Dennis Price

Frankenstein] and the La maldición de Frankenstein (1973) [The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein].

Frankenstein for Franco in Drácula contra Frankenstein (1972) [Dracula vs.

Las Vampiras (1971) was just one of his dreadful entries. Price also played Dr.

He filed bankruptcy in 1967 and moved to the remote Channel Island of Sark for refuge. Many of his roles were reduced to glorified cameos and the necessity for cash relegated him to appearing in campy "Z" grade cheapfests, many helmed by the infamous writer/director Jesús Franco, a sort of Spanish version of Roger Corman.

TV also saved him for a time in the 60s with the successful series The World of Wooster (1965), in which he played the disdainful butler, Jeeves. Bad times, however, resurfaced.

Made his Broadway debut in 1959 with a production of "Heartbreak House."

He has two roles in common with both Peter Cushing and Mel Brooks: (1) Cushing played Victor Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), One More Time (1970) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), Price played him in Drácula contra Frankenstein (1972) and La maldición de Frankenstein (1973) and Brooks played him in Young Frankenstein (1974) and (2) Cushing played Professor Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958), The Brides of Dracula (1960), Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), Price played him in Son of Dracula (1973) and Brooks played him in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).

Eccentric comedy renewed his fading star a bit in such delightful farces as Private's Progress (1956), I'm All Right Jack (1959) and School for Scoundrels (1960).

Attempted suicide in 1954 by gas in his Kensington flat.

His fatally charming serial murderer in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which he does in nearly all of Alec Guinness' eight characters (Guiness plays eight different roles), is arguably his crowning achievement on celluloid. By the 50s Price was suffering from severe alcoholism, which adversely affected his personal and professional career.

After brief extra work, Price nabbed early star-making film roles in several overbaked Gainsborough mysteries/melodramas, including A Place of One's Own (1945), The Magic Bow (1946) and Caravan (1946), but the one showcase role that could have led him to Hollywood, that of the title poet in The Bad Lord Byron (1949), proved a critical and commercial failure. He took this particularly hard and fell into severe depression.

His brother was Flying Officer Arthur Thomas Rose-Price RAF. F/O Rose-Price was posted to 501 Hurricane squadron at Kenley on September 2nd 1940 at the height of the Battle of Britain. On arrival Rose-Price flew a mission and before he could unpack his kit flew another mission in the afternoon from which he failed to return and was posted missing.

A marriage to bit actress Joan Schofield in 1939 ended eleven years later, due to his substance abuse problem and homosexuality, the latter being a source of great internal anguish for him. They had two daughters. Price became less reliable and fell steeply in his ranking, moving into less quality "B" pictures.

First on stage (Oxford University Dramatic Society) where he debuted with John Gielgud in "Richard II" in 1937, he was further promoted in the theatre by Noël Coward.

This urbane, sourly handsome British actor was born to privilege and most of his roles would follow suit. Born Dennistoun John Franklyn Rose-Price in Berkshire in 1915, Dennis Price, the son of a brigadier-general, was expected to abide by his family wishes and make a career for himself in the army or the church. Instead he became an actor.