Dear Boris02:04 Oct 30 2010
Times Read: 806
Boris Karloff...magical words, especially this time of year, to myriads of us baby boomers who grew up watching this amazing man bring some of cinema's greatest monsters to life.
I just finished reading a wonderful book on him, called "Boris Karloff:A Gentleman's Life" by Scott Allen Nollen with the participation of Sara Jane Karloff.
Yes that's right...the great man's daughter assisted writing this book, and it is wonderful. Of course it covers his career and many facets of his life, but what was most amazing, and a little awful/astonishing, was the discovery of his relationship with his only child.
She was born on Boris' birthday, during filming of Son of Frankenstein in 1938. She would be his only child, and inherited his dark east-Indian good looks, as well as his gentle and charming manner. However, Mr Karloff was very involved in his career, and after his child was born began working extensively in theatre, as well as movies, which meant a lot of travel for him and time apart from his wife and daughter. This inevitably lead to a split, which lead to a divorce. The day after the divorce was finalized, Karloff married his fifth and final wife.
This woman devoted herself to her husband and they became inseperable. She had a daughter from a previous marriage, and was not really interested in Boris' child, so a sort of coolness developed in that relationship. Sara was not invited to her father's home very often, as he was spending most of his time either in New York or in his native England, while she grew up in California.
The breach became wider when she wished to marry. Her father did not approve of her marriage, and turned down her request to walk her down the aisle. Her stepfather did the honors. Karloff said he did not want it to turn into a media circus, which it may have done had he been there.
Sara did not know her father was dying, and had to find out about his death while watching The Today Show. When she cabled her stepmother asking for information on funeral services, the cable was ignored. Sara was not told about the funeral arrangements, nor was she invited to any memorials for her father at that time.
Then...the will was read. Karloff left absolutely nothing to his only child. Everything went to the widow..oh and her daughter by a previous marriage. That girl recieved the monies from the sale of the Karloffs' London apartment. Karloff left an estate valued at over $2 million, not bad for 1968. Sara got nothing.
Even when her father's things were auctioned off over the years in various places, she was not told of it until afterwards, thus preventing her from retrieving something of his for her children (she had two sons, Boris' only grandchildren, who did visit their grandfather and got to know him.)
In 1987, as a result of California's Celebrities Rights Act, Sara inherited family ownership of Boris' image, thus being able to license officially any future use of it. So any kind of offical Karloff image or likeness has to be run past her first. Along with Bela Lugosi Jr, and Ron Chaney (grandson of Lon Chaney Jr) Sara Karloff carries on the family legacy of the great horror stars, and makes many appearances at movie conventions to meet fans and talk about her father and his career.
She is indeed proud to be her father's daughter. She was a successful realtor for many years, and now looks after her father's estate (Karloff's widow passed away in 1987). I saw her on an episode of Biography dedicated to Boris Karloff. She was surrounded by his image at a movie convention, and she looked around at all the Karloff images and said quietly, "Daddy."
I plan on watching a few Karloff movie gems this weekend. Happy Halloween.
COMMENTS
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PandorasBx
03:10 Oct 30 2010
That was really interesting but I think it was shitty of him to leave his daughter out of his will...