Boris Karloff’s Distinctive Voice Made Him a Radio Horror Star Despite a Childhood Speech Impediment

Carl Amari 1 minute ago

Boris Karloff, 1930s — Everett Collection

What To Know

Boris Karloff overcame a childhood stutter but retained a noticeable lisp.
Despite his speech impediment, Karloff became a sought-after radio actor in the 1930s and 1940s.

Boris Karloff‘s acting career involved every medium and spanned six decades. Quite an accomplishment when you consider that as a young boy, he stuttered and had a lisp. Karloff overcame his stutter but not his lisp, which was noticeable throughout his career. You’d think having a lisp would keep him from landing roles during the golden age of radio, but that wasn’t so.

As early as 1933, Karloff could be heard on radio shows, mostly with horror themes, including scenes from “Death Takes a Holiday” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

In the late ’30s, Karloff began a long association with Arch Oboler, one of radio’s most prolific writer/producer/directors. Under Oboler, the horror series Lights Out served as the perfect vehicle to showcase Karloff’s chilling acting skills. Karloff became Oboler’s go-to guy for many of his most memorable scripts, including “Cat Wife,” considered one of the best in the series. In that episode, Karloff plays a man whose difficult wife turns into a human-size cat.

Boris Karloff stars in the CBS Radio program, Suspense, episode "Drury's Bones" on January 25, 1945.

CBS via Getty Images

Karloff then caught the ear of Himan Brown, director of Inner Sanctum, a series that became known for its creaking door sound effect that opened and closed each broadcast. In 1945, Karloff starred in the Inner Sanctum broadcast “The Wailing Wall,” about a man who strangles his wife and entombs her in a wall of their home. For 40 years, the man is haunted by her moans coming from within the wall. Could she still be alive? He finally breaks down and confesses to the police — only to discover that the sounds are actually just the wind blowing through a tiny hole he accidentally created while entombing her.

Karloff also appeared in his own radio series, Starring Boris Karloff, featuring adapted short stories of mystery and suspense. And well into the 1960s, Karloff was still appearing on radio as the star of Tales From the Reader’s Digest, a 15-minute daily drama that featured radio adaptations of stories featured in the magazine.

In 1966, Karloff narrated the popular made-for-television animated film of Dr. Seuss‘ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, also providing the voice of the Grinch. A soundtrack album of the film would earn Karloff a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children.

Not bad for a spooky guy with a speech impediment!

Carl Amari, host of Radio 360, wrote this article for the October 2019 issue of ReMIND featuring The Mummy. The full issue can be purchased at the link below.