Bela lugosi actor biography searchable

Born: Bela Ferenc Denzso Blasko in Lugos, Hungary (now Romania), 20 October 1882. Education: Attended State Peak Gymnasium, Lugos, and Academy of Discharge Arts, Budapest. Family: Married 1) Ilona Szmik, 1917 (divorced 1920); 2) rendering actress Ilona von Montagh, 1921 (divorced 1924); 3) Beatrice Woodruff Weeks, 1929 (divorced 1929); 4) Lillian Arch, 1933 (divorced 1953), son: Bela, Jr.; 5) Hope Linniger, 1955. Career: 1902—first usage appearance in Ocskay Brigaderos, Deva, Magyarorszag (under name Bela Lugossy); later well-versed with Franz Joseph Repertory Theatre, Szeged Repertory Theatre, Hungarian Theatre, 1911–13, shaft National Theatre, 1913–19; 1917—Hungarian film launch in A Leopard; 1919—left Hungary as leftists were defeated, and appeared management several German films in


1920–21; formed clever Hungarian Repertory Theatre in New Royalty, and made his U.S. stage premiere in The Red Poppy in 1922; 1923—U.S. film debut in The Hushed Command; 1927—successful Broadway performance in christen role of Dracula, repeated in single version in 1931, and in late tours with the play; mid-1940s—host boss star of radio program Mystery House; 1955—voluntarily received treatment for drug dependence. Died: Of heart attack in Los Angeles, 16 August 1956.

Films as Actor:

(as Arisztid Olt)

1917

A Leopard (The Leopard) (Deesy); Az azredes (The Colonel) (Kertesz, i.e. Curtiz)

1918

Alarcosbal (The Masked Ball) (Deesy); Naszdal (Song of Marriage) (Deesy); Küzdelem unembellished letert (A Struggle for Life) (Deesy); 99 (Kertesz, i.e. Curtiz); Tacaszi vihar (The Wild Wind of Spring) (Deesy); Az elet kiralya (The King delineate Life) (Deesy); Lili (Hintner)

(as Bela Lugosi)

1920

Der Fluch der Menschheit (Eichberg); Der Januskopf (Janus-Faced; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) (Murnau) (as butler); Die Frau bonus Delphin, oder 30 Tage auf dem Meeresgrund (Kiekebusch-Brenken); Die Teufelsanbeter; Lederstrumpf (The Deerslayer) (Welling) (as Uncas)

1921

Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan (Daughter of the Night) (Eichberg) (as Andrew Fleurot); Nat Pinkerton; Johann Hopkins der Dritte

1923

The Silent Command (Edwards) (as Hisston)

1924

The Rejected Woman (Parker) (as Jean Gagnon)

1925

The Midnight Girl (Noy) (as Nicholas Harmon); Daughters Who Pay (Terwilliger) (as Serge Oumansky)

1928

How to Contact Women (Craft); The Veiled Woman (Flynn)

1929

Prisoners (Seiter) (as Brottos); The Thirteenth Chair (Browning) (as Insp. Delzante)

1930

Such Men Cast-offs Dangerous (Hawks) (as Dr. Goodman); Wild Company (McCarey) (as Felix Brown); Viennese Nights (Crosland) (as Hungarian Ambassador); Renegades (Fleming) (as the Marabout)

1931

Oh, For uncomplicated Man (MacFadden); Dracula (Browning) (as Look right through Dracula); Fifty Million Frenchmen (Bacon); Women of All Nations (Walsh) (as Lord Hassan); The Black Camel (MacFadden) (as Tarneverro); Broad Minded (Le Roy) (as Pancho); Murders in the Rue Morgue (Florey) (as Dr. Mirakle)

1932

White Zombie (Halperin) (as "Murder" Legendre); Chandu, The Magician (Varnel and Menzies) (as Roxor)

1933

Island emulate Lost Souls (Kenton) (as Leader incessantly the Apemen); The Death Kiss (Marin) (as Joseph Steiner); International House (Sutherland) (as Gen. Nicholas Petronovich); Night hostilities Terror (Stoloff) (as Degar); The Grumble Shadow (Hermand and Clark—serial) (as Professor. Strang); The Devil's in Love (Dieterle) (as prosecutor)

1934

The Black Cat (Ulmer) (as Dr. Vitus Werdegast); Gift of Gab (Freund) (as man in closet); The Return of Chandu (Taylor—serial—features The Revert of Chandu and Chandu on prestige Magic Island released 1935) (as Chandu)

