A true tome - a very hefty look and the life and career of Boris Karloff which was highly engrossing. Its incredibly thorough, looking at his family history - the Anglo-Indian connection, mental problems of his mother, scandals involving various family members (a weird Victoria era shooting incident featuring his brother), and his very exotic love life, which involved him being married numerous times (it's not even clear how many... but he definitely cheated on several wives including the one who mothered his only child).
The final picture of Karloff seems to be overwhelmingly positive: a genuinely kind, decent man, who simply loved to act - kept doing it even with one foot in the grave because he adored his profession; who never forgot his early struggles; who was an early supporter of the Screen Actors Guild (at a time when that was politically risk to do) and who helped a theatre in Anchorage for the sheer hell of it; who never put down the genre to whom he owned his fame. He was blessed in many ways - one fat part in a horror classic meant he was never out of work for the rest of his life, and ensured he was a star until the end of his days. However he took advantage of that part in the way that others similarly lucky - notably Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jnr - didn't: he worked hard, didn't get hooked on drugs or alcohol, kept pushing himself (he enjoyed notable stage success with Peter Pan, Arsenic and Old Lace and The Lark), tried all different mediums, never seemed to tire.
Was Karloff a really great actor? Its hard to tell - I can't be objective. He had that great cadaverous look, with sunken eyes and cheeks, and imposing voice and looking like a grave digger; he would bring dignity and humanity to the most horrific roles.
This book has a tonne of pictures and information - it's very heavily reliant on secondary sources but is so thorough its hard to criticise.
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