Boris Karloff: The Many Faces of a Film Icon

An Online Symposium

Taking place online on Friday 1st April 2022, Plymouth College of Art presents Boris Karloff: The Many Faces of a Film Icon, an online symposium dedicated to one of the great stars of the classic era.

Supported by keynote addresses from all-round horror expert Dr Alison Peirse (University of Leeds) and acclaimed biographer Stephen Jacobs (author of Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster), the day will draw together a range of approaches to Karloff and his work from academics and artists alike.

Accompanying the day of papers, we will use this space to showcase a selection of archival materials, as well as artist responses to Karloff and his career.

(Please note that this site will be adjusted and added to in the build up to the event.)

Introducing Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff was born William Henry Pratt in 1887 in the village of Camberwell, Surrey (now South London). Most often remembered as the star of Frankenstein (dir. James Whale, 1931) and its sequels (Bride of Frankenstein in 1935 and Son of Frankenstein in 1939), Karloff’s career spanned more than half a century, from Canada to silent era Hollywood to its golden age to New Hollywood some decades later where he worked with Peter Bogdanovich on the highly experimental film Targets (1968) in what proved to be one of his final, though no less impressive, feature performances. Beside his collaborations with Whale and Bogdanovich, Karloff traversed a range of industry contexts in which he worked under a number of significant directors over the course of his career, including Mario Bava, Roger Corman, Michael Curtiz, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Michael Reeves, Douglas Sirk, Jacques Tourneur, and Robert Wise. Now a cult icon of the silver screen, for many Karloff was and remains “one of the screen’s greatest madmen” (Darryl Jones, 2002). Join us and embark on a Karlovian odyssey in which explore this and other aspects of fascinating life and career.