When John Waters announced during a spoken-word performance last February that he has a “big new part” in Season 13 of “American Horror Story” (AHS), he quipped that he has “always been trying to steal Vincent Price’s career.”
Now that filming is underway on the anthology horror series and details are emerging about the characters, it’s becoming clear how close he was to the truth.
Waters will play a new character in the AHS universe, a phlebotomist named Mr. Phibes.
According to the @AmericanHorrorStory fan account on Instagram, Waters’ character’s name is “an apparent homage to the 1971 horror-comedy film, ‘The Abominable Dr. Phibes’ starring Vincent Price.”
A phlebotomist is a technician who draws blood for testing in a lab. Price (1911 to 1993), the legendary horrormeister, never played a phlebotomist in any of the more than 100 movies and television shows in which he appeared over six decades. But many of his roles involved blood in other ways.
Price’s horror films include: “House of Wax;” “The Fly;” “House on Haunted Hill;” “The Tingler;” “The Mad Magician,” “The Last Man on Earth;” “The Tomb of Ligeia” and “Theatre of Blood.”
His roles went far beyond Gothic horror. Actually, fewer than a third of his appearances were in horror films. More than a few mixed horror and comedy, especially later in his career.
Price appeared in the “Batman” TV series as a bald villain named Egghead. He guest-starred on “The Brady Bunch” as an eccentric archaeologist who temporarily detains the Brady boys after they stumble into a secret cave protecting an ancient, cursed Tiki, on a three-episode arc set in Hawaii. He chatted with Kermit the Frog in 1977 in “The Muppet Show” and voiced the evil Professor Ratigan in Disney’s 1986 animated feature, “The Great Mouse Detective.”
‘I am already dead’
‘The Abominable Dr. Phibes,” (the ‘i’ in Phibes is long), is a darkly comedic British horror cult classic that stars Price as a “living corpse” who executes a highly theatrical revenge plot. It’s one of Price’s sillier (some would say campier) roles. “You can’t [kill me],” he tells one character. “I am already dead.”
The film is set in 1925 and Dr. Anton Phibes, played by Price, is a brilliant and famous theologian, scientist and concert organist. Years before, he was disfigured in a car accident while rushing to the bedside of his wife, Victoria. Victoria died on the operating table, and her husband was presumed dead as well after the car crash.
In reality, Dr. Phibes survived but was badly scarred, causing him to be referred to as a living corpse. Blaming the surgical team for his wife’s death, he devises a diabolical plan to murder the nine doctors and nurses he holds responsible, while wearing a prosthetic mask to hide his disfigured appearance. “Love means never having to say you’re ugly,” was the post-“Love Story” catch phrase on the movie posters.
What makes the film memorable is Dr. Phibes’ methodology. He kills his victims using elaborate assassination traps inspired by the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament, involving bats, frogs, bees, beasts and burning acid.
The cast included Joseph Cotton, Hugh Griffith, Terry-Thomas and an uncredited Caroline Munro as Victoria Phibes. With its use of a masked killer picking off victims one by one in inventive ways, the film is considered a precursor to horror franchises such as the “Saw” series. It spawned a 1972 sequel, “Dr. Phibes Rises Again,” again starring Price.
Joining the AHS cast
Waters and Ariana Grande are two first-time AHS cast members who are joining stars returning from previous seasons in the series, which is produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.
Returning stars include Sarah Paulson; Evan Peters; Angela Bassett; Kathy Bates; Emma Roberts; Gabourey Sidibe; Billie Lourd; Leslie Grossman and Jessica Lange.
Although plot details are scarce, Season 13 is expected to continue the “Coven” storyline that began in AHS Season 3. The producers have confirmed that many of the returning stars will reprise roles they had in previous seasons, including Bates as her “Coven” character, serial killer Delphine LaLaurie, and Lange as at least two characters, Fiona Goode from “Coven” and Constance Langdon from “Season 1: Murder House” and “Season 8: Apocalypse.” As a result, many fans are calling Season 13 a “greatest hits” reunion season.
Tight-lipped about the role
Did Waters know in February that his AHS character would pay homage to Vincent Price? Did he suggest the name? Is he intentionally positioning himself to be a latter-day Vincent Price?
Waters, who turned 80 in April, has been tight-lipped about his role beyond confirming that he’ll be in AHS. “If I talk about it, I’m fired,” he told a Virginia audience in April.
