Bela Lugosi, whos real name was Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko, was born in Lugos, part of Austria-Hungary, on October 20, 1882. He was the youngest of four children and was raised in a Roman Catholic family. At the young age of twelve, Lugosi dropped out of school, and seven years later at the age of ninteen is when he started his acting career. His earliest known performances were in provincial theaters from 1903-1904. He played small roles in several plays and operettas, and after some time, moved on Shakespeare plays and other major roles. He moved to Budapest in 1911 and played dozens of roles with the National Theater of Hungary from 1913-1919. During World War 1, he served as an infantry lieutentant in the Austro-Hungarian Army where he rose to the rank of captain of the ski patrol and would eventually be awarded for being wounded on the Russian front.
Lugosi's first flim appearance was in the 1917 movie Az ezredes (Known in English as The Colonel). While appearing in Hungarian silent films Lugosi often went by the name Arisztid Olt. Lugosi starred in 12 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany. Because of his activism in the Actors Union in Hungary during the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1919, he was forced to flee his homeland. He went to Vienna then Austria and finally settled in Germany where he continued acting. He appeared in a small number of films including adaptations of Karl May novels such as Auf den Trummern des Paradieses (On the Brink of Paradise) and Die Todeskarawane (The Caravan of Death). Lugosi left Germany in 1920 intent on emigrating to the United States, he would eventually travel to New Orleans as a crewman aboard a merchant ship.
He entered the country at New Orleans in December 1920. He made his way to New York where he was legally inspected for immigration at Ellis Island in March 1921. He declared his intention on becoming a US citizen in 1928 and then on June 26, 1931 he was naturalized. He worked as a laborer upon his arrival to the US and then entered the theater in New York City's Hungarian immigrant colony. With a few fellow Hungarian actors, Lugosi formed a small stock company that toured Eastern cities, playing for immigrant audiences. He acted in his first Broadway play in 1922, it was called The Red Poppy. There were more parts that were offered to Lugosi, they came between 1925 and 1926. They included a five month part in the comedy/fantasy The Devil in the Cheese. His first American role came in the 1923 melodrama The Silent Command.
Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in the Broadway prodcution of Dracula adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel. The production was a hit, running 261 performances before touring. He was soon called to Hollywood to star in early talkies (the opposite of a silent film). Despite his performance, Lugosi was not the first choice of Universal Pictures to play Dracula when the company optioned the rights to the Deane play and began production in 1930. It was a long standing rumor that Lon Chaney was Universal's first choice, and that Lugosi was only chosen due to Chaney's death shortly before production.
Because of his association with the character of Dracula, Lugosi started to play other roles as a horror villian, starring in such movies as Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Raven, and Son of Frankenstein and the independent film White Zombie. Due to his thick Hungarian accent, Lugosi was limited to certain roles that he could play. Lugosi did however attempt to try out for other roles. He lost out to Lionel Barrymore for the role of Rasputin in Rasputin and the Empress, C. Henry Gordon for the role of Surat Khan in Charge of the Light Brigade, and Basil Rathbone for the role of Commissar Gorotchenko in Tovarich. He finally got a break when he got the role of the elegant and hot tempered Gen. Nicholas Strenovsky-Petronovich in International House.
Five films at Universal- The Black Cat, The Raven, The Invisible Ray, Son of Frankenstein and Black Friday (and also two minor cameo roles in 1934's Gift of Gab) and two RKO Pictures, You'll Find Out and The Body Snatcher-paired Lugosi with Boris Karloff. Lugosi was inevitably viewed as second best compared to Karloff and it was reported that Lugosi was openly resentful towards Karloff for his long term success and ability to get good roles beyond the horror arena. Karloff and Lugosi were also reported to have at one point been good friends. Universal attempted to give Lugosi more heroic roles, as in The Black Cat, The Invisible Ray, and even a romantic role in the Adventure of Chandu.
Lugosi encountered many problems with his career in the 1930's. Universal changed management and because of a British ban on horror films, they were dropped from the production schedule. Lugosi often found himself consigned to Universal's non-horror B-film unit, and at the times the small roles he played he was used for "name value" only. Though Lugosi was experiencing a severe career decline, he accepted many leading roles from independent producers such as Nat Levine, Sol Lesser, and Sam Katzman. Because these roles were often low budget thrillers, it showed that Lugosi was less discriminating than Karloff when it came to choosing roles. The exposure not only helped Lugosi financially, but artistically as well. He tried to keep busy with stage work, but eventually had to borrow money from the Actors' fund to pay hospital bills when his only child, Bela George Lugosi was born in 1938.
