Name: Bela Lugosi
Date of Birth: 20 October 1882
Born in Lugos, Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), from which he derived his eventual professional surname.
Father was a banker.
His son, Bela Lugosi Jr., practices law in Los Angeles, California (1995).
Interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, USA. Specific Interment Location: Grotto, L120, 1.
Were it not for his death, Lon Chaney, rather than Lugosi, would have been the director Tod Browning's choice for the starring role in Dracula (1931).
On the set, he camouflaged his drug addiction by sipping burgundy.
... Contrary to popular belief, he and Boris Karloff did not hate each other, as the famous scene from Ed Wood (1994) would lead one to believe. Both men's children have said that the only rivalry that existed between them is when they were both up for the same parts, and in reality, Lugosi and Karloff had almost no relationship off-set. However, near the sad end of his life, Lugosi allegedly had at least one methadone-addled fantasy that Karloff was a boogie man out to get him.
He was one of the charter members of the Screen Actors Guild.
In 1929, he married a wealthy San Francisco widow named Beatrice Weeks, a union which lasted all of three days; their divorce named Clara Bow as the "other woman" - it was a media sensation and launched him into national notoriety.
Pictured on one of a set of five 32? US commemorative postage stamps, issued 30 September 1997, celebrating "Famous Movie Monsters". He is shown as the title character in Dracula (1931). Other actors honored in this set of stamps, and the classic monsters they portray, are Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera (1925); Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man (1941); and Boris Karloff on two stamps as The Mummy (1932) and the monster in Frankenstein (1931).
Long, extensive classical career in Hungary including roles in "Hamlet", "Macbeth", "King Lear", "Taming of the Shrew" and "Richard III".
His first stage role in the US was "The Red Poppy". Unable to speak English, he was forced to learn the role by rote. He was rewarded with excellent reviews and earned his first US film role, a villainous part in The Silent Command (1923) as a result.
At the time of his death, Lugosi was in such poor financial straits that Frank Sinatra quietly paid for his funeral.
He performed in live-action reference footage for the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence of Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). He was, of course, the demon.
His Los Angeles home was purchased by Johnny Depp, the actor who portrayed his friend Edward D. Wood Jr. in the film Ed Wood (1994).
Further immortalized in the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus, which was featured in The Hunger (1983), and went on to become a dancefloor mainstay at goth dance clubs in the 1980s. The lyrics of the song described him in his Dracula costume, along with "Undead! Undead! Undead!" being chanted during the song's chorus.
His performance in Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) created such a sensation that he reportedly received more fan mail from females than even Clark Gable.
His name had become such as asset that various studios would give him prominent billing even when he was playing such supporting roles as butlers as he did in Columbia's Night of Terror (1933), Fox's The Gorilla (1939), Universal's Night Monster (1942) and Paramount's One Body Too Many (1944).
Is portrayed by Martin Landau in Ed Wood (1994)
In his collaborations with Boris Karloff at Universal, it was Karloff who always got top billing. When these same films were released as part of a DVD box set in 2005, Universal chose to market them as "The Bela Lugosi Collection.".
He still spoke very little English by the time he shot Dracula (1931), He had made the role famous on Broadway, but most of his lines he had learned phonetically, and used the same technique for the film version. It was another two years after he shot Dracula (1931) before he became fluent in English, although he had made several films after that one.
He received "only" $500 per week for the seven-week engagement on "Dracula," a total of $3500. However, in 2007 purchasing power, that would be equal to $47,319. In comparison, Universal paid $2000 per week for the use of leading man David Manners, but Manners was a contract player at First National Pictures. The payment went to that studio, not to Manners, who was paid only his usual weekly rate from First National.
Attained the rank of an Infantry Captain in the Hungarian army in World War I. Later recounted in stories on film sets, his duties include acting as a hangman. He also said that at one point he hid in a mass grave of corpses to escape death. After being wounded three times, he was discharged while apparently feigning concussion-caused insanity.
Lugosi himself perpetrated the myth that he had quit the role of the monster in Frankenstein (1931), which is untrue. Originally, director Robert Florey wanted him to play Dr. Frankenstein, but producer Carl Laemmle Jr. didn't want Lugosi in that role, so he was relocated to the monster part. Lugosi was unhappy with playing the clodding, mute monster under heavy make-up and complained. He had filmed some screen-tests with Florey, but Laemmle Jr. didn't like what he saw and fired both Florey and Lugosi.
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