Béla Lugosi

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Béla Lugosi

Birth name Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó
Born 20 October 1882
Lugos, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania)
Died 16 August 1956 (aged 73)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Official site Lugosi.com
Notable roles Count Dracula in Dracula

Béla Lugosi was the stage name of actor Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956). He was born in Lugos, Hungary, at the time part of Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), the youngest of four children of a baker. The blue-eyed actor is best known for his portrayal of Dracula in the American Broadway stage production, and subsequent film, of Bram Stoker's classic vampire story.

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[edit] Early career in Hungary and Germany

Lugosi started his acting career on the stage in Hungary in several Shakespearean plays and in other major roles. He began appearing in Hungarian silent films under the stage name Arisztid Olt. During World War I, he served as an infantry lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army. His first film appearance was in the 1917 movie Ezredes, Az (known in English as The Colonel). Lugosi would make twelve films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany.

Following the collapse of Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, left-wingers and trade unionists became vulnerable. Lugosi was persecuted following his participation in the formation of an actor's union. In exile in Germany, he began appearing in a small number of well received films, including adaptations of the Karl May penned novels Auf den Trümmern des Paradieses ("In the Rubble of Paradise") and Die Todeskarawane ("The Death Caravan") opposite the ill-fated Jewish actress Dora Gerson. Lugosi emigrated to the United States in October 1920 and was legally inspected at Ellis Island in March 1921. On June 26, 1931 the actor became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was married at least three times and had a son, Bela George Lugosi.

[edit] Dracula

On arrival in America, the 1.85 m (6 feet 1 inch), 82 kg (180 lb) Lugosi worked for some time as a laborer, then returned to the theater within the Hungarian-American community. He was approached to star in a play adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. The production was successful. Despite his excellent notices in the title role, Lugosi had to campaign vigorously for the chance to repeat his stage success in Tod Browning's movie version of Dracula (1931), produced by Universal Pictures.

A persistent rumor asserts that silent-film actor Lon Chaney was originally scheduled for this film role, and that Lugosi was chosen only due to Chaney's death. Chaney, however, was under long-term contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and his home studio refused to release him to Universal for this project. Further, although Chaney and Browning had worked together on several projects, Browning was only a last-minute choice to direct the movie version of Dracula: this film was not a long-time pet project of Tod Browning, despite some claims to the contrary.

Following the success of Dracula (1931), Lugosi received a studio contract with Universal.

[edit] Typecasting

Through his association with Dracula (in which he appeared with minimal makeup, using his natural, heavily accented voice), Lugosi found himself typecast as a horror villain in such movies as Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Raven, and Son of Frankenstein for Universal, and the independent White Zombie.

Despite the fact that Lugosi was not interested in the role of Frankenstein's monster due to make-up and a lack of dialogue, it is an erroneous popular belief that Lugosi declined the offer to appear in Frankenstein. James Whale, the film's director, replaced Lugosi and would do this again in Bride of Frankenstein (Lugosi was supposed to play the role of Dr. Pretorius). A recent Lugosi scrapbook (see external link below) surfaced with a newsclipping listing both Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the film together. This gives credence to the possibility that Lugosi was going to play the role of Dr. Frankenstein. Also, a cinematographer who shot test footage of Lugosi for the role of the monster said that Lugosi was happy with the role, and had given him a box of cigars.

In a recent discussion, it has also been speculated Lugosi wanted out of the role because he and James Whale had different interpretations of the monster. Part of the speculation includes Lugosi wanted to play Shelley's literary monster who had dialogue. Whale's interpretation allowed for no dialogue. Lugosi was quoted as saying the role, "did not have meat enough."

Regardless of controversy, the role was taken by the man who became Lugosi's principal rival in horror films, Boris Karloff. Several films at Universal, such as The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939) (and minor cameo performances in 1934's Gift of Gab) paired Lugosi with Karloff. Regardless of the relative size of their roles, Lugosi inevitably got second billing, below Karloff. Lugosi's attitude toward Karloff is the subject of contradictory reports, some claiming that he was openly resentful of Karloff's long-term success and ability to get good roles beyond the horror arena, while others suggested the two actors were — for a time, at least — good friends.

Attempts were made to give Lugosi more heroic roles, as in The Black Cat, The Invisible Ray, and a small role in the comedy classic Ninotchka opposite Greta Garbo (as an authority figure), but his typecasting problem was too entrenched for those roles to help.

[edit] Decline

A number of factors worked against Lugosi's career in the mid-1930s. Universal changed management in 1936, and per a British ban on horror films, dropped them from their production schedule. Lugosi found himself consigned to Universal's non-horror B-film unit, at times in small roles where he was obviously used for "name value" only. Although he tried to keep busy with stage work, he had to borrow money from the Actor's Fund to pay hospital bills when his only child, Bela George Lugosi, was born in 1938. His career was given a second chance by Universal's Son of Frankenstein in 1939, when he played the plum character role of Ygor, a sly blacksmith, in heavy make-up and beard. The 1940s saw him starring in a baker's dozen of horror, psycho, and mystery B-films produced by Sam Katzman, and in lesser roles for Universal, where he often received star billing for what amounted to a supporting part.

