20th October: Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor, famous for playing Count Dracula and for his roles in various other horror films. Born this date in 1882.

1. Best known for playing Dracula, Bela Lugosi was actually born in Transylvania. in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania) to be exact. His real name was Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó. When appearing in Hungarian silent films, he used the stage name Arisztid Olt. In the US, he used the surname of Lugosi, based on the name of the town where he was born.
2. Lugosi's first film appearance was in a Hungarian silent film, Az ezredes (The Colonel, 1917).
3. During World War I, he served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He rose to the rank of captain in the ski patrol and was awarded the Wound Medal for wounds he suffered while serving on the Russian front.
4. He was forced into exile in 1919 during the Hungarian Revolution. He fled to Vienna, then Germany and finally to America in 1920.
5. His first acting work in the US was in stage plays for the Hungarian immigrant community. He acted in his first Broadway play, The Red Poppy, in 1922.
6. His first American film role was in 1923, in The Silent Command. Several more silent roles followed, where he played villains or continental types, all in productions made in New York.
7. His first appearance as Dracula was on stage rather than on film, in a Broadway production of Dracula adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel. He almost didn't get the movie role - Universal Pictures actually wanted Lon Chaney to play the part, but Chaney died before the film went into production.
8. Boris Karloff was a frequent co-star with Lugosi and rumours abound as to whether or not the two actors actually got along. Some say they were good friends; others say Lugosi was openly resentful of Karloff because he always got top billing and because Karloff could get other good roles outside of the horror genre. Lugosi was frustrated at being typecast. Other rumours say that Karloff didn't think Lugosi could act, and that Lugosi was annoyed by Karloff's insistence on an afternoon tea break.
9. Brides of Dracula. Bela Lugosi was married five times. His first marriage was at 34 to 16 year old Ilona Szmik. They divorced after three years, reputedly over political differences with her parents. In 1921 he married another woman called Ilona - Ilona von Montagh de Nagybanyhegyes. After two and a half years she filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery. In 1929, Lugosi married wealthy San Francisco widow Beatrice Weeks, but she filed for divorce four months later, citing actress Clara Bow as the "other woman". In 1933 he married 19 year old Lillian Arch, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. This marriage lasted twenty years. The marriage broke down when Lillian took a job as an assistant to Brian Donlevy and Bela got jealous. His fifth and final wife was a fan who'd written to him while he was in hospital battling drug addiction. Her name was Hope Lininger - she would sign her letters 'A dash of Hope'. She outlived him.
10. Lugosi was buried wearing a Dracula Cape costume, but contrary to popular belief, he didn't request this, but his son by Lillian Arch, and Lillian Arch herself, made the request, believing it was what he would have wanted.