Vincent Price, the suavely menacing star of countless low-budget but often stylish Gothic horror films, died at his home. He was 82 and had lung cancer, a personal assistant told the Associated Press.
The flamboyant 6-foot-4-inch actor with a silken voice and mocking air helped start a major revival of science-fiction films in 1953 with his portrayal of a cruelly scarred sculptor in "The House of Wax." He went on to play a succession of macabre characters in director Roger Corman's film adaptations of stories by Edgar Allan Poe, including "Pit and the Pendulum" and "Masque of the Red Death."Price appeared in scores of movies, more than 2,000 television shows and occasionally on stage. In his early films he frequently played historical figures - Sir Walter Raleigh in "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" (1939); Mormon founder Joseph Smith in "Brigham Young - Frontiersman" (1940); England's King Charles II in "Hudson's Bay" (1941); and Richelieu in "The Three Musketeers" (1948).
But starting with the three-dimensional "House of Wax," Price joined the pantheon of horror occupied by Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. His specialty was the tongue-in-cheek archfiend - often a demented scientist, inventor or doctor - whose talents had been corrupted and turned to evil ends.
"The best parts in movies are the heavies," Price said in a 1971 interview. "The hero is usually someone who has really nothing to do. He comes out on top, but it's the heavy who has all the fun."
"Horror movies don't date because they were dated to begin with, they were mannered and consciously so - Gothic tales with an unreality," he said in 1977. "They have the fun of a fairy tale."
"In a world where slaughter and vicious crimes are daily occurrences, a good ghoulish movie is comic relief."
Price was also a noted art connoisseur and collector. He lectured on art at colleges and clubs, tied for a top prize for his art expertise on "The $64,000 Challenge" television quiz show in 1956 and for years was a syndicated newspaper columnist on art. He was the art-buying consultant of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and he wrote several popular books on fine art. He was also an accomplished cook and was the co-writer of some best-selling cookbooks.
Vincent Leonard Price's manner and speech reflected his cultured background. He was born on May 27, 1911, in St. Louis, one of four children of the former Marguerite Cobb Wilcox and Vincent Leonard Price, the president of a candy manufacturing company. He attended private schools in St. Louis, made the grand tour of Europe's museums as a teenager and earned degrees in art history at Yale and the University of London, where he became hooked on the theater and resolved to be an actor.
His personal film favorites included the 1973 "Theater of Blood," in which he played a deranged actor who gleefully kills drama critics in ways inspired by Shakespeare; the 1987 "Whales of August," in which he appeared as a Russian nobleman charming two elderly sisters (Bette Davis and Lillian Gish), and "Edward Scissorhands," in 1990, which found him cast as the bizarre inventor of the film's surreal title character.
The irrepressible Price also did a monologue for Michael Jackson's 1983 hit video "Thriller" and performed an eight-year stint as the host of the "Mystery" series on public television.
Price's third wife, the actress Coral Browne, whom he married in 1974, died in 1991. He was previously married to Edith Barrett, an actress, from 1938 to 1948, and to Mary Grant, a designer, from 1949 to 1973. He is survived by a son, Vincent Barrett, and a daughter, Mary Victoria.
"He was just a wonderful man, a wonderful father and a wonderful friend," his son said from his Albuquerque home.