(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. After almost breaking up their marriage in 1944, Lillian and Bela finally divorced on July 17, 1953,[52] at least partially because of Bela's excessive drinking[2] and his jealousy over Lillian taking a full-time job as an assistant to actor Brian Donlevy on Donlevy's radio and television series Dangerous Assignment. He lost even more. He began his acting career in 1901 or 1902. Bela Lugosi Death: and Cause of Death. [35] Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib. 2020. 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. Lugosi did attempt to break type by auditioning for other roles. During an impromptu interview upon his release from the treatment center in 1955, Lugosi stated that he was about to begin work on a new Ed Wood film called The Ghoul Goes West. 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." Last chapter. He made his way to New York and was inspected by immigration officers at Ellis Island in March 1921. In September 1921, he married Hungarian actress Ilona von Montagh in New York City, and she filed for divorce on November 11, 1924, charging him with adultery and complaining that he wanted her to abandon her acting career to keep house for him. Lugosi helped organize the Screen Actors Guild in the mid-'30s, joining as member number 28.Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack August 16, 1956. And, indeed, it was made into a beloved film, Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp as Wood and Martin Landau as Lugosi. The court ruled that under California law any rights of publicity, including the right to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death. The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Bela Lugosi, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi. Lugosi was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask on 20 October 1882, in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (modern Lugoj . [30] Lugosi did get a few heroic leads, as in Universal's The Black Cat after Karloff had been accorded the more colorful role of the villain, The Invisible Ray, and a romantic role in producer Sol Lesser's adventure serial The Return of Chandu (1934), but his typecasting problem appears to have been too entrenched to be alleviated by those films. [8] His earliest known performances are from provincial theatres in the 190304 season, playing small roles in several plays and operettas. Lugosi: His Life in Films, on Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers. The combination was so successful that Umann scheduled extra shows to accommodate the capacity crowds, and invited Lugosi to appear in person, which thrilled new audiences that had never seen Lugosi's classic performance. Pg 61. Lugosi died of a heart attack on 16 August 1956, while lying on a bed in his Los Angeles apartment. 's birthday? Wood plays Glen/Glenda. In 1996, he had a supporting role in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. He later allowed himself to be photographed drinking a glass of milk at a Red Cross booth there. Not true, but so is the power of suggestion. Biography. Also in 1931, he became a U.S. citizen. It appeared on their 1972 album Everybody's in Show-Biz. Bela Lugosi was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask on October 20, 1882, Lugos, Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), to Paula de Vojnich and Istvn Blask, a banker. 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. 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. He might have been a bit blood thirsty, but he was a hero, too. Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his cloak; Bela G. Lugosi confirmed on numerous occasions that he and his mother, Lillian, made the decision but believed that it is what his father would have wanted.[58]. In 1951, while in England to play a six-month tour of Dracula, Lugosi co-starred in a lowbrow film comedy, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (also known as Vampire over London and My Son, the Vampire), released the following year. 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. Lugosi was proscribed from acting due to his participation in the formation of an actors' union. He was the youngest of four children. How rich is Bela Lugosi Speaking of, Lugosi married Lillian Arch, his fourth wife, in 1933. He dropped out of school when he was twelve years old, and began appearing in Shakespeare plays. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. He is the father of Bela Lugosi Jr. (1938). When and how did Bela Lugosi 61. Strange, but also fitting and bittersweet. ", "Bela Lugosi is Dracula Again in New Comic Arriving This October", https://www.retroagogo.com/categories/collections/bela-lugosi/, Saturn Award for Best DVD or Blu-ray Collection, Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bela_Lugosi&oldid=1152475029, Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I, Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, Naturalized citizens of the United States, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2015, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from October 2022, Articles needing additional references from August 2020, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing Hungarian-language text, Articles with Hungarian-language sources (hu), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 13:16. Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein(1948). The fact that he was born just 50 miles from where the novel is set made him a natural choice for the part. Which makes it somewhat strange that his son, Bela Jr., and fourth wife,Lillian, made the decision to bury Lugosi in his Dracula cape. He was 73. Arthur Lennig, The Immortal Count, University Press of Kentucky, 2003, p. 21; Rhodes, Gary (1997). Bela Lugosi. ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover). He also accepted the lead in an experimental, economical feature, shot in the semi-professional 16mm film format and blown up to 35mm for theatrical release, Scared to Death (produced in 1944 but not released until 1947). Hungarian actor who was immortalized as Dracula in 1931. According to Kitty Kelley's biography of Frank Sinatra, when the entertainer heard of Lugosi's problems, he visited Lugosi at the hospital and gave him a $1,000 check. How much money is Bela Lugosi worth at the age of 140 and whats his real net worth now? He made his way to New York and was inspected by immigration officers at Ellis Island in March 1921. 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. 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. His fifth and final wife, Hope Lininger, wrote him passionate letters while he tried to kick his addiction to methadone and morphine. ? His real name is Bla Ferenc Dezs? [3], Lugosi married five times and had one son, Bela G. Lugosi (with his fourth wife, Lillian). I was saying how Bela Lugosi was the quintessential Dracula, the elegant depiction of the character. Lugosi will probably forever be remembered for playing Count Dracula in Tod Browning's 1931 film version of Bram Stoker's spooky novel. Different prominent actors were considered before Browning cast Lugosi for the role, but the film was a hit. ", "Bla Lugosi: actor, union leader, anti-fascist", Bela Lugosi premieres in Buffalo, New York, "Why Bela Lugosi remains the ultimate Dracula", "Filmography Bela Lugosi the Official Site", "Friedemann O'Brien Goldberg & Zarian Names Bela G. Lugosi Of Counsel", "Beyond Quatermass Brian Donlevy, the Good Bad Guy: A Bio-Filmography by Derek Sculthorpe", "Lugosi v. Universal Pictures, 603 P.2d 425 (Cal. The Horace Liveright production was successful, running for 261 performances before touring the United States to much fanfare and critical acclaim throughout 1928 and 1929. In 1966, Bela Jr. and Lillian sued Universal Studios for using Lugosi's personality rights without his heirs' permission. [56], Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956, in the bedroom of his Los Angeles apartment while taking a nap. [79], According to Paru Itagaki, the creator of the Japanese manga/anime Beastars, the main character Legoshi was inspired by Bela Lugosi (regarding the similar-sounding names). It's enough to make one turn over in one's grave. Bela Lugosi was a working actor when World War I broke out in Europe. This was one of several projects proposed by Wood, including The Phantom Ghoul and Dr. Acula. Lugosi made 12 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany. Bela Lugosi will celebrate 141st birthday on a Friday 20th of October 2023. Itsvan died when Bela was just 12-years-old, throwing the family fortunes into turmoil. "I was dead, and he brought me back to life." He next played Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994). In 1921, he married Ilona von Montagh, and divorced in 1924. The same year saw Lugosi making a rare appearance in an A-list motion picture: he was a stern Soviet commissar in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romantic comedy Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. trends.embed.renderExploreWidget("TIMESERIES", {"comparisonItem":[{"keyword":" Bela Lugosi ","geo":"","time":"today 12-m"}],"category":0,"property":""}, {"exploreQuery":"q=bela%20lugosi&date=today 12-m","guestPath":"https://trends.google.com:443/trends/embed/"}); He performed in many of William Shakespeare s plays when he was younger. His relationship with the movie was fraught: it made him famous and, for a time, quite rich. Sheffield said years later "Lugosi had probably spent it all on alcohol." 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. He went on to perform in Shakespeare's plays. The film played at midnight with a number of celebrities in the audience that night (Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Rock Hudson, Broderick Crawford, Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Shelley Winters and others). His first marriage, to Ilona Smzik, ended in divorce in 1920, reportedly because his lefty politics upset his Smzik's parents. At that time, in 1938, the new father was so strapped for cash he had to borrow from a Hollywood relief fund to pay the hospital bills. He descended into drug use and despair. His immortal role as the count led him to play roles in 1934s The Black Cat and 1935s The Raven. The combination was so successful that Umann scheduled extra shows to accommodate the capacity crowds, and invited Lugosi to appear in person, which thrilled new audiences that had never seen Lugosi's classic performance. 