The king of scary films Bela Lugosi is one of the brightest examples of actors who have become hostages of his most successful image. Famous as the vampire Count Dracula, Lugosi could not get out of the role of a movie villain. Biography of Bela Lugosha, his career and personal life - later in this article.
early years
Bela Ferenc Deje Blashko, better known by the pseudonym Lugosi, was born on October 20, 1882, becoming the youngest of four children of the banker Istvan Blashko and his wife Paula. The native city of the future actor is the Austro-Hungarian city of Lugos (modern Lugoj in Romania), in whose honor Bela took his pseudonym.
Acting from an early age attracted Bela, so at age 12 he dropped out of school and stuck to the local provincial theater. At first, he served as an "errand boy", fulfilling the orders of actors and directors. At the age of 19, he first began appearing on stage in extras, but by the season of 1903, reaching 21 years old, played small roles in performances and operettas. Young Bela Lugosi in the photo below.
Beginning of a creative career
In 1911, the 29-year-old Lugosi moved to Budapest, where he was admitted to the National Royal Theater of Hungary, again performed only occasionally roles or appeared in extras. From 1914 to 1916, during the First World War, Bela served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian army. He received the medal "For Injury" while being wounded while serving on the Russian front.
After the war, the aspiring actor returned to his theater and first tried his hand at the screen - Bela Lugosi's debut film role was the appearance in the Hungarian film "Colonel" of 1917. After that, he starred in 12 films for the year, not having much success. The actor was prevented from waiting for big roles by the 1919 revolution - he founded the acting union, which was banned, for which he was expelled from the country. Lugosi moved to Germany. Here he starred in two films that brought him his first success. These were the paintings "On the Edge of Paradise" and "Caravan of Death."
In 1920, the actor emigrated to the United States, first settling in New Orleans, and then moving to New York. At first, Lugosi worked as a loader and handyman, and then got into the theater of the Colony of Hungarian refugees, which gave performances to emigrants.
The first role of Bela Lugosi in American cinema was Benedict Hisston in the 1923 film "Silent Team." Then several more similar roles followed - for four years he played ordinary villains or foreigners.
Dracula
In 1927, the actor auditioned for the Broadway production for the role of Count Dracula based on the novel by Bram Stoker. The performance was very successful - with a constant full house, Lugosi played his hero 260 times only in New York, and then went on tour in the United States. The huge proceeds from the production attracted the attention of producers of the Universal film studio. Having received the rights to film adaptation, in 1930 the team was ready to start shooting. Despite the fact that theatrical Dracula of Bela Lugosi has already been called by many critics the best interpretation of the image, the actor was in no hurry to invite to the film adaptation. It was planned that the main role will be played by the great silent film actor Lon Cheney, but he suddenly died of cancer. It seemed that fate itself chose Lugosi for this picture. Upon learning of the death of a competitor, Bela Lugosi immediately contacted the film studio and offered his candidacy. After the very first trials, it was approved.
The actor revolutionized the movie horror industry, deciding for the first time to play a monster with minimal makeup. It was then that the image of the vampire aristocrat, classic today, first appeared, whose elegance and secular manners evoke chilling horror. A separate part of the image was the soulful voice of the actor with a strong natural accent. The great work that Bela Lugosi did in the form of Dracula was not in vain - the film was released in early 1931 and instantly became a hit, and its rents continued all the time, as the stream of viewers did not stop. After that, the actor signed a permanent contract with Universal.
Image hostage
The directors of Lugosh’s horror films following Dracula, such as Murder on Morgue Street, Raven, White Zombies, literally exploited the actor’s image of an elegant but cold-blooded villain. Trying to break out of this role of the same type, Lugosi tried for other roles, to which his strong emphasis could come. So, he auditioned for the role of Rasputin in "Rasputin and the Empress" (1932), Commissioner Dmitry Gorodchenko in "Comrade" (1937) and many other roles of the Slavic type, but often lost to other actors. In 1933, he nevertheless played a small role as a quick-tempered general Nikolai Petronovich in the film "International House", but after that he was reaffirmed exclusively as the villains.
