British stage actor Boris Karloff (1887 – 1969) is remembered today for a series of iconic ‘monster’ roles in the 1930s. Born William Henry Pratt in London, Karloff began his acting career in Canada, touring with the Jeanne Russell Company. When Karloff arrived in Hollywood in the 1920s, he made a series of silent films but often worked as a labourer between acting roles to earn extra money.

Karloff’s break-through came in 1931 when he appeared as Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein (1931). The film was an instant box office success, its popularity ignited the horror genre within Hollywood filmmaking and its influence is still felt today. The film spawned a series of sequels including The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939) in which Karloff reprised the role of the monster. Much of the success of the films was in part credited to Karloff’s portrayal of the creature and the sympathy that he evoked in his performance.

Karloff returned to the stage in the 1940s appearing in the comedy Arsenic and Old Lace (1941) and as Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1950). In a sixty-year career, he appeared in over 150 films, and yet Frankenstein’s monster remains his most enduring creation.

In 1988 the British Film Institute (BFI) purchased at auction the Boris Karloff Bride of Frankenstein costume and mannequin for their extensive costume collection, which included a wealth of historic and significant film costumes worn by major performers and designed by some of the 20th century’s most important film costume designers from the silent film era to the mid-1990s in Britain, Europe, America and Japan. The Boris Karloff costume and mannequin joined their collection on display at the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) on the South Bank in London, as part of their Golden Age of Hollywood section, until its closure in 1999. The BFI costume collection was subsequently transferred to the V&A in 2014, with the Boris Karloff costume and mannequin being formally accessioned by the V&A in 2015.

In 2018 the V&A was made aware that the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art had acquired from Universal Studios and accessioned this same costume and mannequin in 1935, identifiable by a registration number (A.3859-45) engraved on the mannequin. It was sent out on loan in 1949, after which the museum lost touch with the object, and in 1967 it was presumed “destroyed”. The BFI purchased the object at Christie’s South Kensington’s ‘Film and Entertainment’ auction on 16 December 1988 (lot. 301). The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLA) and the V&A are in communication around the safe-keeping and conservation of this object.