But long before he was cast in AHS, Waters went on record saying that he’s an enormous fan of Price and what an influence and inspiration Price has been for him. In 2013, he paid tribute to Price on a “Star of the Month” special for Turner Classic Movies (TCM), in which he detailed how Price’s on-screen performances helped shape his own view of the world.
“I actually prayed I would wake up and be Vincent Price,” he said on the broadcast.
Here’s a longer quote from Waters about Price from the TCM tribute:
“One raise of his eyebrow and you knew you were about to be thrilled by a debonair, evil, yet sympathetic villain…He was just a fine actor, never pretentious. The audiences that went to see him were all-inclusive, from the poorest people to the richest. Nobody disliked him. Vincent Price was classless even though he was classy, an exaggerated gentleman. He gave upscale a good name, and he was always handsome, dignified, charming and a little bit sinister. When Vincent Price was a ham he was in on the joke. He celebrated the ridiculousness of horror.”
Waters joked about stealing Price’s career before this year.
“Oh I love Vincent Price!” he said in a 2011 interview with Kent Williams for littlevillagemag.com. “And I’ve always been saying, I met his daughter and I told her I’ve been trying to steal her father’s career forever! And Vincent Price called me once, because there was a documentary very late in his life about him, and I was interviewed in it just saying what a childhood hero he was and everything, and he called me up and thanked me. It was really lovely! I was obsessed by Vincent Price ever since ‘The Tingler’ when I saw it, which is one of the first movies that ever mentioned LSD — and in the ‘50s it mentioned it! But he was I think hilarious and great and yes I, um, he’s one of my idols.”
‘I’m typecast’
Although he’s best known as a writer and director of his own movies, including “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray,” Waters has had roles in numerous TV and film productions directed by others, many of them in the horror genre.
In the recent “Chucky” TV series, Waters played Wendell Wilkins, the creator of the Good Guy-brand dolls, which made him the “father” of the murderous Chucky doll. He was the Groom Reaper on 14 episodes of “Til Death Do Us Part” on Court TV; Pete Peters in “Seed of Chucky;” The Reverend in “Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat;” a flasher in Adam Shankman’s “Hairspray,” and the announcer in the 2011 Lonely Island video “The Creep.” He was in an episode of “Tales from the Crypt.” He plays a pawn shop broker in Tom Savero’s yet-to-be-released indie horror film, “Baltigore: Maryland Horror Anthology.”
Last February, when he announced his role in AHS during a Valentine’s Day show at Baltimore Soundstage, Waters observed that he seems to play the same sorts of roles again and again – characters who are on the wrong side of the law or somehow on the outskirts of society.
Those roles help explain why he brought up Price during a Q&A session with the audience.
“I’m typecast,” Waters said. “I’m always playing either the devil or Chucky’s father…I’ve always been trying to steal Vincent Price’s career.”
Much in common
Besides the roles the two men had, a comparison of their biographies shows that they also have much in common off-screen. Here are 12 ways:
Upbringing: John Samuel Waters Jr. was born into an upper-middle class family and raised in Lutherville, Maryland, one of four children. His father, John S. Waters Sr., owned and managed a company that manufactured fire-protection equipment in Baltimore, Fireline Corporation. The company was sold in 2025 to Encore Fire Protection of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, but maintains a strong presence in Baltimore.
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born into a wealthy St. Louis family, one of four children. His grandfather invented a successful tartar-based baking powder called Dr. Price’s Cream Baking Powder. His father, Vincent Leonard Price Sr., was president of the National Candy Company. Price the actor had two children, Vincent Barrett Price and Victoria Price.
Both Price and Waters were “juniors,” and both had two sisters and one brother. Price’s grandfather was Vincent Clarence Price. The grandson was called Vinnie, and Waters was called Johnny.
Attributes: Waters is six feet, one inch tall. Price was six feet, four inches tall. Both have distinctive mustaches, expressive faces and memorable voices. Both have worked as voice actors on animated films and other productions. Both are experts at showing or feigning a variety of emotions, particularly sadness or melancholy or, especially in Price’s case, madness. (Victoria Price has described her father as “a man of glorious contradictions.”) Both can be at once sinister and amiable, even lovable.
Nicknames: Nicknames for Waters are: Pope of Trash; Prince of Puke; King of Camp; Sultan of Sleaze; King or Baron of Bad Taste; Duke of Dirt; Filth Elder and many more. Nicknames for Price are: Merchant of Menace; Master of Horror, King of the Grand Guignol, The Renaissance Man and The Candy Kid.
