Bela Lugosi: biography, personal life, films and photos

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The king of scary films Bela Lugosi is one of the brightest examples of actors who have become hostages of their most successful image. Having become famous in the role of the vampire Count Dracula, Lugosi could not get out of the role of a movie villain. Biography of Bela Lugosi, his creative path and personal life - later in this article.

Early years

Bela Ferenc Degé Blaschko, better known by his pseudonym Lugosi, was born on October 20, 1882, the youngest of four children of banker Istvan Blaschko and his wife Paula. The hometown of the future actor is the Austro-Hungarian city of Lugos (modern Lugoj in Romania), after which Bela took his pseudonym.

Acting attracted Bela from an early age, so at the age of 12 he left school and joined the local provincial theater. At first, he served as an "errand boy", following the orders of actors and directors. At the age of 19, he first began to appear on stage in extras, but by the season of 1903, having reached the age of 21, he played small roles in performances and operettas. Young Bela Lugosi pictured below.

Startcreative career

In 1911, 29-year-old Lugosi moved to Budapest, where he was accepted into the National Royal Theater of Hungary, again playing only episodic roles or appearing in extras. From 1914 to 1916, during the First World War, Bela served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian army. He received the Wound Medal after being wounded while serving on the Russian front.

After the war, the aspiring actor returned to his theater and tried his hand at the screen for the first time - Bela Lugosi's debut film role was the appearance in the Hungarian film "The Colonel" in 1917. After that, he starred in 12 more films in a year, without much success. The revolution of 1919 prevented the actor from waiting for big roles - he founded an actors' 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 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 a job in the theater of the Hungarian Refugee Colony, which gave performances in front of emigrants.

Bela Lugosi's first role in American cinema was Benedict Hisston in the 1923 film Silent Crew. This was followed by several more similar roles - for four years he played ordinary villains or foreigners.

Dracula

In 1927the actor auditioned for the Broadway production of 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 in New York alone, and then went on tour in the United States. The huge profits from the production brought her to the attention of the producers of the Universal film studio. With the film rights secured, in 1930 the team was ready to begin filming. Despite the fact that the theatrical Dracula of Bela Lugosi has already been called by many critics the best reading of the image, the actor was in no hurry to invite him to the film adaptation. It was planned that the great silent film actor Lon Chaney would play the main role, 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 first trials, it was approved.

The actor revolutionized the horror movie industry by deciding to play a monster with minimal make-up for the first time. It was then that the classic image of today's aristocratic vampire was first born, whose elegance and society manners cause chilling horror. The penetrating voice of the actor with a strong natural accent became a separate part of the image. The great work that Bela Lugosi did in the image of Dracula was not in vain - the film was released in early 1931 and instantly became a hit, and its rentals were extended all the time, as the flow of viewers did not stop. After that, the actor signed a permanent contract with Universal.

Hostage of the image

Directors of Lugosi's follow-up horror films, such as Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Raven, White Zombie, literally exploited the image of the elegant but cold-blooded villain created by the actor. In an attempt to break out of this monotonous role, Lugosi auditioned for other roles that could fit his strong accent. So, he auditioned for the role of Rasputin in "Rasputin and the Empress" (1932), Commissar 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 of the hot-tempered General Nikolai Petronovich in the film "International House", but after that he was again approved exclusively for the role of villains.

A period of creative stagnation

By the end of the 1930s, Lugosi's roles were getting smaller, as were the 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 release the same legendary film "Dracula", which collected unexpectedly huge fees. He invited the actor himself to one of the shows, which caused a long flurry of applause from the audience and several hours of an autograph session. Finally, noticing Lugosi's popularity with audiences, in 1939 Universal offered him the big role of Igor in a new horror film."Son of Frankenstein" A mad scientist's assistant with a beard and a broken neck is another image that Bela Lugosi made iconic.

In the same year, the actor successfully played an episodic role as a harsh commissioner in the comedy "Ninochka" starring Greta Garbo. This small but prestigious role could have been a turning point in Lugosi's career, but within a year he accepted an offer to star in a number of Sam Katzman's low-budget horror films.

In the early forties, the actor became addicted to morphine, justifying it with pain from an injury received in the war, and by 1947, after official permission in the United States, became addicted to methadone. Addiction had a negative impact on Lugosi's career, already in decline. Bela's last A-movie was the 1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, in which he played the old role of Dracula in a parodic vein. After that, Bela Lugosi appeared only in low-budget second-rate films, occasionally appearing also on the nascent commercial television.

Ed Wood and later work

In the early 1950s, aspiring independent filmmaker Ed Wood, a big fan of Lugosi's work, sought him out and offered to work with him. 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 met in person. This attention helped the 70-year-old actor pull himself together. In 1953, he played a scientist in Ed Wood's debut film Glen or Glenda. He then played the role of a mad scientist in his 1955 film Bride of the Monster, the proceeds of which were used to treat Lugosi for addiction.

After leaving the hospital, Lugosi began work on Wood's next film, which was to be called "Vampire Goes West", but was not completed due to lack of funds and the failure of the director's previous works. The last film work of the actor was his appearance in a small wordless role in the 1956 film "Black Dream".

Private life

In 1917, Bela Lugosi married a certain Ilona Shmik, whom he 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 we althy widow Beatrice Wicks, but this marriage broke up four months later - because of Bela's mistress Clara Luk. In 1933, 50-year-old Lugosi married 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 are pictured below.

Bela and Lilian were married for 20 years and divorced in 1953 because of jealousy from her husband. As a result, Lillian married the one Bela was jealous of. The last wife of the actor was 35-year-old Hope Linger, who has been in love with him since childhood. She lived withLugosi two years before his death, and then remained his widow, unmarried for the rest of her life.

Death

Bela Lugosi died on August 16, 1956 of a heart attack, he was 73 years old. The actor was buried in one of the Dracula costumes - this decision was made by the ex-wife Lillian and the actor's son White George.

Memory

• In 1959, Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space was released, in which he used footage of Lugosi from an unfinished film shot in 1955.
• In 1963, Andy Warhol created the silkscreen "The Kiss" featuring Lugosi and Helen Chandler's Dracula and Mina.
• In 1994, actor Martin Landau won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.
• In Budapest, in Vajdahunyad Castle, a statue of Lugosi was installed.
• There is a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame named Bela Lugosi.