‘Grinch’ Star Boris Karloff’s Daughter Reveals One Big Secret Behind Her Father’s Performance (Exclusive)
Boris Karloff didn’t like to talk about his film career when he was at home. According to his daughter, Sara Karloff, the film legend “was very modest and he never brought his work home.” He also didn’t like to draw attention to his own work; he never celebrated or extolled his iconic performances in classic films like Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Bride of Frankenstein.
However, the film legend broke both of these rules only once: when he made 1966’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The beloved animated Christmas tale, based on Dr. Seuss’ book, is “the only time I can remember his really talking about [his career],” Sara told ReMIND.
Shortly before that film aired on Dec. 18, 1966, Sara, whose sons where around 6 and 7 at the time, got a phone call from her father. “My phone rang and he said, ‘I’ve just done something that I think the boys would really enjoy and it’s going to be on the telly tonight,'” she remembered. “And he said, ‘If you’re not too busy, I think they’d really enjoy it if you sat down and watched it. I think it’s pretty good.'”
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The film’s millions of fans would certainly agree that the film is more than pretty good. After all, the animated tale, which earned Karloff a Grammy, remains a Christmas staple 58 years after it was first released. But for Boris Karloff, Sara recalls, talking about his work this way was extremely unusual.
“Now, for my father to call and say that he’d just done something, and for him to say he thinks it’s pretty good and to suggest that we sit down and watch it, it was absolutely remarkable,” Sara said. “Out of the ordinary, extraordinary. He never ever touted his own work.”
Sara and her family did indeed watch the film “and we absolutely adored it. … And of course it was pretty good. It was much better than pretty good. It was marvelous.”
Why did Karloff feel so fond of the film? “I think he just thought it was wonderful and delightful and held a message, and [it was] just the right age for his grandchildren. He really enjoyed doing it,” Sara recalls. “He never talked about his work. He really never did. But I know he was pleased at how well it was received, because it pleased him so much to do it. And he loved kids, and anything he did for kids always pleased him.”
Everett Collection
Perhaps he also felt some pride in the fact that he recorded the voiceover for the entire special in one take — a fact that Sara Karloff only recently learned from the family of animator and producer Chuck Jones, who created the special. “When you consider that dialogue and the two parts he plays — he narrates it and he’s the voice of the Grinch,” Sara said. “To be as prepared as he was, to sit down and just do it, and do it in one take, is just unthinkable. And of course, he didn’t tell me that, but the Jones family told me that a year before last.”
Sara, who today works representing her father’s legacy and overseeing the use of his name and likeness, still watches How the Grinch Stole Christmas! every year, “and I think my children do too, and my grandchildren do.”
And what did she tell her father after she watched the film for the first time? “I called him back and said, ‘Pretty good, indeed.'”
Cowboy Christmas
November/December 2024
Saddle up for some Holiday Cowboy fun with movies, music and your fav Christmas episodes of classic Westerns.
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