Ostensibly due to injuries received during military service, Lugosi developed severe, chronic sciatica. Though at first he was treated with natural pain remedies such as asparagus juice, doctors increased the medication to opiates. The growth of his dependence on pain-killers was directly proportional to the dwindling of screen offers. He did get to recreate the role of Dracula one last time in the film Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948.

1951 re-issue poster, promoting Bela Lugosi's genre-defining turn as Dracula.
1951 re-issue poster, promoting Bela Lugosi's genre-defining turn as Dracula.

Late in his life, he again received star billing in movies when filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr., a fan of Lugosi, found him living in obscurity and near-poverty and offered him roles in his films, such as Glen or Glenda and as a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist in Bride of the Monster. During post-production of the latter, Lugosi decided to seek treatment for his addiction, and the premiere of the film was said to be intended to help pay for his hospital expenses. According to Kitty Kelley's biography of Frank Sinatra, when the entertainer heard of Lugosi's problems, he helped with expenses and visited at the hospital. Lugosi would recall his amazement, since he didn't even know Sinatra. The extras on an early DVD release of Plan 9 from Outer Space include an impromptu interview with Lugosi upon his exit from the treatment center, which provide some rare personal insights into the man. During the interview, Lugosi states that he is about to go to work on a new Ed Wood film, The Ghoul Goes West. This was one of several projects proposed by Wood, including The Phantom Ghoul and Dr. Acula. With Lugosi in his famed Dracula cape, Wood shot impromptu test footage at his home and in a suburban graveyard. This footage ended up in Plan 9 from Outer Space.

He married Hope Linninger, in 1955. Following his treatment, Lugosi made one final film, in late 1955, The Black Sleep, for Bel-Air Pictures, which was released in the summer of 1956 through United Artists with a promotional campaign that included several personal appearances. To his disappointment, however, his role in this film was of a mute, with no dialogue.

[edit] Death and posthumous performance

Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956 while lying in bed in his Los Angeles home. He was 73.

Bela Lugosi was buried wearing one of the many capes from the Dracula stageplay, as per the request of his son and fifth wife, in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his famous cloak; Bela Lugosi, Jr. has confirmed on numerous occasions that he and his mother, Lillian, arrived at their decision independently.

One of Lugosi's most infamous roles was in a movie released after he was dead. Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space features footage of Lugosi interspersed with a double. Wood had taken a few minutes of silent footage of Lugosi, in his Dracula cape, for a planned vampire picture but was unable to find financing for the project. When he later conceived of Plan 9, Wood wrote the script to incorporate the Lugosi footage and hired his wife's chiropractor to double for Lugosi in additional shots. The "double" is thinner than Lugosi, and covers the lower half of his face with his cape in every shot, as Lugosi did in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. As Leonard Maltin put it in early editions of his movies guide book, "Lugosi died during production, and it shows."

[edit] Legacy

  • In 1979 the Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs, as a copyright would have. The court rules that any rights of publicity, and rights to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death.
  • Lugosi is mentioned prominently in the song "Celluloid Heroes" by The Kinks.
  • The heavy metal band Black Sabbath claimed to have named themselves after a Lugosi film-- except that Lugosi never made a film by that title (However, Boris Karloff did star in a 1964 film called Black Sabbath).
  • More recently, Lugosi became the subject of a song by gothic rock band Bauhaus entitled "Bela Lugosi's Dead".
  • The German musician Bela B. was inspired by Bela Lugosi to his pseudonym.
  • The biographical film Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994) is a sentimental interpretation of the relationship between Lugosi and Wood. Lugosi is played by Martin Landau in a good-natured and sometimes moving interpretation for which Landau received an Academy Award for best supporting actor. Lugosi's son, Bela Lugosi, Jr. initially disapproved of his father's portrayal in the film, despite never having seen it. After a long correspondence with Landau, Lugosi, Jr. was persuaded to view the film in Landau's company, after which he declared that Landau had 'honored' his father with his portrayal, and the actor and the late star's son became friends as a result.
  • Contrary to Burton's film, Lugosi did not receive top billing for Plan 9. Instead, he was listed as a guest-star, below Tor Johnson, Vampira and Kenne Duncan.
  • At present, there is a movement by Lugosi fans to get him an honorary Oscar, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a longtime policy of giving honorary awards only to living persons. See link below.
  • Lugosi's films were often featured in the USA television series Night Flight.
  • Three Lugosi projects were featured on the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Corpse Vanishes was used in episode 105, the serial The Phantom Creeps was used throughout season two and the Ed Wood production Bride of the Monster appeared in episode 423.
  • 'Count Bela de Magpyr' is a vampire who features in the Discworld ongoing series of Terry Pratchett, a vampire of the Magpyr family who resembles Lugosi physically.
  • An episode of Sledge Hammer titled Last of the Red Hot Vampires was an homage of Béla Lugosi. At the end of the episode, it was dedicated to "Mr. Blaskó".

[edit] Further reading

  • Rhodes, Gary D. with Richard Sheffield, Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers, ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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