Bela Lugosi: Hollywood’s Dark Prince
Bela Lugosi is a horror legend, No, he is a cultural icon!
He always will be to anyone who loves Horror movies, Dracula (1931), Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Wolfman (1941), and even our favorite bad movie “Plan 9 from Outer Space” (1959).
Do you think you know everything about Bela?
He was very mysterious and fascinating during his lifetime. Here are some interesting facts…Did you know…
- Bela was born on October 20th, 1882. That makes him 138 years old this year.
- He didn’t like school and had numerous disagreements with his father on becoming an actor in the entertainment business.
- So..he decided to leave his parents and home at the age of 12.
- Life was not easy for this struggling actor. Bela once worked as a Machinist and a Miner.
- Bela loved big dog breeds, like German Shepards.
- He smoked as many as 10 cigars per day.
Actor Ray Walston, who starred in in the hit television series “My Favorite Martian” (Uncle Martin) was friends with Bela when they worked in the theater, and ironically can relate to Bela being typecast as a Vampire his whole life. (Ray was typecast as an alien or Martian, for many years until his role as “Mr. Hand” in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”
Bela starred in the 1935 Tod Browning Horror film “Mark of the Vampire” which was a talkie remake of Browning’s silent move “London after Midnight”.
Bela played his Vampire role as “Count Mora” not “Count Dracula”. The original screenplay of this movie suggests that Count Mora was condemned to eternity as a vampire for his crime of incest with his daughter Luna. He shot himself out of guilt. After the studio cut this taboo subject out of the movie, the movie’s final cuts still show Count Mora (Bela) with unexplained blood on his right temple!
Bela very much enjoyed Stamp collecting. Fittingly, the image of Lugosi as his iconic “Dracula” appears on a commemorative stamp issued by the post office in 1997. Bela Stamp
Bela has been dead for many years, longer than some of you have been alive, but his legend and his star continue to shine bright each year.