Universal gave Lugosi's career a second chance when he starred in Son of Frankenstein in 1939 as Ygor, who used monsters for his own revenge. That same year, Lugosi got a role in the major motion picture Ninotchka, a comedy. The small role could have been the turning point for Lugosi, but instead he ended up back on Hollywood's Poverty Row, playing leads for Sam Katzman. Due to injuries he sustained while in the Military, Lugosi developed chronic sciatica. At first he was treated with remedies such as asparagus juice, the doctors then decided to increase his medication to opiates. Eventually Lugosi would develop an addiction to pain killers, primarily Morhpine and Methadone. This addiction caused dwindling screen offers. Finally, in 1943 he played the role of Frankenstein's monster in Universal's Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, which contained dialogue. And in 1948 Lugosi played Dracula for the second and last time in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. By this time, Lugosi's drug use was so widely known that the producers weren't aware that Lugosi was still alive, so they penciled in Ian Keith for the role.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein would be Lugosi's last "A" movie. For the remainder of his life he would appear in obscure low-budget features. From 1947 to 1950 he performed in summer stock, often in the productions of Dracula or Arsenic and Old Lace, and during the rest of the year often made appearances in a touring "spook show" and on television. While in England to play in a six month tour of Dracula in 1951, he also co-starred in the comedy Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (Also known as Vampire over London and My Son, the Vampire). Upon returning to America Lugosi expressed his interest in doing comedies. Independent producer Jack Broder decided to give Lugosi a chance and casted him in a jungle themed comedy called Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Soon after, another opportunity appeared when Milton Berle invited Lugosi to appear in a sketch on Texaco Star Theater.
Later on in his life, Lugosi received star billing in movies when filmmaker Ed Wood, who happened to be a fan of Lugosi, found him living in obscurity and near poverty. Wood offered Lugosi roles in his films such as Glen or Glenda, and as a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist in Bride of the Monster. During post production of Bride of the Monster, Lugosi decided to get treatment for his drug addiction, and the premiere of the film was intended to help pay for the hospital expenses. But when Frank Sinatra heard of Lugosi's plans to get well, he helped with the expenses and visited Lugosi at the hospital. Following his treatment, Lugosi made one final film in 1955 called The Black Sheep, for Bel-Air Pictures. Much to his disappointment however, his role in the film was that of a mute, with no dialogue.
Lugosi had several wives over the course of his life. His first was Llona Szmick in 1917 but later divorced her in 1920 due to political differences with her parents. His second wife was Llona von Montagh, they married in 1921 and divorced in 1924. His third wife was wealthy San Fransisco widow Beatrice Weeks, whom he married in 1929, but she filed for divorce just a mere four months later, citing that Clara Bow was the "other woman". He married his fourth wife in 1933. She was nineteen year old Lillian Arch, the two had a child, Bela George Lugosi in 1938. The two divorced in 1953, partly due to the jealousy he felt when his wife got a job with the handsome Brian Donlevy. And Lugosi's fifth wife was Hope Lininger, they married in 1955. She was an avid fan of his and often wrote him letters while he was in the hospital recovering from an addiction to Demerol.
Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956 while lying on a couch in his Los Angeles home, he was 73. He was buried wearing one of his Dracula stage play costumes, per the request of his son and fourth wife, in the Holy Cross Cemetary in Culver City, Calfornia. One of Lugosi's roles was released posthumously. Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space(Originally named Grave Robbers from Outer Space). It featured footage of Lugosi interspersed with a double. Before Lugosi's death, Wood had captured a few minutes of silent footage of him in his Dracula cape, for a planned vampire picture, but was unable to find financing. When he later though of Plan 9, Wood wrote the script to incorporate the footage of Lugosi and hired Tom Mason to double for Lugosi in additional shots.
In 1979 the Lugosi vs Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi's personal rights could not pass to his heirs, and the court ruled that under California law any rights of publicity, including rights to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death. Three Lugosi projects were featured on the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Corpse Vanishes appeared in episode 105, the serial The Phantom Creeps appeared throughout the season, and the Ed Wood production of Bride of the Monster in episode 423. There is a statue of Lugosi that can be seen on the corners of the Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest and the cape Lugosi wore in the 1931 film Dracula is still around today, it is in the ownership of Universal Studios. And if you go to the Ellis Island of Immigration Musuem in New York, you'll see a thirty minute play that focuses on Lugosi's illegal entry into the country and then his arrival at Ellis Island to enter legally.
So there it is, all you need to know about the one and only, Bela Lugosi. And heres a little side note for those of you who don't know this, but Rob Zombie's band White Zombie actually named their band after the 1932 classic film White Zombie starring Bela Lugosi as a tribute...how cool is that??
And as another little side note, we're doing something a little different this week at Dead End Horror. Zane and I will each be posting one article a day starting Wednesday and we'll post through Friday. So don't forget to check us out! I'll be doing a movie review of White Zombie and reviewing Masters of Horror Episode 4: Jenifer. And Zane will be reviewing 2 Bela Lugosi films and doing a top 10 list of classic horror movies. So check us out huh???
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