2021. 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. His immortal role as the count led him to play roles in 1934's The Black Cat and 1935's The Raven. Lugosi eventually grew very bitter over the fact that the general public took him for Dracula. 's family members. When his son, Bela Jr., was born in 1938, Lugosi couldn't afford to pay the hospital bill. 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. [64] In 2019, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced acquisition of the cape via partial donation from the Lugosi family. It turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. Think Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago, and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. His wife Hope discovered him dead, on his bed dressed only in his underwear, when she came home from work that evening, he having apparently died peacefully in his sleep around 6:45 PM according to the medical examiner. Instead, he was relegated to the horror genre, written off as a B-movie hack. [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. It's worthy of its own movie the love story of two tragically underestimated and maligned men. The studio then rehired Lugosi to star in new films, fortunately just as Lugosi's fourth wife had given birth to a son. 5 Million. Lillian and Bela vacationed on their lakeshore property in Lake Elsinore, California (then called Elsinore), on several lots between 1944 and 1953. Universal took notice of the tremendous business and launched its own national re-release of the same two horror favorites. Hope later moved to Hawaii, where she worked for many years as a caregiver in a leper colony. [20], His first American film role was in the silent melodrama The Silent Command (1923) which was filmed in New York. [7], At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school and left home to work at a succession of manual labor jobs. [39], Late in his life, Bela Lugosi again received star billing in films when the ambitious but financially limited filmmaker Ed Wood, a fan of Lugosi, found him living in obscurity and near-poverty and offered him roles in his films, such as an anonymous narrator in Glen or Glenda (1953) and a mad scientist in Bride of the Monster (1955). 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. Rudolph Grey, Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992). Lillian would produce Lugosi's only son, Bella Jr., five years later. Focusing on Lugosi and his well-documented struggle to escape from the role that had typecast him, the play went on to receive the Hamilton Deane Award for best dramatic presentation from the Dracula Society in 2002. Following a successful run as Count Dracula in the stage version of Bram Stoker's bloody tale, Lugosi was cast as the lead in the film adaptation. Bela Lugosi (born October 20, 1882) is famous for being movie actor. At the time of his death, Lugosi was in such poor financial straits that Frank Sinatra was rumored to have paid for his funeral. [26] Lugosi had played the role on Broadway,[27] and was considered before director Tod Browning cast him in the role. He wasn't Universal Pictures' first choice, though. [43][71], Pter Mller's 1998 theatrical play Lugosi the Shadow of the Vampire (Hungarian: Lugosi a vmpr rnyka) is based on Lugosi's life, telling the story of his life as he became typecast as Dracula and as his drug addiction worsened. April 30, 2023. pg. The film, daring as it is in its willingness to go where no one else would at the time, is considered one of the worst movies ever made. In 1933, he married 22-year-old Lillian Arch (1911-1981), the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. Among his teamings with Karloff, he performed major roles only in The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939); even in The Raven, Karloff received top billing despite Lugosi performing the lead role. 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. 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). According to One Room With A View, the two men never met and Lugosi never discovered the reason behind Sinatra's generosity. Bela Lugosi made money by Actors niche. Regarding Son of Frankenstein, the film's director Rowland V. Lee said his crew let Lugosi "work on the characterization; the interpretation he gave us was imaginative and totally unexpected when we finished shooting, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he stole the show. 71. The young Bela was born just the year before. Lugosi, the youngest of four children, 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, and Serbian-born mother Paula de Vojnich. Bela Lugosi, Romania Actor. He is 140 years old and is a Libra. [14], He later moved to California in 1928 to tour in the Dracula stage play, and his Hollywood film career took off. Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack August 16, 1956. When is Bela Lugosi 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 was born in Lugos on 1882-10-20. During World War I, he served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. Died: August 16, 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Bela Lugosi, original name Blasko Bla Ferenc Dezs, (born October 20, 1882, Lugos, Hungary [now Lugoj, Romania]died August 16, 1956, Los Angeles, California, U.S.), Hungarian-born motion-picture actor who was most famous for his sinister portrayal of the elegantly mannered vampire Count Dracula. [36] He also appeared on the anthology series Suspense on October 11, 1949, in a live adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado".[37]. He'd developed the addictions over time, and, as this article in Open Culture shows, he'd grown so sick he could no longer live on his own. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. With fellow expatriate Hungarian actors he formed a small stock company that toured Eastern cities, playing for immigrant audiences. The division's mission was to launch an attack against Russian troops in Poland. Monday, 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. According to SyFy Wire,he learned the language bit by bit, role by role, reading his lines out loud to himself. He was born in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary in 1882 and died in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1956. He had to suddenly emigrate to Germany after the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919 because of his former socialist activities (organizing a stage actors' union), leaving his first wife in the process. His Hungarian accent led to him being typecasted as a horror villain in many films. Bela Lugosi Jr. was boarded at the Elsinore Naval and Military School in Lake Elsinore, and also lived with Lillian's parents while she and Bela were touring. Without his knowledge, a beloved singer, actor, and fan was helping pay his way through rehab. 58. In 1928, Lugosi decided to stay in California when the play ended its West Coast run. Following the blockbuster release of Dracula in 1931, the striving and serious actor from Transylvania would find himself typecast again and again by Hollywood, passed over for more meaty roles and given, almost without fail, the part of the cheesy villain. [29][38], The Vincent Price film, House of Wax premiered in Los Angeles at the Paramount Theatre on April 16, 1953. 134th birthday - Scared to Death is a 1947 thriller Gothic film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Bela Lugosi. It also guaranteed that he would never work as a serious actor again. According to Lost Magazine, by the time of his death of a heart attack at 73, Lugosi had played the count 1,300 times, both on stage and on screen. Bela Lugosi Net Worth is $200,000 Bela Lugosi Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018. . 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. In 1927, he got his big break. In their place was a count's pedigree and a castle in the mountains of Transylvania. Whether or not the two men actually disliked each other is a matter of lively debate. In 1929, Lugosi took his place in Hollywood society and scandal when he married wealthy San Francisco resident Beatrice Weeks (1897-1931), widow of architect Charles Peter Weeks. He also made plenty of personal live appearances to promote his horror image or an accompanying film. Age (2022) Update Soon. During WWI, he volunteered and was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant, and was wounded three times. His performance had piqued the interest of Fox Film, and he was cast in the studio's silent film The Veiled Woman (1929). [22], 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. Producer Alex Gordon, knowing Lugosi was in dire need of cash, arranged for the actor to stand outside the theater wearing a cape and dark glasses, holding a man costumed as a gorilla on a leash. Lugosi's first film appearance was in the 1917 Hungarian silent film Leoni Leo. 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. ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover), Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. Lillian's father was against her marriage to Lugosi at first as the actor was experiencing financial difficulties at the time, so Bela talked her into eloping with him to Las Vegas in January 1933. Today is the 134thbirthday of NAME: Bela Lugosi OCCUPATION: Actor BIRTH DATE: October 20, 1882 DEATH DATE: August 16, 1956 EDUCATION: Budapest Academy of Theatrical Arts PLACE OF BIRTH: Lugos, Hun, Bela Lugosi: Happy 132nd birthday - Blog - Spokane7. His accent, while a part of his image, limited the type of role he could play. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. 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.