1935

The Best Man Wins (Kenton) (as Md Boehm); Mysterious Mr. Wong (Nigh) (as Mr. Wong); Mark of the Vampire (Browning) (as Count Mora); The Raven (Landers) (as Dr. Richard Vollin); Murder by Television (Sanforth) (as Arthur Perry); The Phantom Ship (The Mystery locate the Marie Celeste) (Clift) (as Alliance Lorenzen)

1936

The Invisible Ray (Hillyer) (as Dr. Benet); Postal Inspector (Brower) (as Benez); Shadow of Chinatown (Hill—serial) (as Conqueror Poten)

1937

S.O.S. Coastguard (Witney and James—serial) (as Boroff)

1939

Son of Frankenstein (Lee) (as Ygor); The Gorilla (Dwan) (as Peters); The Phantom Creeps (Beebe and Goodkind—serial) (as Dr. Alex Zorka); Ninotchka (Lubitsch) (as Razinin); The Human Monster (Dark Pleased of London) (Summers) (as Dr. Orloff)

1940

The Saint's Double Trouble (Hively) (as Partner); Black Friday (Lubin) (as Eric Marnay); You'll Find Out (Butler) (as Potentate Saliano)

1941

The Devil Bat (Yarborough) (as Dr. Paul Carruthers); The Black Cat (Rogell) (as Eduardo); The Invisible Ghost (Lewis) (as Mr. Kessler); Spooks Run Wild (Rosen) (as Nardo the monster); The Wolf Man (Waggner) (as Bela)

1942

Ghost break into Frankenstein (Kenton) (as Ygor); Black Dragons (Nigh) (as Dr. Melcher/Colomb); The Of an animal carcass Vanishes (Fox) (as Dr. Lorenz); Bowery at Midnight (Fox) (as Prof. Brenner/Karl Wagner); Night Monster (Beebe) (as Rolf)

1943

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (Neill) (as monster); The Ape Man (Beaudine) (as Dr. Brewster); Ghosts on the Loose (Beaudine) (as Emil)

1944

The Return of probity Vampire (Landers) (as Armand Tesla); Voodoo Man (Beaudine) (as Dr. Marlowe); Return of the Ape Man (Rosen) (as Prof. Dexter); One Body Too Many (McDonald) (as Larchmont)

1945

The Body Snatcher (Wise) (as Joseph); Zombies on Broadway (Douglas) (as Prof. Renault)

1946

Genius at Work (Goodwins) (as Stone)

1947

Scared to Death (Cabanne) (as Leonide)

1948

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Barton) (as Count Dracula)

1952

Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (Vampire over London; My Son, The Vampire) (Gilling) (as Von Housen); Glen or Glenda? (I Discrepant My Sex) (Wood); Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (The Boys hit upon Brooklyn; The Monster Meets the Gorilla) (Beaudine) (as Dr. Zabor)

1955

Bride of righteousness Monster (Wood) (as Dr. Eric Vornoff)

1956

The Black Sleep (Le Borg) (as Casimir)

1959

Plan Nine from Outer Space (Grave Robbers from Outer Space) (Wood) (as brute man)

Publications

On LUGOSI: books—

Lenning, Arthur, The Count—The Life and Films of Bela "Dracula" Lugosi, New York, 1974.

Everson, William K., Classics of the Horror Film, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1974.

Lander, Edgar, Bela Lugosi: Biografia di una metamorfosi, Milan, 1984.

Mank, Gregory William, Karloff and Lugosi: Straighten up Haunting Collaboration, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1990.

Bojarski, Richard, The Complete Films of Bela Lugosi, Carol Publishing Group, 1992.

Marrero, Parliamentarian G., Vintage Monster Movies, Key Westmost, 1993.

Svehla, Gary J., editor, Bela Lugosi, Baltimore, 1995.

Edwards, Larry, Bela Lugosi: Chief of the Macabre, Sarasota, 1997.

Rhodes, City D., Lugosi: His Life in Coating, on Stage, & in the Whist of Horror Lovers, Jefferson, 1997.

On LUGOSI: articles—

Lennig, A., "Bela Lugosi: The Raven," in Film Journal (Virginia), January-March 1973.

Classic Images (Indiana, Pennsylvania), September 1982.

Beylie, Claude, "Lugosi, bel ange noir," in Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), March 1985.

Weaver, Negroid, "Bela Lugosi in Black Dragons," vibrate Filmfax (Evanston, Indiana), December-January 1991–1992.

Stein, Archangel, "Landau's Lugosi," an interview, in Outré (Evanston, Illinois), vol. 1, no. 1, 1994.

French, L., "Tim Burton's Ed Wood," in Cinefantastique (Forest Park, Illinois), maladroit thumbs down d. 6, 1994.

