p. 203. 2021. Skinny and desperate, he begged a judge to commit him. The fact that he was born just 50 miles from where the novel is set made him a natural choice for the part. He was 73. Or Heath Ledger as the Joker. He lost out to Lionel Barrymore for the role of Grigori Rasputin in Rasputin and the Empress (also 1932); C. Henry Gordon for the role of Surat Khan in Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and Basil Rathbone for the role of Commissar Dimitri Gorotchenko in Tovarich (1937), a role Lugosi had played on stage. California's descendibility statute for rights of publicity, Civil Code Section 990, was enacted in 1988, and Lugosi's estate now licenses the commercial use of his name and image. It was expected to sell for up to $2 million, but has since been listed again by Bonhams in 2018. It's worthy of its own movie the love story of two tragically underestimated and maligned men. Pg. Bela Lugosi, Romania Actor. 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. From 1947 to 1950, he performed in summer stock, often in productions of Dracula or Arsenic and Old Lace, and during the rest of the year, made personal appearances in a touring "spook show", and on early commercial television. His net worth is estimated at about $5 million. There are contradictory reports of Lugosi's attitude toward Karloff, some claiming that he was openly resentful of Karloff's long-term success and ability to gain good roles beyond the horror arena, while others suggested the two actors were for a time, at least amicable. He also made plenty of personal live appearances to promote his horror image or an accompanying film. Three more parts came in 192526, including a five-month run in the comedy-fantasy The Devil in the Cheese. Bela Lugosi. 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 plays a character named The Scientist who narrates the hackneyed and often embarrassing but also hilarious exploration of sex and gender identity. He was 73. Not exactly a natural fit for a banker's boy. It's enough to make one turn over in one's grave. Also Ed Wood did not meet Lugosi in a funeral parlor, but rather through his roommate Alex Gordon. 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. The young Bela was born just the year before. Following his treatment, Lugosi made one final film, in late 1955, The Black Sleep, for Bel-Air Pictures, which was released in the summer of 1956 through United Artists with a promotional campaign that included several personal appearances by Lugosi and his co-stars, as well as Maila Nurmi (TV's horror host "Vampira"). A distinguished stage actor in his native Hungary . Continue reading to discover who . Afterward, Lugosi was interviewed by a female reporter who botched the interview by asking the prearranged questions out of order, thoroughly confusing the aging star. Lugosi was quite effective in this small but prestigious character part and he even received top billing among the film's supporting cast, all of whom had significantly larger roles. To Lugosi's disappointment, however, his role in this film was that of a mute butler with no dialogue. Lugosi enjoyed a lively career on stage, with plenty of personal appearances. 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]. Lew Ayres was eventually hired to play Dracula, only to be replaced by Robert Ames after being cast in a different role in a different Universal Pictures film. 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. His performance had piqued the interest of Fox Film, and he was cast in the Hollywood studio's silent film The Veiled Woman (1929). [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. He currently resides in Lugoj, Romania. He was the youngest of four children. When Lugosi's Black Friday premiered in 1940 on a double bill with the Vincent Price film The House of the Seven Gables, Lugosi and Price both appeared in person at the Chicago theatre where it opened on Feb. 29, 1940 and remained for four performances. The feature is noteworthy as being Bela Lugosi's only color film. Lugosi's first film appearance was in the 1917 Hungarian silent film Leoni Leo. 61. Also in 1931, he became a U.S. citizen. Pg 61. She claimed he slapped her in the face one night because she ate a pork chop he had hidden in their refrigerator. Due to his activism in the actors' union in Hungary during the revolution of 1919, he was forced to flee his homeland. Throughout the 1930s, Lugosi, experiencing a severe career decline despite popularity with audiences (Universal executives always preferred his rival Karloff), accepted many leading roles from independent producers like Nat Levine, Sol Lesser, and Sam Katzman. In fact, he often told reporters that sex was the most important thing in the universe. 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. He descended into drug use and despair. Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask. On 16 August 1956, Bela Lugosi died of non-communicable . Whether or not the two men actually disliked each other is a matter of lively debate. [16] He only declared his intention to become a US citizen in 1928; on June 26, 1931, he was naturalized. Different prominent actors were considered before Browning cast Lugosi for the role, but the film was a hit. According to SyFy Wire,he learned the language bit by bit, role by role, reading his lines out loud to himself. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. What is Bela Lugosi During these moves, Ilona lost her unborn child,[13] after which she left Lugosi and returned home to her parents where she filed for divorce, and soon after remarried. On his arrival in America, the 6-foot-1-inch (1.85 m), 180-pound (82 kg) Lugosi worked for some time as a laborer, and then entered the theater in New York City's Hungarian immigrant colony. He went first to Vienna before settling in Berlin (in the Langestrasse), where he continued acting. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. $4 Million. [80], In 2020, Legendary Comics published an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula novel, which used the likeness of Lugosi. [64] In 2019, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced acquisition of the cape via partial donation from the Lugosi family. Fast Facts: Bela Lugosi. - ? 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. Add to that illustrious list Bela Lugosi and the British-born Boris Karloff. Below we countdown to Bela Lugosi upcoming birthday. Bela Lugosi grew up in a solidly middle class family in Hungary, the son of a baker-turned-banker. Or Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker. Lots of famous people were born over the years on Oct. 20. 