Bela Lugosi
Bela Lugosi was born Béla Ferenc Dezsὄ Blaskó, in Lugos, Hungary on October 20, 1882. In 1901 he began a distinguished acting career on stage, adopting the name Bela Lugosi. His career was interrupted with the outbreak of WWI, during which he served as an infantry officer in the Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916.
By 1917 he began to appear in Hungarian silent films. Lugosi’s Socialist political ideology forced him to move to Weimar Germany in 1919 where he continued his career acting in silent films.
In hopes of furthering his fledgling acting profession, Bela Lugosi emigrated to the United States in 1920. His big break came in 1927 when he was cast as Count Dracula, the lead character in Dracula, a play based on the Bram Stoker novel. The Broadway play was a major success, running for three years, and gave Lugosi the career boost he was hoping for. Hollywood took notice and the play became a movie, directed by Tod Browning and produced by Universal Pictures in 1931, with Lugosi reprising the title character.
The movie was a great success and now Bela Lugosi was a star. It was reported that at one time he was receiving more female fan mail than Clark Gable. He would appear in over 50 American films, including The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
Although he considered himself a lone wolf, he was known to give dinner parties and was considered a gracious host. He was also known for his sense of humor and his appreciation for a cocktail.
With a thick Hungarian accent, he was typecast in most of his films as the villain. He once said, “I find that, because of my language, that I am cataloged as what you call a heavy. My accent stamped me, in the imagination of the producers, as an enemy. Therefore, I must be a heavy.”
The role of Dracula would forever haunt him. He once told reporters, “Every actor’s greatest ambition is to create his own, definite and original role, a character with which he will always be identified. In my case, that role was Dracula. Never has a role so influenced and dominated an actor’s role as has the role Dracula. He [Dracula] has, at times, infused me with prosperity and, at other times, he has drained me of everything.”
Bela Logusi’s career decline would coincide with the decline of his physical health, caused by a series of afflictions. He would die of a heart attack at age 73 on August 16, 1956 and was buried in a proper Dracula costume.
Bela Lugosi was never nominated for an Academy Award or Golden Globe. Ironically, Martin Landau would win both a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe portraying Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994). The Lugosi family publicly objected to the film portrayal, claiming the cartoonish, vulgar, foul-mouthed depiction was an insult. The real Bela Lugosi was a man of intellect and culture.
Despite the trials and tribulations of his life and career, Bela Lugosi has achieved what many actors can only hope for, immortality. Long after many of his contemporaries have been forgotten, he remains an icon.
Like Santa Clause and Christmas, Bela Lugosi will forever be associated with Halloween and the things that go bump in the night when we’re alone in the dark. Besides, how many movie characters have a cocktail named after them?
The Dracula’s Bite cocktail is a perfect beverage to serve at an adult Halloween party. But beware, like the bite of Dracula, the drink backs a punch!
Dracula’s Bite
1oz. Southern Comfort
1oz. Wild Turkey
1oz. Amaretto
1oz. Gin
Dash grenadine
Top glass with orange juice
Combine Southern Comfort, Wild Turkey, Amaretto and Gin into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into Collins glass with ice. Add a dash of grenadine and top with orange juice. Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry.