Early passion for fine art and art collecting: Waters acquired his first work of art, a Joan Miro print that he purchased for between $1 and $2 from the gift shop at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), when he was 12. Price purchased a Rembrandt etching at age 12, initially making a five-dollar down payment and then paying off the balance by saving his allowance, working summer jobs and running errands.
Art-related donations and exhibits: Waters is a visual artist who has had numerous exhibits of his work and currently serves on the BMA’s Board of Trustees. In 2020, Waters promised to leave his private art collection to the BMA; the museum named its all-gender restrooms after him. For his 2019 book of essays, “Mr. Know-It-All,” Waters wrote a scholarly chapter about “The Golden Age of Monkey Art,” and he owns at least one work by Betsy the finger-painting chimpanzee from what was the Baltimore Zoo, now the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. He’s also a strong supporter of film-related organizations, including the Provincetown Film Society and the Maryland Film Festival.
Price studied art history, lectured and wrote books on fine art, donated to museums and acted as an ambassador for the arts. The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is named in his honor, after he donated part of his personal art collection to the college. In the 1960s he joined with Sears & Roebuck department stores to bring fine art prints and paintings to the masses with The Vincent Price Collection. He was also a gourmet cook and cookbook author – a continuation of his family’s history in food-based businesses and the culinary arts.
Hollywood Walk of Fame recognition: Price has two stars on the Walk of Fame, one for television and one for motion pictures. Waters has one, for motion pictures.
Grammy Award nominations: Waters has been nominated twice and Price was nominated once.
Baltimore connection: Several of Price’s movies were film adaptations with director Roger Corman of works by Edgar Allan Poe, including “House of Usher;” “The Pit and the Pendulum;” “The Haunted Palace;” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Raven.” Waters was born and raised and maintains his primary residence in Baltimore, where Poe is buried and where the NFL team is named the Ravens.
Collaborations with musicians: Price is well known as the narrator of Michael Jackson’s 1982 megahit, “Thriller.” He also worked with Alice Cooper on the 1975 album, “Welcome to My Nightmare,” and with Deep Purple on its 2013 studio album, “Now What?!” and band member Roger Glover’s rock opera, “The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast.”
Price appeared with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in the 1963 musical “Beach Party” as Big Daddy, the owner of a surfer hangout. Songs with references to Price in the title include “Vincent Price,” by Deep Purple; “Return of The Fly” by the Misfits and “Vincent Price Blues” by ZZ Top.
Waters hosts the Mosswood Meltdown, an annual punk rock festival in Oakland, California. He has also hosted two of country music star Orville Peck’s Rodeo concerts and performed as a radio announcer in Peck’s “Legends Never Die” video. In 2013 and 2016, Waters served as the narrator and on-stage host for “Hairspray: In Concert,” a symphonic adaptation of music from his 1988 film, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and students from the Baltimore School for the Arts at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
Waters is an expert on a wide range of music, from early rock-and-roll to heavy metal. His movie soundtracks, already considered legendary, are finding new audiences on TikTok. He cast a number of musicians in his films, from Iggy Pop and Ric Ocasek to Sonny Bono and Deborah Harry. Tab Hunter sang the title track in “Polyester,” and Divine provided the vocals for some of his early films.
Longevity: Both men have worked long past the average retirement age. Price worked until three years before his death in 1993 at age 82, even though he suffered for years from COPD and Parkinson’s disease. His last major film role was as The Inventor in Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), a part written specifically for him. His absolute final acting appearance was in the television movie “The Heart of Justice,” which aired in 1992. He died of lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles, six days before Halloween. His cremains were scattered off of Nicholas Canyon Beach in Malibu.
At 80, Waters continues to work as a writer, actor, fashion model, raconteur and occasional minister. He had his first poem published by a national magazine in April. He’s already booking events for 2027, including a series of spoken-word performances in the U. K., and says he’s busier than ever. ‘Retire’ is not in his vocabulary.
LGBTQ advocacy and sexual orientation: Waters is gay and a longtime advocate and supporter of LGBTQ-friendly organizations and causes. His movie premieres at the Senator Theatre were fundraisers for AIDS Action Baltimore. The nomination for his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was made by Outfest Los Angeles, an LGBTQ-oriented arts and entertainment organization.
Although Price was married three times and had a son and a daughter, there were persistent rumors in Hollywood circles and beyond about his sexuality. Even his daughter Victoria, who is a lesbian, has said she isn’t sure about his sexual orientation.
“Everybody asks me, was your dad bisexual?” she said in a 2015 interview with BOOM Magazine. “And it was Roddy McDowall who said to me, you know, we didn’t have any idea what bisexuality meant in that sense, and if we didn’t know, then how can we know the answer to that question?”
