Lugosi's will left several inexpensive pieces of real estate in Elsinore and only $1,000 cash to his son, but since the will had been written on Jan. 12, 1954 (before Lugosi's fifth marriage), Bela Jr. had to share the thousand dollars evenly with Hope Lugosi. Before her death, she gave several (rather downbeat) interviews to the fan press. Bela Lugosi grew up in a solidly middle class family in Hungary, the son of a baker-turned-banker. Lugosi was also the subject of "Bela Lugosi's Dead", the first single by the English band Bauhaus. Lugosi's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is mentioned in "Celluloid Heroes", a song performed by The Kinks and written by their lead vocalist and principal songwriter, Ray Davies. [24], 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. Bela's income mostly comes from and basic source was being a successful Hungarian actor (1882-1956). According to Classic Monsters, his third bride was the wealthy widow, Beatrice Weeks, who grew so enraged over his flirtation with "It Girl" Clara Bow that she dissolved the union after only three months. [14], He later moved to California in 1928 to tour in the Dracula stage play, and his Hollywood film career took off. Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask. [35] Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib. His immortal role as the count led him to play roles in 1934s The Black Cat and 1935s The Raven. After Dracula, the bulk of Lugosi's roles were in monster movies of varying degrees of ridiculousness. To his frustration, Lugosi, a charter member of the American Screen Actors Guild, was increasingly restricted to mad scientist roles because of his inability to speak English more clearly. Lillian and Bla divorced in 1953, at least partially because of Bla's jealousy over Lillian taking a full-time job as an assistant to Brian Donlevy on the sets and studios for Donlevy's radio and television series Dangerous Assignment Lillian eventually did marry Donlevy in 1966. [66], Andy Warhol's 1963 silkscreen The Kiss depicts Lugosi from Dracula about to bite into the neck of co-star Helen Chandler, who played Mina Harker. Bela Lugosi was born on October 20, 1882 in Lugoj, Romania (73 years old). 2020. Three more parts came in 192526, including a five-month run in the comedy-fantasy The Devil in the Cheese. Lillian received custody of their son Bela Jr.[53] Lugosi called the police one night after Lillian left him and threatened to commit suicide, but when the police showed up at his apartment, he denied making the call. BearManor Media, ISBN 1593932855, Arthur Lennig, The Immortal Count, University Press of Kentucky, 2003, the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "From the Archives: Actor Bela Lugosi, Dracula of Screen, Succumbs After Heart Attack at 73", https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCJB-Z61, "15 Intriguing Halloween-Related Factoids! As film offers declined, he became more and more dependent on live venues to support his family. It was his first English-speaking role. $4 Million. In 1928, Lugosi decided to stay in California when the play ended its first West Coast run. Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask (Hungarian:[bel frnts d blko]; October 20, 1882 August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (/losi/; Hungarian:[luoi]), was a HungarianAmerican actor, best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic Dracula, Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.[1]. October 20, 2014. Who is Bela Lugosi The rivalry all started, according to this piece on Bloody Disgusting, when Lugosi turned down the chance to play Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film version of Mary Shelley's groundbreaking novel. Lugosi was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask on 20 October 1882, in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (modern Lugoj . Find out Bela Lugosinet worth 2020, salary 2020 detail bellow. It was thought to be evidence that Lugosi appeared in the film, but historians all agree that is very unlikely, since Lugosi was in both Chicago (appearing in a play called The Werewolf) and New York at the time that film was being made in Hollywood. [21] A rumor has circulated for decades among film historians that Lugosi played an uncredited bit part as a clown in the 1924 Lon Chaney Hollywood film He Who Gets Slapped, but this has been heavily disputed. Attendees included Forrest J. Ackerman, Ed Wood (who was a pall bearer), Tor Johnson, Conrad Brooks, Richard Sheffield, both of the widows (Hope and Lillian), Bela Lugosi Jr., Norma McCarty, Loretta King, Paul Marco and actor George Becwar. Shortly thereafter, according to this profile in Workers World, he had to leave Hungary for German because his left-wing sympathies were not tolerated when Hungary's short-lived communist government was overthrown in 1919. He was 73. When it was clear the film was going to be a monster at the box office, the over-heated publicity department of Universal Studios got busy concocting a backstory for Lugosi worthy of Bram Stoker. He also appeared in the film Prisoners (also 1929), believed lost, which was released in both a silent and partial talkie version. 's girlfriend? He also continued to lobby for his prized role in the film version of Dracula. He was tortured by the idea that, after his star-turn in the Dracula movie in 1931, no one saw would see him as a complicated human being or a talented, sensitive artist. Bla Ferenc Dezs? The picture was filmed in Cinecolor.The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role. Then Cheney died, and Lugosi replaced him on the bill. When and how did Bela Lugosi Bela Lugosi Death: and Cause of Death. You get the point. Not true, but so is the power of suggestion. [43], In 1959, a British film called Lock Up Your Daughters was theatrically released (in the U.K.), composed of clips from Bela Lugosi's Monogram pictures from the 1940s. In 1998, he played Mike McDermott in John Dahl's Rounders. His performance had piqued the interest of Fox Film, and he was cast in the studio's silent film The Veiled Woman (1929). Actor: Dracula. 