He even took top billing on films in which Lugosi was the star. Lugosi's jealousy put an end to his union with Arch, who was more than three decades his junior. Biography. 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"). 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. ? Then Cheney died, and Lugosi replaced him on the bill. 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. 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. Lugosi addressed his plea to be cast in non-horror roles directly to casting directors through his listing in the 1937 Players Directory, published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in which he (or his agent) calls the idea that he is only fit for horror films "an error."[31]. Along the way he picked up a drug habit. He later allowed himself to be photographed drinking a glass of milk at a Red Cross booth there. It turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. What is Bela Lugosi 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. He descended into drug use and despair. [12][4] They escaped to Vienna before settling in Berlin (in the Langestrasse), where he began acting in German silent films. [4] His father died during his absence. He was 73. She would sign her letters "A dash of Hope". Appeared with Lon Chaney Jr. in five films: The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man . 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. Veteran Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi, 73, best known for his many Dracula screen roles, died late yesterday in his apartment at 5620 Harold Way, apparently the victim of a heart attack. Skinny and desperate, he begged a judge to commit him. On July 19, 2003, German artist Hartmut Zech erected a bust of Lugosi on one of the corners of Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest. . Net Worth. 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. Later, the emotional and physical wounds of the war not to mention the pressures of Hollywood caught up with him and he had a very public struggle with drug addiction. She died in 1997 at age 78. 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. During WWI, he volunteered and was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant, and was wounded three times.A distinguished stage actor in his native Hungary, Austria-Hungary, he began his stage career in 1901 and started appearing in films during World War I, fleeing to Germany in 1919 as a result of his left-wing political activity (he organized an actors' union). The division's mission was to launch an attack against Russian troops in Poland. )[55], Lugosi married Hope Lininger, his fifth wife, in 1955; she was 37 years his junior. He wasn't Universal Pictures' first choice, though. His accent, while a part of his image, limited the type of role he could play. 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. As this biography notes, he was fired from gigs roughly 20 times over the next two decades for incompetence. His immortal role as the count led him to play roles in 1934's The Black Cat and 1935's The Raven. Hungarian actor who was immortalized as Dracula in 1931. It was expected to sell for up to $2 million, but has since been listed again by Bonhams in 2018. 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. pg. On choosing the topic of the song, the band's bassist David J remarked "It's so weird you should say that, because I've got this lyric about Bela Lugosi, the actor who played a vampire. It was his first English-speaking role. 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". "[69], An episode of Sledge Hammer! In 1933, he married 22-year-old Lillian Arch (1911-1981), the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. 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. 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. And, indeed, it was made into a beloved film, Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp as Wood and Martin Landau as Lugosi. Lillian and Bela vacationed on their lakeshore property in Lake Elsinore, California (then called Elsinore), on several lots between 1944 and 1953. Lots of famous people were born over the years on Oct. 20. 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. The couple divorced in 1920, reputedly over political differences with her parents. Bela Lugosi was born on October 20, 1882 in Lugoj, Romania (73 years old). He was eventually invited to join the National Theater of Budapest. "I owe it all to that little man at the Regina Theatre," said Lugosi of exhibitor Umann. his net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. April 30, 2023. He might have been a bit blood thirsty, but he was a hero, too. Read on for more on this caped legend of stage and screen. 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. 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, did not hate Karloff, owned no small dogs, nor did he sleep in a coffin. 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. Bela's fourth wife Lillian paid for the cemetery plot and stone (which was inscribed "Beloved Father"), while Hope Lugosi paid for the coffin and the funeral service. The film would be Bela Lugosi's last "A" movie. Bela's income mostly comes from and basic source was being a successful Hungarian actor (1882-1956). Arthur Lennig, The Immortal Count, University Press of Kentucky, 2003, p. 21; Rhodes, Gary (1997). 1941. 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. The young Bela was born just the year before. 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. [b], The cape Lugosi wore in Dracula (1931) was in the possession of his son until it was put up for auction in 2011. Before her death, she gave several (rather downbeat) interviews to the fan press. They remained married until his death in 1956. 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]. In 1996, he had a supporting role in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. According to the biography, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi, Lugosi's father, Itsvan, was a prosperous man who left the baking profession in 1883 to set up, with the help of a few partners, a small savings bank in the town of Lugos. That honor went to Lon Cheney. titled "Last of the Red Hot Vampires" was an homage to Bela Lugosi; at the end of the episode, it was dedicated to "Mr. He was learning to act by trial and error, or, as he put it, his will "was forged to whiter and whiter heat." Youtube. Bela Lugosi (born October 20, 1882) is famous for being movie actor. Wood added what footage he had of the star and used and (unconvincing) body double. When is Bela Lugosi [7], At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school and left home to work at a succession of manual labor jobs. 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. Fast Facts: Bela Lugosi. Frank Sinatra, fresh off the success of his album, In the Wee Small Hours, was quietly contributing to Lugosi's mental health fund. Bela Lugosi will celebrate 141st birthday on a Friday 20th of October 2023. He went on to perform in Shakespeare's plays. 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. Lugosi was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask on 20 October 1882, in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (modern Lugoj . 58. 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). He was, to moviegoers and followers of 1930s Hollywood, Dracula. [3] (Szmik then married wealthy Hungarian architect Imre Francsek in December 1920, moved with him to Iran in 1930, had two children, and died in 1991.)[47].
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