Thank you for this interesting article. In the same interview he expressed a desire to play more comedy, as he had in the Mother Riley farce. A small percentage of critics cited his "dull and slow performance" in Dracula as a great example of minimal dialogue with no real acting prowess needed. Available at. Following his return to the United States, he was interviewed for television, and reflected wistfully on his typecasting in horror parts: "Now I am the boogie man". [1] The rumor that Lugosi was clutching the script for The Final Curtain, a planned Ed Wood project, at the time of his death is not true. Available at. On the night after the Feast of the Assumption, in the small hours of 16th August, Bela Lugosi died: in the dark, and frightened. William Gilmore Simms’ “Grayling”, Russia, China, & the U.S.: Three Actors, One in Search of a Role. Available at, Polidoro, Massimo. He would move on, with now his latest role completed. As a nation was taken to the Burgos Pass and to a land beyond… a new luminary was upon its screens. We have had many an hour of delight in seeing the Count on television. He made his way to New York and was inspected by immigration officers at Ellis Island in March 1921. In so doing, he left behind the Weimar Republic’s decadence and occult-obsessed cinema for the Broadway stage. Universal took notice of the tremendous business and launched its own national re-release of the same two horror favorites. According to Bela G. Lugosi (his son), Forrest Ackerman, Dolores Fuller and Richard Sheffield, the film's portrayal of Lugosi is inaccurate: In real life, he never used profanity, owned small dogs, or slept in coffins. He deserved better: the Last Rites, a chance to confess, Viaticum at that dreaded moment of passing—all any of us can hope for. The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. He looked forward to other parts, more demanding roles, in fact, to exploring the whole repertoire of classical theatre. For the remainder of his life he appeared — less and less frequently — in obscure, forgettable, low-budget features. As the saying goes, nothing recedes quite like success. Dressed as The Count he frolics on stage. Lugosi became a proud American citizen and did his part for the war effort, appearing at Red Cross blood drives and selling war bonds. 2017. He had a ‘hit’ on his hands. His terrible drug addiction due to severe leg pain and his courage to go public with his addiction…something never done before. [23] Lugosi played Dracula for a second and last time on film in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). In his case that mercurial liquid had vanished almost as quickly as it had unexpectedly swamped his life. Bela Lugosi Jr. attended the Elsinore Naval & Military School in Lake Elsinore. His accent, while a part of his image, limited the roles he could play. Keep in mind that essays represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Imaginative Conservative or its editor or publisher. [8] Lugosi made 12 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany. When asked about playing the role of … In 1927, he appeared as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. When appearing in Hungarian silent films, he used the stage name Arisztid Olt. Of course, he was right to be, for, as with any Catholic, Bela Lugosi knew all too well the reality of what lay beyond. [36], In 1979, the Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs, as a copyright would have. 1951: A rural theatre somewhere in the British Isles. 1986. All the same, in the final edit, the last footage of Lugosi remains, still dressed in the cape beside an open grave. After moving to Budapest in 1911, he played dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary between 1913–19. [46], Péter Müller's theatrical play Lugosi - the Shadow of the Vampire (Hungarian: Lugosi - a vámpír árnyéka) is based on Lugosi's life, telling the story of his life as he became typecast as Dracula and as his drug addiction worsened. Now, with Hollywood beckoning, there would be no way to remove it—no matter how hard he was to try. 2012. Lugosi went to 20th Century-Fox for The Gorilla (1939), which had him playing straight man to Patsy Kelly and the Ritz Brothers. The movie Ed Wood has an amazing, and extremely sad, portrayal of Lugosi near the end. [30], In 1917, Lugosi married Ilona Szmik (1898-1991). [24] Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib. Lee, Cindy. His reason for travelling to Britain was not to make a film, but to appear in a production of Dracula. Lugosi tried to keep busy with stage work, but had to borrow money from the Actors Fund of America to pay hospital bills when his only child, Bela George Lugosi, was born in 1938. This was one of several projects proposed by Wood, including The Phantom Ghoul and Dr. Acula. As in the best horror tales, the Cross prevailed, while the ‘vampire’ perished. Lugosi died of a heart attack on 16 August 1956, while lying on a bed in his Los Angeles apartment. When it did come, it was to be an exhausted finale to what by then had become a pathetic existence. Finally, in 1955 he married Hope Lininger, and they remained together until Lugosi’s death (1956). Independent producer Jack Broder took Lugosi at his word, casting him in a jungle-themed comedy, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952), starring nightclub comedians Duke Mitchell and Jerry Lewis look-alike Sammy Petrillo, whose act closely resembled that of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (Martin and Lewis). Lugosi died of a heart attack on 16 August 1956, while lying on a bed in his Los Angeles apartment. [25] His only television dramatic role was on the anthology series Suspense on October 11, 1949, in an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado.[26]. Cast Your Vote for The Imaginative Conservative! Nevertheless, the story you are about to read is one of the real horror endured by Lugosi, and more terrifying than any screen role he played. EIN: 22-2306795, {"cart_token":"","hash":"","cart_data":""}, Email us at webhelp@skepticalinquirer.org, https://www.estately.com/listings/info/6216-primrose-avenue–8#gallery, http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-23/local/me-27803_1_slain-lawyer-offers, https://www.csicop.org/si/show/curse_that_painting, https://celluloidwickerman.com/2012/11/29/a-brief-history-of-occult-and-folk-horror/, https://www.trulia.com/p/ca/los-angeles/6216-primrose-ave-los-angeles-ca-90068–2077479860, http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/11/the-curse-of-the-cape-the-real-horror-of-bela-lugosi.html, https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6216-Primrose-Ave-Los-Angeles-CA-90068/20807355_zpid/. It was to prove a tragic end for an actor synonymous with the supernatural. Thank you for your beautiful remarks which serve as a gracious postscript to the article. Lugosi, the youngest of four children,[2] was born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania) to Hungarian father István Blaskó, a banker, and Serbian-born mother Paula de Vojnich. Exiled in Weimar-era Germany, he began appearing in a small number of well-received films, among them adaptations of the Karl May novels On the Brink of Paradise (Auf den Trümmern des Paradieses, 1920) and Caravan of Death (Die Todeskarawane, also 1920) with Dora Gerson (Gerson, who was Jewish, died in Auschwitz). Can a Disintegrating America Come Together? Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Thereafter, the actor was consigned to a lifetime of cinematic mists and shadows, of visible horrors and unseen terrors, of unquiet graves and tolling bells … He tried to speak, stating: ‘Never has a role so influenced and dominated an actor’s life as has the role of Dracula. 6216 Primrose Ave. [29] Mason was noticeably taller and thinner than Lugosi, and had the lower half of his face covered with his cape in every shot, as Lugosi sometimes did in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Available at, Zillow.com.

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