This Day in History: Hungarian horror actor Bela Lugosi was born on this day in 1882. Lugosi is best known for playing Dracula in the 1931 Universal movie. In fact, that movie was so big, it turned Bela Lugosi into a household name and may have saved Universal studios from bankruptcy.
The movie Dracula also turned Bela Lugosi into a sex symbol...97 percent of his fan mail came from women. In fact, one of his fans who wrote to him, Hope Lininger, who was 37 years his junior, became his fifth wife.
Lugosi was also something of a philatelist. Like other actors (Charlie Chaplin, Gary Burghoff, James Earl Jones and Patrick Dempsey), he enjoyed stamp collecting as a hobby. Lugosi would have loved knowing that he would eventually be on a US stamp in 1997.
Lugosi could not avoid typecasting. His Hungarian accent limited his prospects to certain niche horror movies at the time.
Bela Lugosi died penniless in 1956. Dracula author Bram Stoker also died penniless in 1912. Many such writers died in poverty, such as Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft and The Picture of Dorian Gray author Oscar Wilde.
There are about 100 movies based on Dracula or characters derived from Bram Stoker's famous book:
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Batman Dracula
Batman Fights Dracula
The Batman vs. Dracula
Billy the Kid Versus Dracula
Blacula
Blade: Trinity
Blood for Dracula
Blood of Dracula's Castle
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974 film)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 film)
Bram Stoker's Dracula's Curse
Bram Stoker's Dracula's Guest
The Brides of Dracula
Count Dracula (1970 film)
Count Dracula (1977 film)
Count Dracula's Great Love
The Creeps (film)
Cuadecuc, vampir
Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula
Deafula
Doctor Dracula
Dracula (1931 English-language film)
Dracula (1931 Spanish-language film)
Dracula (1958 film)
Dracula (1979 film)
Dracula (2006 film)
Dracula (miniseries)
Dracula 3D
Dracula 2000
Dracula 2012
Dracula 3000
Dracula A.D. 1972
Dracula and Son
Drácula contra Frankenstein
Dracula: Dead and Loving It
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
Dracula II: Ascension
Dracula III: Legacy
Dracula Reborn
Dracula Sir
Dracula vs. Frankenstein
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
Dracula: Prince of Darkness
Dracula: The Dark Prince
Dracula's Daughter
Dracula's Dog
Dracula's Widow
Dracula's Death
The Dragon Lives Again
Drakula İstanbul'da
Fracchia contro Dracula
The Halloween That Almost Wasn't
Hollywood on Parade No. A-8
Hotel Transylvania (film)
Hotel Transylvania 2
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
House of Dracula
House of Frankenstein (miniseries)
House of the Wolf Man
Hrabe Drakula
Jonathan (1970 film)
Lady Dracula
Lake of Dracula
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
Mad Mad Mad Monsters
Mad Monster Party?
Monster Family
Monster Mash (1995 film)
Monster Mash (2000 film)
Los Monstruos del Terror
Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula
Nosferatu
Nosferatu the Vampyre
The Return of Dracula
Saint Dracula 3D
Santo en el tesoro de Drácula
The Satanic Rites of Dracula
Scars of Dracula
Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School
Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf
Scream Blacula Scream
Shadow of the Vampire
Son of Darkness: To Die For II
Son of Dracula (1943 film)
A Taste of Blood
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Tender Dracula
To Die For (1989 film)
U.F.O. (1993 film)
Vampira (1974 film)
Vampire Hunter D (1985 film)
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Vampyros Lesbos
Van Helsing (film)
The Vulture's Eye
Waxwork (film)
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