical agent in Seattle, Washington, he traveled with various theatrical companies. His first film appearance was as an extra in a Douglas Fairbanks film in 1918.

Answer: Cricket

He played excellent cricket which is not unusual, as he was raised in England where cricket is as popular as baseball is in the United States.

Answer: false

Actually, Karloff was married five times: actress Olive Wilton in 1909, Montana Laurena Williams in 1920, Helen Soule in 1924, Dorthy Stine in 1928, and Evelyn Helmore in 1946. He was married to Helmore until his death in 1969.

Answer: "House of Frankenstein"

"House of Frankenstein" (1944) is the tale of Dr. Gustav Niemann (Karloff), an escapee from an insane asylum, who with the aid of his hunchbacked assistant (J. Carrol Nash), revive Count Dracula (John Carradine), the Wolfman (Lon Chaney, Jr.), and the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange), in order to get revenge on his enemies.

While certainly not in the same class as the other movies listed, I thought it was really great fun to watch.

Answer: "Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman"

In 1934 they both made cameo appearances in the "Gift of Gab". "The Black Cat" (1934), "The Raven" (1935), "Son of Frankenstein" (1939), and "Black Friday" (1940), and "The Body Snatchers" (1945) are the other films the pair made together. In "Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman" (released March, 1943), Bela Lugosi plays the Frankenstein Monster, and Lon Chaney, Jr. reprises the part of the Wolfman.

Answer: true

Opening on Broadway in January, 1941, "Arsenic and Old Lace" is the hilarious tale of the Brewster sisters, two elderly spinsters who send lonely old men to their eternal rest with arsenic-laced, homemade elderberry wine--as part of their charity work. One of their nephews, Jonathon, is a murderous gangster.

When Jonathon's drunken plastic surgeon, Dr. Einstein, alters his appearance, he comes out looking like Boris Karloff. Since Karloff plays Jonathon, this is one of the funniest storylines in the play. Erich Von Stroheim later replaced Karloff as Jonathon.

The play was very successful and ran over three years on Broadway. In 1944, the film was released with Raymond Massey in the part of Jonathon.

Answer: He was afraid of mice.

Karloff told Garry Moore, who hosted the CBS game show from 1952-1967, that he was afraid of mice! He was not the only celebrity to reveal their secrets. Ronald Reagan, George Raft, Joan Bennett, Ida Lupino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Sullivan, Lou Costello, Jesse Owens, and Emmett Kelly are a few who appeared on the show.

Answer: All are correct

The Monster was good to Karloff. Billed as merely a question mark in "Frankenstein" (1931), a short while later, Boris Karloff was so well known he was billed merely as Karloff.

Answer: false

The did not work together until 1934 when making the first film together "The Black Cat". Karloff said that at first Bela was suspicious of Karloff and was afraid that Karloff would upstage him. Karloff said that when Bela realized this was not happening, the two became friends.

They first met at a publicity shoot arranged by Universal in March of 1932 on the set of Karloff's film "Happy MacDonald".

Answer: 3

"Frankenstein" (1931), "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), and "Son of Frankenstein" (1939) are the three films in which Karloff played the Frankenstein Monster.

Answer: How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Were you one of the 38,000,000 Americans who watched the first showing of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"? Based on the book by Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel), it was co-produced and directed by Chuck Jones, a friend of Geisel's. It has become one of America's most widely watched holiday specials and is still shown every Christmas season.

It was that wonderful, slow, deliberate Karloff voice that makes it so popular. Did you know that Karloff's slow voice delivery, which made him so popluar, was the result of a lisp he had since childhood?

Answer: "The Body Snatchers"

Based on the notorious real life story of Burke and Hare, this film has been considered one of Karloff's finest. He played the part of carriage driver John Burke who procurred fresh cadavers for dissection by medical students. This is, to my mind, the scariest of all the Karloff films. The story by Stevenson is excellent, too. The film "The Body Snatchers" was released in 1945.

Answer: 51 years old

She was born to Karloff and his fourth wife Dorthy Stine.

Answer: William Henry Pratt

Archibald Alexander Leach was Cary Grant's name, and Leslie Towne Hope was the name of Bob Hope. Boris Karloff's real name was Willaim Henry Pratt. He took his surname from his mother's Russian ancestry and first name because it sounded dramatic. Karloff died of emphysema on September 2, 1969.

He was a fine character actor whose long career spanned stage, film, and television. Thank you for taking my quiz. I hope you enjoyed my tribute to one of my favorite actors, the great Boris Karloff.