Imhotep The Egyptian Polymath from The Mummy

The Mummy franchise traces its roots to the 1930s, when Boris Karloff portrayed the historic embalmed character at the height of the Universal Classic Monsters heyday. The first film, made in 1932, framed Imhotep as a mummy carrying an ancient curse. But Imhotep was a real-life priest in ancient Egypt, and he wasn't anything like his character in The Mummy movies.