BELA LUGOSI

"I love Bela Lugosi!!!!"

Although the blog is suppose to be the place where i talk about my though on the economies and stock markets, but i just wanna talk about Bela Lugosi as he will always be my favorite actor.

You can find about the man from the web with tons of information especially from Wikipedia, but i just wanna talk about the LEGEND from my point of view.

Before he was the "Master of Horror" in the US with his famous 1931 Dracula, he was the prime actor and stage performer in his native country: Hungary.

Political issues forced him to leave Hungary and went Germany where he had major success there for a brief time.

Upon arriving in US in December 1920, he started his acting career for European immigrants. At that moment he still don't know English at all.

After that, he starred in several films but only played minor roles. At the same time, he was a Broadway actor and played numerous time as Count Dracula, the role that will make him famous and ultimately, kill his acting career.

With some luck (death of Lon Chaney) and great efforts, He got his first major role in a motion picture in US and it was a big one. A movie that would define the horror genre for years to come: 1931's Dracula, directed by Tod Browning.


This movie is an instant classic. Lugosi and Dracula combined into 1 and it was marvelous. With such a tight budget, it managed to become the sixth highest grossing film in 1931.

Lugosi was so good at the role that his image of Dracula is permanently stamped into our brain as "THE DRACULA". although he was not the first Dracula (Nosferatu's Max Schreck was arguably the first), but he will always be recognized as the true vampire from Transylvania. However, he was paid $500 per week for 10 weeks of shooting which is considered extremely low. (for comparison, here are the prices of some of the goods and services in 1931: Average Cost of new house $6,790.00, Cost of a gallon of Gas 10 cents, A loaf of Bread 8 cents, New Car Average Price $640.00)


After Dracula, his acting career was constantly on the downhill. Although he got a new contract from Universal Studios, his pay never increased (500 per week).

The most important event in Bela Lugosi career beside Dracula is his rejection to the role of Frankenstein monster in 1931. According to Lugosi, "Anybody can moan and grunt". Little to his knowledge, he was killing his own career. Frankenstein monster was eventually played by Boris Karloff, and the rivalry between Lugosi and Karloff has begun!



Frankenstein become the highest grossing film in 1931 and Karloff become the new "master of horror" and number one choice in the horror movie actors list for Universal Pictures.

There are no true friendship in Hollywood. Lugosi and Karloff did not like each other and that was not a secret. Although they always denied this fact, it was undeniably true. I truly believe Lugosi regretted his rejection of Frankenstein monster roles till the last day of his life.



Nonetheless, Karloff career went on so great that he owned 2 Hollywood Walk of Fame. He starred in high budget horror movies from Universal Studios such as The Mummy and 2 more Frankenstein films. (Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, which Lugosi played Ygor).



Meanwhile, Lugosi always get secondary roles in Universal Studios horror films behind Karloff. He was so great as Dracula (in which he appeared with minimal makeup, using his natural, heavily accented voice) that his was typecast to similar roles.

To survive, Lugosi started to involve with independent film makers and as a result, he got dozens of "shitty" movies to his credit (although he was always great in every films).

After Abbott and Castello meet Frankenstein (which Lugosi played Dracula for the second and last time), Lugosi was forced to perform in front of small live audiences and stupid TV shows.

In 1952, he starred in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla which was amazingly stupid and lousy yet quite entertaining. It was the last film before he was associated with Ed Wood, the notoriously bad director and producer.

Lugosi and Wood worked together in 3 films: Glen and Glenda (1953), Bride of the Monster (1955) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) which had only 1 shot of Lugosi in his Dracula cape.

His career ended in 1956 (74 years old) when he passed away in his house on August the 16th, 1956.

For me, there are 4 reasons Lugosi career slumped so bad into working with Ed Wood and other lousy producers / directors:

1. His Accent. To be honest, some time i can't even listen to what he said in his films. His thick Hungarian accent limited his chance to shine in Hollywood.

2. His Ego. Lugosi got big ego and in some ways, it hurt his career. He always think that he is the greatest and as a result, make some silly mistakes (such as turning off the role of Frankenstein).

3. Karloff. Karloff greatness in Frankenstein put him in the prime seat in horror movie industries in the 1930's and directly nailed Lugosi into the coffin of shitty films.

4. Morphine. He was addicted to Morphine in the mid 1930, due to injuries received during military service in world war I.










For me, Bela Lugosi will always be the greatest actor of all time and certainly the ICON of horror movie for eternity (although some may feel Karloff is the best). Both of them are superb, but Lugosi could act in horror films without makeup while Karloff needed makeup to perfect his roles, and for me, that separate Lugosi with Karloff and perhaps, the rest of the world.

Bela Lugosi?

or Boris Karloff?