A chill in the air means only one thing to many film fans: Halloween is approaching, and with it the memory of the man many consider the screen’s defining vampire. Bella Lugosi, born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó on October 20, 1882, in what is now Lugoj, Romania, was the youngest of four children. He dropped out of school at 12 and began acting in small plays and musicals in 1902, eventually joining Budapest’s National Theater and playing dozens of roles. .
During World War I, Lugosi served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian Army, rising to the rank of captain and earning a wound medal on the Russian front. After the war, his activism within the actors’ union during Hungary’s 1919 revolution forced him to flee his homeland. He acted briefly in Vienna and Berlin, adopted the name “Lugosi” to honor his birthplace, and eventually sailed to New Orleans as a crewman aboard a merchant ship. In the summer of 1927, he was approached to star in a Broadway production of Dracula; the show ran for 261 performances before touring the United States.
When the tour ended in California, Lugosi stayed. His stagework caught Fox Film’s attention, and he landed a silent-film role in the Veiled Woman in 1929, though no other film roles immediately followed, driving him back to the stage for a short West Coast Dracula tour. When Universal Pictures decided to adapt Dracula for the screen in 1931, Lugosi was not the studio’s first choice for the title role; several prominent actors were considered before he got the part. The film was a box-office hit, but it trapped him in a career of horror villains: Murders in the Rue Morgue, White Zombie, The Raven, and Son of Frankenstein, among others.
He was frequently paired with actor Boris Karloff, but Lugosi was often denied top billing, and he was deeply frustrated that Karloff could demand lead credit while Lugosi performed major roles only in the Black Cat, the Raven,and Son of Frankenstein—and even in the Raven, Karloff received top billing despite Lugosi playing the lead. Interestingly, Lugosi played Dracula onscreen only twice; the last time came in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948,a film many consider among the best of its kind, even though eagle-eyed viewers may notice a scene where Dracula improperly shows a reflection. His other notable films include Ninotchka, the Body Snatcher,the Invisible Ray, Return of Chandu,and Spooks on the Run. By this time, Lugosi had been receiving regular medication for chronic sciatica stemming from his military service, and he became addicted to morphine.
Producers knew of his dependence, and offers shrank to a few parts in low-budget Ed Wood films, including a brief appearance in Plan 9 from Outer Space. In his last years, Lugosi sought treatment for his illness and his dependence on painkillers. Singer Frank Sinatra, whomever had never met Lugosi, learned of his problems, helped with expenses,and visited him at the hospital; Lugosi was amazed by the visit. Lugosi married five times and had one son, Béla George.
He died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956, lying on a bed in his Los Angeles apartment at age 73. He was buried wearing one of his Dracula costumes at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6430 Hollywood Boulevard inclu 1960. His legacy endures each autumn whenever fans debate which screen vampire, from Leslie Nielsen to George Hamilton, deserves the crown.
