We all know Bela Lugosi from his role as Dracula in the 1931 film of the same name. What we don't know is very much about his other acting achievements. Born Bela Ferenc Dezsco Blasko in the town of Lugoj, Hungary in 1882, Bela ran away at 12 to pursue a career in acting. Born the son of a very domineering father acting was not an option is he was to remain at home.
So, at the tender age of 12 he moved to Budapest where he found work doing odd jobs, including as a miner, until he could realize his boyhood dream. After using a variety of stage names, he finally settled on Lugosi after his home town. In Hungary, the theater was sponsored by the State and when WWI rolled around, Lugosi was exempt from service. Fiercely loyal to his country, Bela enlisted and became a Captain in the ski troops. After being wounded, he spent much of the war convalescing in a military hospital and was awarded what is comparable to a Purple Heart.
When the war ended, he returned to the stage and played many classical roles including Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. He was also cast in the role of Jesus.
Lugosi had his sights set on bigger roles than the Hungarian theater could provide so he moved to Germany where he appeared in several movies directed by F.W. Murnau. He then moved to New York where he attempted to start a Hungarian theater company which failed. He went to work on the American stage with some difficulty. He spoke almost no English so he memorized his lines phonetically, this gave him his distinctive speaking style that remained with him for the rest of his life. One of the stage roles that he perfected was that of Dracula, where he performed it on Broadway as well as on the road.
It was not without some difficulty that Bela got the title role in the 1931 movie version; a role that would prove a curse as well as a blessing. Throughout his career in America, Lugosi was typecast in roles in which he played sinister, foreign characters. He brought a sexuality to the role of the ageless vampire that audiences found attractive, although he was nearly 50 when he played in the movie. As a result he had a very much publicized romance with Clara Bow, the It Girl of Hollywood.
I'm not certain how many films he made in total, I counted nearly 100, but he will always be remembered as Dracula. In 1994, Martin Landau won an Oscar for his portrayal of Lugosi in the film Ed Wood. It's likely that this was more a tribute to Bela than a recognition of Landau's acting ability (which is considerable). In the end, Bela Lugosi may be dead, but his character Dracula will live forever in the annals of moviedom.