The Prices lived across the street from Rock Hudson and had a lot of gay friends when she was growing up, Victoria Price told the magazine’s editor, Colin Murphy. Without hearing from her father directly, “I am as close to certain as I can be that my dad had physically intimate relationships with men,” she said in the interview. “I know for 100 percent fact that my dad was completely loving and supportive of LGBT people.”
Victoria Price wrote a 1998 book about her father, entitled “Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography.” She said in the 2015 interview that when she came out to her father, he responded with support and empathy: “The interesting thing for me is that when I came out to him he said to me, ‘you know, I know just how you feel, because I have had these deep, loving relationships with men in my life — and all my wives were jealous.”
Vincent Price publicly denounced Anita Bryant’s anti-gay crusade in the 1970s and served as an honorary board member of PFLAG, the advocacy organization formerly known as “Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.” He was one of the first celebrities to appear in a public service announcement to help alleviate public fears about AIDS.
One of Price’s most memorable roles was playing the gay author and playwright Oscar Wilde in “Diversions and Delights,” a one-man stage production that started in San Francisco in the late 1970s and traveled around the world, including to the Eugene O”Neill Theatre on Broadway.
Family connection: These days, Waters is friends with Victoria Price, who lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. In 2024, at her request he took part in a fund drive that she helped lead to support local recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene flooded parts of the state, including the county where she lives.
Waters helped raise money in part by filming a video that invoked memories of her father. “Come on, monster kids. From beyond the grave, Vincent Price commands you to donate,” he said in the video. “Do it or die!!!”
Not everything in common
The two men weren’t entirely in lockstep. In terms of higher education, Price graduated from Yale University in 1933 and then studied art history in London. In 1935, while in London, he started acting. His breakthrough performance was playing Prince Albert in Laurence Housman’s “Victoria Regina,” which transferred to Broadway and launched his U. S. acting career.
Waters attended the University of Baltimore and New York University (NYU) but didn’t graduate from either one. He has spoken about getting expelled from NYU during his freshman year for smoking marijuana, saying it was the first-ever pot bust on a college campus. Now he’s a popular college commencement speaker and has honorary degrees from several institutions where he spoke. He turned his 2015 address to Rhode Island School of Design graduates into a book, “Make Trouble.”
Price was a lifelong, heavy smoker, which contributed to his lung cancer and other health problems that he had later in life. During the filming of “Edward Scissorhands,” Price’s emphysema and Parkinson’s disease were so advanced that Burton, the director, reportedly had to cut back his filming schedule to accommodate his limited stamina.
Waters smoked heavily when he was younger, even filming a Public Service Announcement in which he puffs on a cigarette while telling audiences they’re not supposed to smoke in the theater but encouraging them to do so anyway because it gives ushers jobs. He stopped smoking in 2003-2004 and often tells audiences precisely how many days have gone by since he quit. He has referred to smoking as “the only thing I’ve ever regretted in my whole life” and the process of quitting as a “nightmare” and “the hardest thing in my life.”
Other disparities: Waters was raised in a Catholic family. (“I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty,” he has said.) Price was raised in the Episcopalian faith but converted to Catholicism in the 1970s to please his third wife. Waters directed 16 movies. Price never directed a film.
Stroke of genius
Presumably, the disclosures about Waters’ casting and the name of his character will make more sense when AHS airs. Filming began on April 6, primarily in the New York area, and is scheduled to wrap on July 22. The series is scheduled to debut around Halloween on FX, with 13 30-minute episodes.
Given the number of returning cast members, there has been speculation that this will be the final season of AHS, but that hasn’t been confirmed. A 14th season has not been announced.
In the meantime, fans on social media have been overwhelmingly positive about Waters’ involvement and role. Some say they wish Waters had been cast in the series before Season 13. (Murphy reportedly considered casting him in Season 10, “American Horror Story: Double Feature,” but the role he had in mind went to recurring cast member Denis O’Hare.)
Others say they hope Waters might even direct one or more of the episodes. The consensus among fans seems to be that casting John Waters as Mr. Phibes the phlebotomist is a stroke of genius on the part of the producers.
“It’s about time!” one fan said. “John Waters just belongs in AHS!”
“They should have brought him on ages ago,” agreed another fan.
“Mr. Waters is going to give Mr. Price a run for his money,” predicted a third.
“John Waters is going to do the Abominable Dr. Phibes justice!” said a fourth.
“I hope he’s in every episode,” said a fifth.