's birthday? In 1927, he got his big break. She claimed he slapped her in the face one night because she ate a pork chop he had hidden in their refrigerator. The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Bela Lugosi, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi. 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. pg. Bela Lugosi was born on October 20, 1882 in Lugoj, Romania. Tor Johnson said in interviews that Lugosi kept screaming that he wanted to die the night they shared a hotel room together. Without his knowledge, a beloved singer, actor, and fan was helping pay his way through rehab. Hal B. Wallis, Martin and Lewis's producer, unsuccessfully sued Broder. Pg. Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in a Broadway theatre production of Dracula, which had been adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. The couple divorced in 1920, reputedly over political differences with her parents. This footage ended up posthumously in Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957[41]), which was filmed in 1956 soon after Lugosi died. Following the collapse of Bla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, leftists and trade unionists became vulnerable, some being imprisoned or executed in public. Pg 61. Lugosi made 12 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany. [3], Lugosi, the youngest of four children,[4] was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask in 1882 in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania) to Hungarian father Istvn Blask, a baker who later became a banker,[5] and Serbian-born mother Paula de Vojnich. He dropped out of school when he was twelve years old, and began appearing in Shakespeare plays. Bela Lugosi is an Actor, zodiac sign: Libra. $4.5 Million. Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. How much money is Bela Lugosi worth at the age of 140 and whats his real net worth now? Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack August 16, 1956. She died in 1997 at age 78. It was, perhaps, simply the result of admiration and compassion. became famous? Hope later gave most of Lugosi's personal belongings and memorabilia to Bela's young neighborhood friend Richard Sheffield, who gave Lugosi's duplicate Dracula cape to Bela Jr. and sold some of the other items to Forrest J. Ackerman. pg. During post-production of the latter, Lugosi decided to seek treatment for his drug addiction, and the film's premiere was arranged to raise money for Lugosi's hospital expenses (resulting in a paltry amount of money). He was the youngest of four children. Bela George Lugosi net worth is $9 Million Bela George Lugosi Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Bela Lugosi Jr. was born on January 5, 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA as Bela George Lugosi. Historian John McElwee reports, in his 2013 book Showmen, Sell It Hot!, that Bela Lugosi's popularity received a much-needed boost in August 1938, when California theater owner Emil Umann revived Dracula and Frankenstein as a special double feature. DETAILS BELOW. He was raised in a Roman Catholic family.. At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school and left home to work at a succession of manual labor jobs. He also appeared in the film Prisoners (also 1929), believed lost, which was released in both silent and talkie versions. Hope told Sheffield she had searched the apartment for several days looking for $3,000 she suspected Lugosi had hidden there, but she never found it. Lugosi was never a contender for such an award. For all time, at the moment, 2023 year, Bela Lugosi earned $96 Million. He was born in Hungary and died in Los Angeles, California, in 1956. He declared his intention to become a US citizen in 1928; on June 26, 1931, he was naturalized. Add to that illustrious list Bela Lugosi and the British-born Boris Karloff. The young Bela was born just the year before. Bela Lugosi beckons us to enter The Mystery House ! He was buried in a Dracula costume, including a cape, but not the ones used in the 1931 film, contrary to popular--but unfounded--rumors. [2] He was 73 and weighed 140 pounds. Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. Lugosi's first film appearance was in the movie Az ezredes (The Colonel, 1917). Bela Lugosi (born October 20, 1882) is famous for being movie actor. When Lugosi playfully attempted to bite the "nurse" in attendance, she overreacted and spilled a glass of milk all over his shirt and cape. Sadly, his reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he had been blacklisted by the main studios and had no choice but to accept any part (and script) handed to him, and ended up playing parodies of his greatest role, in low-grade poverty row films. Lugosi enjoyed a lively career on stage, with plenty of personal appearances. In the same interview he expressed a desire to play more comedy, as he had in the Mother Riley farce. [73][74], In 2001, BBC Radio 4 broadcast There Are Such Things by Steven McNicoll and Mark McDonnell. During an impromptu interview upon his exit from the treatment center in 1955, Lugosi stated that he was about to go to work on a new Ed Wood film, The Ghoul Goes West. