Henry Frankenstein

Henry Frankenstein, is a fictional character appearing in Universal Pictures' horror films. In "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" he was played by Colin Clive.

Character overview

The character of Henry Frankenstein is based on Victor Frankenstein, a young student of alchemy and chemistry, appearing in Mary Shelley's gothic novel. In the first film, Frankenstein is the son of Baron Frankenstein. After leaving the University of Goldstadt, under the guidance of Dr. Waldman and Dr. Septimus Pretorius, he begins a series of strange and secretive experiments to bring life to the dead. He collects corpse parts from dead criminals and builds a male human body, and with electricity he brings it to life, creating Frankenstein's monster (played by Boris Karloff). In the second film, with Pretorius' help, he builds a female human body, and brings it to life with the same way, creating an intended Bride for the original creature. The Bride is played by Elsa Lanchester.

Henry Frankenstein is married to the young Elizabeth (based on the character of Elizabeth Lavenza from the novel), and has two sons Wolf (Basil Rathbone) and Ludwig Frankenstein (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). It is suggested that Wolf and Ludwig are half-brothers as Ludwig lived his entire life in Europe while Wolf's mother migrated to and remained in the United States where Wolf was born as stated in Son of Frankenstein with Wolf returning to family estate for the first time as an adult. It is unlikely that if Wolf's mother was also Ludwig's mother, she would have abandoned Ludwig as she spoke of Henry to Wolf in high regard which Wolf retains of his father throughout the film despite the creature's murderous rampages. Ludwig, and presumably his mother, who remain in Europe have an obviously different appreciation of Henry for Ludwig has abandoned his father and his association with his father's estate completely, though retains the same surname. Ludwig and Wolf do have some interaction with each other as Wolf gives Ludwig all medical notes retaining to the creature, including their father's, after the events of Son of Frankenstein. Henry was never stated to have moved with Wolf's mother to the United States and was buried in the European family estate. Henry Frankenstein later becomes a grandfather, when Wolf's son Peter and when Ludwig's daughter Elsa are born.

Later films in the Universal series reveal his full name to be the more Germanic sounding Heinrich von Frankenstein.

Frankenstein characters