Bela Lugosi was the actor infamous for his role as the original Dracula. Be’la Ferenc Dezso Blasko was born October 29th, 1882 in Lugos, Hungary (now Romania.) He was the youngest of four children brought up in an upper middle-class home. At a young age Bela became fascinated with acting, and at twelve ran away from his childhood home in hopes of becoming a famous actor. At first, Lugosi found little work acting, and resorted to working at railroads and mines. Nevertheless, his dream of becoming an actor ceased to die, and began studying acting theory diligently. Soon, Lugosi changed his name to Bela Lugosi, which means “one from the town of Lugos.”
In 1921, Lugosi moved to New York. He struggled to find roles handicapped by his nonexistent understanding of English. Lugosi learned his lines phonetically, and made his American film debut in 1923's “The Silent Command.” Then, in 1927 he was cast as Dracula in the Broadway production that ran for nearly three years. It wasn’t until 1930 that Dracula was brought to the silver screen. To everyone’s surprise, the film was a smash success. In 1931 Bela married 20 year-old Lillian Arch. This was Lugosi’s fourth marriage, which lasted 20 years, and produced a son Bela Lugosi Jr.
Dracula rocketed Lugosi to international fame, and he was immediately offered the role of Frankenstein, which he turned down to star in another film. This move has been deemed the biggest mistake of his professional life. From that point on Lugosi’s career began to fade. He was eternally type cast as the villain in horror films. To continue working he made a string of b-movies. As his career dwindled Lugosi endured several financial problems, and a battle with addiction. He became increasingly eccentric as well, being seen around town sporting his Dracula costume.
By 1953, Lugosi was aligned with filmmaker Ed Wood, who is notorious as the worst director in movie history. He played the lead role only once, in 1955's “Bride of the Monster” as Dr. Eric Vornoff. The pair also made the film “Glen or Glenda?”
In April of 1955 Lugosi committed himself to the Los Angeles County General Hospital to help him recover from a morphine addiction. He had been taking the drug for a rumored twenty years to ease shooting pains in his legs. He was released later that year, and married Hope Lininger, a fan who had written him letters every day he was in hospital. She would be his fifth and final wife. Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 15th, 1956 at the age of 73, and was buried in his Dracula cape as he wished.
Decades after his death, Lugosi continues to be a cult figure. In 1994 the acclaimed filmmaker Tim Burton directed the screen biography of director Ed Wood, and cast veteran actor Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. Landau went on to win the Oscar that year for his portal. Over the course of his career Bela appeared in over one hundred movies, but none would ever mimic the success, of Dracula, which remains one of the most well-known characters in cinema today, and most people know Dracula as; Bela Lugosi.
No comments:
Post a Comment