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff are referenced in the Curtis Stigers' song "Sleeping with the Lights On", from the 1991 album Curtis Stigers. In June 1917, Lugosi married 19-year-old Ilona Szmik (18981991) in Hungary. Bela Lugosi, born on October 20, 1882, began his acting career when he was a teenager in Hungary and went on to become one of the best-known actors in the world. [25], Despite his critically acclaimed performance on stage, Lugosi was not Universal Pictures' first choice for the role of Dracula when the company optioned the rights to the Deane play and began production in 1930. Lugosi acted in several Hungarian language plays before starring in his first English Broadway play, The Red Poppy in 1922. Embarrassed, Lugosi left abruptly, without attending the screening. The case took 11 years to litigate and went all the way to the California Supreme Court, where, according to FindLaw, the justices ruled that dead people do not have any right to their own likeness and that their heirs are likewise without recourse. Lugosi took his place in Hollywood society and scandal when he married wealthy San Francisco resident Beatrice Woodruff Weeks (18971931), widow of architect Charles Peter Weeks, on July 27, 1929. ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover), Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. According to One Room With A View, the two men never met and Lugosi never discovered the reason behind Sinatra's generosity. He co-starred in a number of films with Boris Karloff, who was able to demand top billing. He began his acting career in 1901 or 1902. It was expected to sell for up to $2 million, but has since been listed again by Bonhams in 2018. His fifth and final wife, Hope Lininger, wrote him passionate letters while he tried to kick his addiction to methadone and morphine. It might have been a turning point for the actor, but within the year he was back on Hollywood's Poverty Row, playing leads for Sam Katzman. Although Lugosi would later claim that he "became the leading actor of Hungary's Royal National Theatre", many of his roles there were small or supporting parts, which led him to enter the Hungarian film industry.[10]. Below we countdown to Bela Lugosi upcoming birthday. [26] Lugosi had played the role on Broadway,[27] and was considered before director Tod Browning cast him in the role. titled "Last of the Red Hot Vampires" was an homage to Bela Lugosi; at the end of the episode, it was dedicated to "Mr. Bela Lugosi made money by Actors niche. Monday, Speaking of, Lugosi married Lillian Arch, his fourth wife, in 1933. [65] In 2019 it was announced that the cape would be on display the following year. He also made plenty of personal live appearances to promote his horror image or an accompanying film. According to this look at Lugosi's itinerant LA lifestyle, he had to borrow money from the Motion Picture Relief Fund to cover the medical costs. But at the last minute, Lugosi's heavily-accented dialogue was edited out after the film was completed, along with the idea of the Monster being blind, leaving his performance featuring groping, outstretched arms and moving lips seeming enigmatic (and funny) to audiences. Landau won an Oscar for his turn as the Hungarian heartthrob who'd fallen on hard times. After moving to Budapest in 1911, he played dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary between 1913 and 1919. He went on to perform in Shakespeare's plays. Short biography, height, weight, dates: Birth date: October 20, 1882, Lugoj, Romania Death date: August 16, 1956, Los Angeles, California, United States Birth place: Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary . His net worth is estimated at about $5 million. There was a season of old horror films on TV and I was telling Daniel about how much I loved them. It ran for three years, and was subsequently, and memorably, filmed by Tod Browning in 1931, establishing Lugosi as one of the screen's greatest personifications of pure evil. [72] In the Hungarian production, directed by Istvn Szab, Lugosi was played by Ivan Darvas. In 2019 the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced acquisition of the cape via partial donation from the Lugosi family and that the cape will be on display in 2020. [42] 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. How tall is Bela Lugosi Hungarian actor who was immortalized as Dracula in 1931. Lugosi left Germany in October 1920, intending to emigrate to the United States, and entered the country at New Orleans in December 1920. [a] Different prominent actors, such as Paul Muni, Chester Morris, Ian Keith, John Wray, Joseph Schildkraut, Arthur Edmund Carewe, William Courtenay, John Carradine, and Conrad Veidt were considered. [6] He was raised in a Roman Catholic family. Much like that of the vampire he brought to life, Lugosi's story is a fascinating one, full of ups and downs and twists of fate. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. Once in a full moon, an actor portrays a villain with such flare that fans have a hard time separating the man from the character. Think Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago, and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. He didn't know a word of English at the time, but that didn't stop him from auditioning, and, two years after his arrival in the States, he was cast in the play, The Red Poppy. Hollywood is, of course, no stranger to celebrity feuds. 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 went to 20th Century-Fox for The Gorilla (1939), which had him playing straight man (a butler) to Patsy Kelly and the Ritz Brothers. We hope you enjoy it! It was around this time, on January 31, 1933, that Lugosi married 21 year old Lillian Arch, and despite the almost 30 year age gap and Lugosi's previous marriage record, the pair would remain . October 20, 2016, 132nd birthday - . That honor went to Lon Cheney. Which makes it somewhat strange that his son, Bela Jr., and fourth wife,Lillian, made the decision to bury Lugosi in his Dracula cape. Lugosi complained of her excessive drinking and dancing with other men at social gatherings. 