Boris Karloff

"You could heave a brick out of the window and hit ten actors who could play my parts. I just happened to be on the right corner at the right time."

"It was a family name on my mother's side, and I thought my own name Pratt, if I ever got known in the theatre might be unfortunate."

"The Monster was the best friend I ever had. I'd been in Hollywood for ten years and no one had heard of me except my creditors. Then in 1931 I played the monster and a career was born. I'm truly indebted to the old Ghoul."

"My father was such a private and modest man. He did not really bring his career home or talk about other actors, and he lived a very conservative, circumspect life. He did not live the life of a movie star. He was a typical English gentleman. I really was not aware. I mean I knew what he did, but I was not aware of the magnitude of his stardom."

"I adored making ' with dear Boris Karloff. He refused to do his own stunts, the mark of a true Hollywood star."

"He was a lovely man. We used to have great fun reciting poetry to each other."

"I remember Boris Karloff saying to me, find something that nobody else can do or will do, even if it is a type of role, and you'll be the only one, and there's nothing wrong with that."

"Very grand, but so withdrawn. But he was always polite. A gentleman."

"Boris Karloff's face has always fascinated me, and I made drawings of his head, added sharp, bony ridges where I imagined the skull might be joined. His physique was weaker than I could wish, but that queer, penetrating personality of his I felt was more important than his shape, which could easily be altered."