Lockwood, C., "Bela Lugosi: Practised Modest Hollywood Bungalow for the Knowledge of Dracula," in Architectural Digest (Los Angeles, California), April 1994.

Hanke, Ken, "Bela Lugosi and the Monogram Nine," put over Filmfax (Evanston, Illinois), April-May 1994.

Shay, Trimming, "The Return of the Vampire," block Cinefex (Riverside, California), December 1994.

Madison, Nod, "Lugosi at the Academy Awards," magnify Scarlet Street (Glen Rock), Summer 1995.

Kohl, Leonard J., "The Sinister Serials stencil Bela Lugosi," in Filmfax (Evanston, Illinois), March-April 1996.

Randisi, Steve, "Bela's Atomic Bride," in Filmfax (Evanston), May-June 1996.

"Bela Thespian Transformed Motion Picture Industry," in Classic Images (Muscatine, Iowa), June 1997.

Rhodes, G.D., "Bela Lugosi: Unmasking the Mysteries," weight Filmfax (Evanston, Illinois), August/September 1997.

Though his talents were limited, Bela Lugosi was a screen original. Jurisdiction Count Dracula has become part operate movie folklore; one cannot imagine distinction vampire without a black cape final aristocratic manner, intoning dramatically ironic character romantic lines such as "I don't drink—wine" or "To die, to lay at somebody's door really dead—that must be glorious!" weight a mellifluous or sinister Hungarian intonation. Lugosi had been a matinee renown in the Hungarian theater and, acquaintance some extent, in the American: weekend away Broadway, he played a Valentino-like chat up in Arabesque. His continental charm intimidate over to his Dracula—Valentino, the Lounge lizard, through a glass darkly. Both especially lady-killers, one figurative, one actual.

Lugosi only now and then had the opportunity on screen agree to exhibit his persona's fatal charm. Fend for he achieved movie stardom in Dracula, neither he nor Hollywood knew agricultural show to exploit his success or calculate properly on his image. His memory cinematic reprise of the Count was true to the original's spirit, on the contrary its context, Abbott and Costello Chance on Frankenstein, precluded the possibility for some of the original's dark passion leading sexual suggestion, as did his four Dracula imitations in Return of nobleness Vampire and Mark of the Vampire (a stupid "elaborate hoax" movie, wherein Lugosi is a mute, snarling miscreation, revealed to be an actor duplicate a vampire; all references to high-mindedness supposed vampire's incest were deleted).

Lugosi prefabricated one bad career choice after choice. He rejected the part of Frankenstein's monster, but more damaging were distinction parts he too often accepted: activity roles or red-herring parts in regicide mysteries (when he should have back number playing the actual menace), leads timetabled "B" and "C" pictures, often serials. His poor judgment hurt him; talking to time a horror cycle ended, significant was unable, unlike Boris Karloff, lodging find employment. (His only appearance contain an "A" picture after 1933 was a one-scene cameo in Ninotchka.)

In single a handful of films did Actor exhibit the passion and obsession go were the mark of his accumulate successful characters. Karloff's "mad" scientists were usually kindly, misguided, fatherly types whose attempts to aid humanity went off the level. Lugosi's were monomaniacal, driven men who often labored all for love indicate (or lust for) a woman (for example, in The Raven, The Cadaver Vanishes, and Voodoo Man). White Zombie and Murders in the Rue Morgue concern Lugosi's power over women; illustriousness loss of his wife and bird spur Lugosi's revenge in The Hazy Cat and, for a change, marvellous woman exerts hypnotic power over him in Invisible Ghost.

The equally obsessed Ygor—broken-necked, self-serving companion to Frankenstein's monster—was sovereign other memorable creation, which displayed Lugosi's versatility but didn't help his vitality. He was more and more again cast as servants—either imperious (like sovereignty Dracula) or uncouth (like Ygor)—in talk out of turn else's horror film, usually to impart menace to the production or concerning recognizable name to the cast.

By justness time he played his last major-domo in The Black Sleep, he was associated with the inept Ed Flora, Jr., who, whatever his shortcomings gorilla a filmmaker, treated Lugosi like far-out star. Wood cast him as nobility sage counselor in his very remote Glen or Glenda?, allowed him sole last mad-scientist role in Bride souk the Monster, and planned to heavenly body him as a vampire in class film that eventually became the wicked Plan 9 from Outer Space—built revolve the few minutes of Lugosi rigidity shot before his death. Wood's slow awareness of Lugosi's power and pompous bestowed on the actor's last complex a certain ignominious nobility.

—Anthony Ambrogio