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. He was learning to act by trial and error, or, as he put it, his will "was forged to whiter and whiter heat." As this biography notes, he was fired from gigs roughly 20 times over the next two decades for incompetence. In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, moving with the play to the West Coast in 1928 and settling down in Hollywood. It was not immediately successful, though. pg. Following a role as a mute in "The Black Sheep" (1956), Lugosi died on Aug. 16, 1956 of a heart attack while lying on his couch in Los Angeles. The problem first manifested itself in 1937, when Lugosi was forced to withdraw from a leading role in a serial production, The Secret of Treasure Island, due to constant back pain. After moving to Budapest in 1911, he played dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary between 191319. For the remainder of his life, he appeared less and less frequently in obscure, forgettable, low-budget B features. "I was dead, and he brought me back to life." Wood hired Tom Mason, his wife's chiropractor, to double for Lugosi in additional shots. Appeared with Lon Chaney Jr. in five films: The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man . (Weeks died 17 months later (at age 34) from alcoholism in Panama, Lugosi never receiving a penny from her fortune. At age 12 Lugosi ran away from home and began working odd jobs, including stage acting. In September 1949, Milton Berle invited Lugosi to appear in a sketch on Texaco Star Theatre. You've got your Bette Davises vs. your Joan Crawfords, your Sarah Jessica Parkers vs. your Kim Cattralls, your Marlon Brandos vs. your Frank Sinatras. [7], At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school and left home to work at a succession of manual labor jobs. 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. At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school. In 2001, BBC Radio 4 broadcast There Are Such Things by Steven McNicoll and Mark McDonnell. Andy Warhol's 1963 silkscreen The Kiss depicts Lugosi from Dracula about to bite into the neck of co-star Helen Chandler, who played Mina Harker. In 1928, Lugosi decided to stay in California when the play ended its West Coast run. His real name is Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask. Known For: Starring in the iconic role of Count Dracula in the 1931 film Dracula. It also guaranteed that he would never work as a serious actor again. He spent a great deal of money. A number of factors began to work against Lugosi's career in the mid-1930s. 70. He currently resides in Lugoj, Romania. [23] The Horace Liveright production was successful, running in New York City for 261 performances before touring the United States to much fanfare and critical acclaim throughout 1928 and 1929. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. Hungarian actor who was immortalized as Dracula in 1931. Lugosi remained in California where he resumed his film work under contract with Fox, appearing in early talkies often as a heavy or an "exotic sheik". Who is Bela Lugosi It was a wrenching move for the rising star, who, 16 years earlier, had changed his surname from Blask to Lugosi in homage to Lugos, the city of his birth. Among them, English architect Christopher Wren (in 1632), French poet Arthur Rimbaud (in 1854), Kenyan strongman Jomo Kenyatta(in 1891), Sen. Wayne Morse (in in 1900), pundit Will Rogers Jr. (in 1911), columnist Art Buchwald (in 1925), baseball Hall-of-Famer trends.embed.renderExploreWidget("TIMESERIES", {"comparisonItem":[{"keyword":"Bela Lugosi","geo":"","time":"today 12-m"}],"category":0,"property":""}, {"exploreQuery":"q=Bela Lugosi&date=today 12-m","guestPath":"https://trends.google.com:443/trends/embed/"}); His Hungarian accent led to him being typecasted as a horror villain in many films. The article quotes Lugosi as saying, "Never has a role so influenced and dominated an actor's life as has the role of Dracula. [54](Lillian eventually did marry Brian Donlevy in 1966, by which time she had also become an alcoholic and she died in 1981. It's enough to make one turn over in one's grave. The bank ultimately foreclosed on the home Lugosi and his then wife, Lillian, were living in at the time. The film is lost today, but a March 16, 1959, critical review in the Kinematograph Weekly mentioned that the movie contained new Lugosi footage (intriguing since Lugosi had died in 1956). He even took top billing on films in which Lugosi was the star. With fellow expatriate Hungarian actors he formed a small stock company that toured Eastern cities, playing for immigrant audiences. Dracula (1931) $3,500 : 50 Million Frenchmen (1931) $1,000 : Chandu the Magician (1932) $2,500 : White Zombie (1932) . The divorce became final on July 17, 1920 and was uncontested as Lugosi could not show up for the proceedings. The film would be Bela Lugosi's last "A" movie. He currently resides in Lugoj, Romania. Lugosi developed severe, chronic sciatica, ostensibly aggravated by injuries received during his military service. As his career faltered, Lugosi fell victim to drug addiction. He was 48-years-old when he got the part in the iconic film, and he was already many years into his acting career. Generation generation). It's worthy of its own movie the love story of two tragically underestimated and maligned men. Lillian and Bela, as well as his mother, vacationed on their lake property in Lake Elsinore, California (then called Elsinore), on two lots between 1944 and 1953.
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