Victoria Price, daughter of classic Hollywood actor Vincent Price, celebrated her father’s legacy in a talk she gave Thursday evening at IU Cinema.
The talk kicked off the Cinema’s Vincent Price: Master of Menace, Lover of Life series, which also features screenings of two of his films.
Price was best known for his roles in classic horror movies. He narrated Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video and starred alongside Johnny Depp in "Edward Scissorhands."
“I wished my dad had gotten to be a monster,” she said shortly after taking the stage, recalling the way she’d felt when she first began carrying on his legacy many years ago.
Price said initially she’d felt a bit of remorse that her father had never gotten to occupy the role of a classic movie monster, such as a Frankenstein or a Wolfman, a Dracula or a Mummy.
“I realized that probably the reason he has lasted so long, and still has so many young fans, is that who he was actually became a part of every role,” she said. “You could get a sense of who he was. You could get to know him through the roles.”
Victoria Price is a motivational author and public speaker, but she’s also devoted herself to preserving and celebrating her father’s work and legacy, IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers said.
Price recalled meeting the kids of other famous horror stars from classic Hollywood.
“The first thing I noticed was we all had long, thin faces," she said. "Apparently, it’s a requirement for the genre.”
Price said she loved her father’s work so dearly because it exemplified not only his talent as an actor, but also his joy as a person.
“Although there were some masks in his roles, Vincent Price shone through all of them,” Price said.
Joy, she said, was a big part of who her father was.
To most of America, Price was a legendary actor and horror star, she said. But to Victoria, he’s always been so much more.
She said growing up, she never knew her dad as a horror icon or Hollywood actor.
“The dad I knew loved art,” Price said.
She recalled memories from growing up, such as an art partnership her dad had made with Sears and a cookbook he’d written, as more defining than any film role could’ve been.
“I didn’t know what all the horror stuff was about,” she said. "I didn’t know that in the '60s my dad was teaming up with Roger Corman. I knew that he wrote this cookbook that’s become iconic.”
She also shared some of the wisdom she’d learned from him.
“He understood that to get ahead, you don’t climb all over other people,” she said.
She said he devoted himself to spreading his own joys and celebrating others’.
“He told people the things that mattered to him, so that they could have the permission to talk about the things that matter to them,” she said. “It’s a wonderful way to live, and that is why I share my dad’s legacy of love.”
She said the greatest thing her father taught her was to just say yes.
“If you wanna live like Vincent Price, next time somebody asks you to do something and you wanna say, ‘Yeah, but,’ or ‘Maybe later,’ just try saying yes, and you’ll feel the spirit of Vincent Price with you,” she said. “You might even hear the ‘Thriller’ laugh.”