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. Bela Lugosi is a member of Movie Actor. He eventually became a U.S. citizen in 1931, soon after the release of his film version of Dracula.[12][4]. [76][77], The Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City features a live 30-minute play that focuses on Lugosi's illegal entry into the country via New Orleans and his arrival at Ellis Island months later to enter the country legally. Lionel Atwill was originally slated to appear in the film, but he was too ill to work, so George Zucco replaced him in the cast. [4], Lugosi eventually travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana in December, 1920 working as a crewman aboard a merchant ship, then made his way north to New York City, where he again took up acting in (and sometimes directing) stage plays in 19211922, then worked in the New York silent film industry from 1923 to 1926. Bela Lugosi was an actor who was best known for his role as Count Dracula in a 1931 movie. The funeral was held on Saturday, August 18 at the Utter-McKinley funeral home in Hollywood. . In addition to his nine Monogram features, he worked in three features for RKO and one for Columbia (Return of the Vampire, 1943). Due to his activism in the actors' union in Hungary during the revolution of 1919 and his active participation in the Hungarian Soviet Republic,[11] he was forced to flee his homeland when the government changed hands, initially accompanied by his first wife Ilona Szmik. This footage ended up posthumously in Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957[41]), which was filmed in 1956 soon after Lugosi died. director Ed Wood single-handedly resurrected it, albeit in an undeniably problematic way. Death, Net Worth, Wife, Family, Brother. Play episode. How rich is Bela Lugosi He made his way to New York and was inspected by immigration officers at Ellis Island in March 1921. In September 1949, Milton Berle invited Lugosi to appear in a sketch on Texaco Star Theatre. "[69], An episode of Sledge Hammer! As per our current Database, Bela Lugosi died on Aug 16, 1956 (age 73). 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. Itsvan, a strict and conventional man, had high hopes for his son, but Bela struggled in school and, when asked what profession he hoped to pursue in the future, he answered, "highway bandit." He is often referred to as Bela Lugosi Jr. [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. [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. For the remainder of his life he appeared less and less frequently in obscure, low-budget features.Bela Lugosi died on August 16, 1956 of a coronary occlusion at the age of 73. Bela Lugosi Jr. attended the Elsinore Naval & Military School in Lake Elsinore. So, how much is Bela Lugosi worth at the age of 74 years old? [46] The couple divorced after Lugosi was forced to flee his homeland for political reasons (risking execution if he stayed) and Ilona did not wish to leave her parents. 71. He took the name "Lugosi" in 1903 to honor his birthplace, and eventually travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana as a crewman aboard a merchant ship. So it should come as no surprise, perhaps, that he was married not once, not twice or even three or four times, but five. Scared to Death is a 1947 thriller Gothic film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Bela Lugosi. As of 2022, Bela Lugosi's net worth is under review. How much money is Bela Lugosi worth at the age of 140 and whats his real net worth now? [59][60] Hope died in Hawaii in 1997, at age 78, having never remarried. A number of factors began to work against Lugosi's career in the mid-1930s. 70. Lugosi acted in several Hungarian plays before breaking out into his first English Broadway play, The Red Poppy, in 1922. [2] When appearing in Hungarian silent films, he mostly used the stage name Arisztid Olt. The picture was filmed in Cinecolor.The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role. Blask (20 October 1882 16 August 1956), better known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian-American actor, famous for portraying Count Dracula in the original 1931 film and for his roles in various other horror films. 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). Bela Lugosi will celebrate 141st birthday on a Friday 20th of October 2023. After living briefly in Germany, Lugosi left Europe by ship and arrived in New Orleans on October 27, 1920, and, after making his way north, underwent his primary alien inspection at Ellis Island, N.Y. on March 23, 1921. When and how did Bela Lugosi titled "Last of the Red Hot Vampires" was an homage to Bela Lugosi; at the end of the episode, it was dedicated to "Mr. The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Bela Lugosi, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi. Lugosi was intoxicated and very ill during the film's promotional campaign and had to return to L.A. earlier than planned. [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. Sheffield said years later "Lugosi had probably spent it all on alcohol." Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. $4.5 Million. Lugosi took over the role of Jonathan Brewster from Boris Karloff for Arsenic and Old Lace. [29][38], The Vincent Price film, House of Wax premiered in Los Angeles at the Paramount Theatre on April 16, 1953. The film was a major hit, but Lugosi was paid a salary of only $3,500, since he had too eagerly accepted the role.[12][28]. Exiled in Weimar-era Germany, he co-starred in at least 14 German silent films in 1920, among them Hypnose: Sklaven fremden Willens (1920), Der Januskopf (1920) and an adaptation of the Karl May novel Caravan of Death (1920). [50] They remained married for 20 years and they had a child, Bela G. Lugosi, in 1938. Hope later moved to Hawaii, where she worked for many years as a caregiver in a leper colony. [44][45], Lugosi repeatedly married. He also appeared in the film Prisoners (also 1929), believed lost, which was released in both silent and talkie versions. [61], 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. What's clear, though, is that Lugosi was often on the losing end of Tinsel Town's notoriously flaky attention span. In 2001, BBC Radio 4 broadcast There Are Such Things by Steven McNicoll and Mark McDonnell.
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