Period of creative stagnation
By the end of the 1930s, the role of Lugosi was becoming less and less, as well as fees. Despite the fact that he was still loved by the mass audience, directors and producers stopped inviting him to significant roles. In 1938, one of the cinemas in California decided to rent the same legendary film "Dracula", which gathered unexpectedly huge fees. At one of the shows, he invited the actor himself, which caused a prolonged flurry of applause from the audience and several hours of an autograph session. Finally, noting Lugosi’s popularity with the audience, in 1939 Universal offered him a big role as Igor in the new horror film “The Son of Frankenstein”. The assistant of a mad scientist with a beard and a broken neck became another image that Bela Lugosi turned into canonical.
In the same year, the actor successfully played the cameo role of the stern commissar in the comedy with the participation of Greta Garbo “Ninochka”. This small but prestigious role could be a turning point in Lugosi’s career, but during the year he accepted an offer to participate in a series of low-budget horror films by Sam Katzman.
In the early forties, the actor became interested in morphine, justifying it with pain from an injury received in the war, and by 1947, after official permission in the United States, he became interested in methadone. Dependence adversely affected Lugosi’s career, which was already in decline. The last film of the category “A”, in which Bela starred, was the 1948 comedy “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”, where he played the old role of Dracula in a parody way. After that, Bela Lugosi starred only in low-budget films of the second grade, occasionally appearing also on the emerging commercial television.
Ed Wood and Late Work
In the early 1950s, aspiring independent film director Ed Wood, a big fan of Lugosi’s work, tracked him down and offered to work together. By that time, the actor was in obscurity, on the verge of poverty and almost dying from his drug addiction. Upon learning about the problems of the actor, he was helped by Frank Sinatra, although they never knew each other personally. This attention helped the 70-year-old actor pull himself together. In 1953, he played the scientist in Ed Wood's debut film "Glen or Glenda." Then he played the role of a mad scientist in his own film "Monster Bride" in 1955, the fees from which were used to treat Lugosi for dependence.
After leaving the hospital, Lugosi began work in the next Wood's film, which was supposed to be called "The Vampire Heads West", but was not completed due to lack of funds and the failure of the director’s previous work. The last film work of the actor was his appearance in the small dumb role of the 1956 film "Black Dream".
Personal life
In 1917, Bela Lugosi married a certain Ilona Schmick, whom she divorced in 1920 due to political differences. In 1921 he married again - to Ilona von Montach, whom he divorced three years later for the same reason. In 1929, Lugosi became a husband for the third time - his chosen one was the rich widow Beatrice Weeks, but this marriage broke up four months later - because of Bela's lover Klara Luk. In 1933, the 50-year-old Lugosi married the 19-year-old Lilian Arkh, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. In 1938, the couple had a son - Bela George Lugosi. The actor and his fourth wife in the photo below.
Bela and Lilian have been married for 20 years and divorced in 1953 because of jealousy on the part of her husband. As a result, Lilian married the one whom Bela was jealous of. The last wife of the actor was the 35-year-old Hope Linger, who had been in love with him since childhood. She lived with Lugosha two years before his death, and then remained his widow, not marrying for the rest of her life.
Death
Bela Lugosi died on August 16, 1956 from a heart attack, he was 73 years old. The actor was buried in one of Dracula's costumes - this decision was made by Lilian's ex-wife and actor’s son, White George.
Memory
- In 1959, Ed Wood’s film “Plan 9 from Outer Space” was released, in which he used footage from Lugosha from an unfinished film, shot in 1955.
- In 1963, Andy Warhol created the Kiss silk-screen print, which depicts Dracula and Mina performed by Lugosi and Helen Chandler.
- In 1994, actor Martin Landau received an Oscar for playing the role of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's film Ed Wood.
- In Budapest, in the Vaidahunyad castle, a statue of Lugosi is installed.
- On the Hollywood Walk of Fame there is a star named Bela Lugosi.