Bela Lugosi was born on October 20, 1882 as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó the youngest of
four children in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj Romania) to Hungarian father István Blaskó,
and Serbian-born mother Paula de Vojnich. At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school. He
began his acting career in 1902 playing small roles in several plays and musicals. After
moving to Budapest in 1911, he played dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary
between 1913–19. During World War I, he served as an infantryman
in the Austro-Hungarian Army rising to the rank of Captain. He was awarded the Wound
Medal for wounds he suffered while serving on the Russian front.
Due to his activism in the actors' union in Hungary during the revolution of 1919, he
was forced to flee his homeland. He went first to Vienna before settling in Berlin,
where he continued acting. He took the name “Lugosi" to honor his birthplace, and eventually
travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana as a crewman aboard a merchant ship.
Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in a Broadway theatre production
of Dracula. The show was successful, running for 261 performances before touring the United
States., Lugosi decided to stay in California when the play ended its West Coast run. His
performance had piqued the interest of Fox Film, and he was cast in the studio's silent
film The Veiled Woman in (1929). with no other film roles in sight, he returned to
the stage as Dracula for a short West Coast tour of the play.
Despite his critically acclaimed performance on stage, Lugosi was not Universal Pictures'
first choice for the role of Dracula when they decided to do the 1931 film version.
Different prominent actors were considered before Lugosi got the role. The the film turned
out to be a box office hit.
Through his association with Dracula, Lugosi found himself typecast as a horror villain
in films such as Murders in the Rue Morgue and White Zombie in(1932), The Raven in(1935),
and Son of Frankenstein in (1939). Lugosi was often paired with Boris Karloff,
who was able to demand top billing. This very much frustrated Lugosi. Among his movies with
Karloff, he performed major roles only in The Black Cat, The Raven and Son of Frankenstein;
even in The Raven, Karloff received top billing despite Lugosi performing the lead role.
Bela Lugosi actually only played Dracula twice in films, the last time was in “Abbott and
Costello meet Frankenstein” in 1948. Many people consider this one of the best movies
ever made. Some of his other notable films were, Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo, The
body snatcher, The Invisible Ray, The return of Chandu and Spooks on the run among many
others. By this time, Lugosi had been receiving regular
medication for Chronic Sciatica that had developed from his military service and he
became addicted to morphine. This drug dependence was known to producers,
and the offers eventually dwindled to a few parts in Ed Wood's low-budget films—including
a brief appearance in Plan 9 from Outer Space in(1959).
During his last years Lugosi sought treatment for his sickness and abuse of pain killers,
Frank Sinatra heard of his problems and he helped with expenses and visited Lugosi at
the hospital. Sinatra would recall Lugosi's amazement at his visit, since the two men
had never met before. Lugosi was married five times and had one
son, Bela George.
Sadly…Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16th 1956, while lying on a bed in
his Los Angeles apartment. He was only 73 years old.
Lugosi was buried wearing one of his "Dracula" costumes in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver
City, California.
He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6430 Hollywood Boulevard
in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.