Peter Cushing . Rex Harrison . Vincent Price . James Mason . Basil Rathbone
Sir Cedric Hardwicke . Josheph Cotten . Montgomery Clift




Vincent Price (1911 / 1993)
The man: born in the beautiful city of St. Louis, in Missouri, with his antique air and an old-fashioned elegance, he always had an image natural for the nineteen century. He got a vaste cultural stock of knowledge, acquired at Yale and after, at the University of London. It was there where he made his debut on the theater, before coming back to the States to work in Broadway, from where he make his first works for the Hollywood industry. His professional activity was very abundant, but his problem (and also his succes, that's true) was the typecasting. In spite being beliable in every kind of role, he earned his fame and polpularity mainly thanks to the fantastic and terror movies in which, usually, he asumed the role of the villain; villains to whom he gave a fine sense of humor, focused in part on the role, and in part on himself as an actor. And something most of the people doesn't know: he was also a writer, and he published art essays about Delacroix and Miguel Angel, and some cookbooks, too.
The movies: He began his film career with Service De Luxe (--------,1938) but soon his name was linked to the terror genre. He shared screen with Basil Rathbone in The tower of London (Roland V. Lee,1939), a terrific revision of Shakespeare's play Richard III; he was the friend of the unfortunate doctor in the first version of The Fly (Kurt Newmann,1953), and the mad artist of House of wax (Andre de Toth, 1959) one of his most popular movies, which was originally filmed in 3-D. Shortly after, he played quite a lot of Poe's tormented characters in the nice Roger Corman's adaptations of the sixties, begining with the classic House of Usher (Roger Corman,1960), the black vision of the spanish inquisition of The Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman, 1961, right image), and the more theatrical The mask of the Red Death and The tomb of Ligea (Roger Corman, 1964 both). He also gave life to the american heir possesed by his evil ancestor The Haunted Palace (Roger Corman, 19), an intersting mix of Poe and the insuperable H.P. Lovecraft. He was reunited with Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre in The comedy of Terrors (Jacques Tourneur, 1963) a funny history about what to do if your undertaker's business does not go well, and Histories of Terror (Roger Corman, 1961) a movie composed of three different histories, where he played the victim in all of them. Also known for his deep voice and perfect diction, he can be heard on the final part of Michael Jackson's "Thriller", and as the narrator of the lovely short animated history Vincent directed by Tim Burton at his early days at Disney, which is actually a tribute to Price , his addmited chilhood favorite actor. It was also Burton who offered him his last role on the big screen, as the "inventor" of Jonnhy Deep in Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1991).
The role: probably, his mad artist from House of Wax, for his brilliant interpretation of a dangerous criminal who looks like the most innofensive of men, and because it was the movie who launched his as a terror film star. The movie was quite popular in its time, and made a rara avis between all the monster-from-outer-space movies who filled the screens during the fifties.
More on Vincent Price:

Vincent Price on the Internet Movie Database.
Vincent Price on the Yahoo Actors listing.
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James Mason (May 5, 1909 / 1984)
The man: born James Neville Mason, in Huddersfield, Great Britain, he is undoubtedly one of the best and most prestigious supporting actors given by the english cinema. He studied architecture in Cambridge, where began his liking for the theater; but at last, it was the cinema who got his talent and his work. He could do heroes, villains, cerebral roles, anything, but maybe due to his academic air and ironic, cold and usually estoic attitude, there was always a tendence to cast him as the bad guy. The public valued him less than the critics and the professionals who worked with him, who recognised and praised his depurated technique.
The movies: between the long list of villains he gave life to, some of the most remembered are Philliph Vandamm in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959), Sir Brack in Prince Valiant(Henry Hatahway, 1954), Brutus in Julius Caesar (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1953) Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisioner of Zenda(Richard Thorpe,1952) and general Rommel in The desert rats (Robert Wise, 1953), role he reprised after The desert Fox (Henry Hathaway, 1951). Due to a remarkable versatility, he touched almost every genre, from adventure in Journey to the centre of earth (Henry Levin, 1959, right image) and (Richard Fleischer, 1954) to the historical films in The fall of the roman empire (Anthony Mann, 1964) and drama in A star is born (George Cukor, 1954) and Lolita (Stanley Kubrick,1962), his most well-know main role.
The role: the love-sick professor Humbert Humbert in Lolita, is, probably, his most remembered work. Not only for his great interpretation, which managed to make us feel sorry for, instead of disgusted at the obssesed intelectual; but also for the controversy that came after the release of the movie, based on the also highly polemical Nabokov's novel of the same name.
More on James Mason:

James Mason on the Internet Movie Database.
James Mason on the Yahoo Actors listing.
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Basil Rathbone (19--_19--)
The man: Even when he seems to be remembered only as the still perdurable image of world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone film and theather career is a lot vaster than that. Tall, slender, with an aristrocratic appearance and shakesperian training on the theater, his acting credits include fifty two roles in Shakespeare plays, many years on New York and London scene, more than----movies and two oscar nominations. Sadly, almost all this was eclipsed by his (on the other side, magnificent) interpretation of the victorian detective Sherlock Holmes.
The movies: As said, he played the role of Holmes in a nice serie of fourteen films between The hound of the Baskervilles (Sidney Landfield, 1939, both images with Nigel Bruce, the english actor who played Watson, and unbeliablely, was three years younger than Rathbone) and Sherlock Holmes and the house of fear (Roy Ward Neill, 1946), two for the Fox and twelve for Universal, and in more than two hundred programs of radio. He was also the Duc of----in Tale of two cities (Jack Conway, 1935), the son Frankenstein inThe son of Frankenstein (Rowland V. Lee, 1939), the evil hypnotist in Histories of Terror (Roger Corman, 1961) and paired with Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and Peter Lorre, the dead who didn't want to die in The comedy of horrors (Jacques Tourneur, 1963).
The role: For good and for bad, Sherlock "elemental, dear Watson" Holmes. Because after fourteen films, his identification with the role was complete, and nobody could imagine him in another role's shoes. His charismatic presence permited him not only to play Holmes convincingly, but doing it without misleading Sir Arthur Conal Doyle's creation. As Doyle, he ended up sick of the detective, but unfortunately and like Doyle again, the creation surpassed him and took control of his own destiny. So when he decided to break with the detective, that decision supposed the end of his career as a Hollywood star. Holmes was at the time the best and the worse thing which happened to him; but his powerful perfomance will stay forever in our mind. We won what he losed.
More on Basil Rathbone:

Basil Rathbone on the Internet Movie Database.
Basil Rathbone on the Yahoo Actors listing.
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