The Last Movie Vincent Price Filmed Before He Died - And Why It Was A Fitting End
Although his illustrious career that encompassed more than 200 roles kicked off in 1938, late movie icon Vincent Price was largely known for several spine-tingling projects in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. It was during that stretch that Price starred in such horror film classics as "House of Wax," "The Fly," and "House on Haunted Hill," as well as "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Raven," and "The Abominable Dr. Phibes."
Among Price's legions of fans was a then-unknown artist from California named Tim Burton, who, of course, went on to a successful film career of his own. "Vincent Price was somebody I could identify with," said Burton in an Unframed post for the LA County Museum of Art. "When you're younger, things look bigger, you find your own mythology, you find what psychologically connects to you. And those movies, just the poetry of them, and this larger-than-life character who goes through a lot of torment — mostly imagined — just spoke to me."
Lucky for Burton, Price worked with the filmmaker on three of his projects, beginning in 1982 with the stop-motion animated short "Vincent" for Walt Disney Studios. The legendary actor then introduced the Burton-directed Disney Channel special "Hansel and Gretel" in 1983 and played the father-like figure The Inventor opposite Johnny Depp's title character in 1990's "Edward Scissorhands."
"Edward Scissorhands" was significant in that it marked the last live-action big screen feature that Price made during his illustrious career; a fitting end considering how the actor was working with one of the artists he so deeply inspired.
Tim Burton considers Vincent a 'shaping experience'
"Vincent" became a significant film for Tim Burton and Vincent Price in that it was important to the artists both personally and professionally. To begin with, the six-minute film short marked Burton's stop-motion animated debut for Walt Disney Studios. Plus, "Vincent" wasn't merely about a reclusive boy named Vincent Malloy — it was about a boy named Vincent who fantasized that he was Vincent Price.
The project wasn't truly complete, though, until Price himself agreed to narrate the film, which, according to LACMA, Burton called "probably one of the most shaping experiences of my life."
While Burton's collaboration seemingly came to an end with the release of "Edward Scissorhands" in 1990, there actually was one more Price project the director was working on when the actor passed away in 1993. Unfortunately, the unfinished documentary "Conversations with Vincent"— featuring hours of interviews with Price — became one of Burton's movies we'll never get to see.
In addition, Henry Selick, the director of the Burton-produced stop-motion classic "The Nightmare Before Christmas," said Price was originally supposed to voice Santa Claus for the film. "We recorded him, and he would've done the introduction to the film since it's supposed to be Santa Claus' voice at the beginning [and] end," Selick recalled for The Daily Beast in 2017.
However, Price was despondent after the loss of his wife, Coral Browne, in 1991, and he dropped out of the project. "He was the first choice, [but] that didn't work out," Selick revealed.