Line #25 Creator/BelaLugosi


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bela_lugosi.jpeg]]
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3	->''"Every actor is somewhat mad, or else he'd be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman."''
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5	Bela Lugosi (born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956) was a Hungarian-born stage and screen actor mostly known for his work in horror movies, in particular his performance of the title role in the [[Film/{{Dracula 1931}} 1931 version]] of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''. Following that film's success, he suffered severely from typecasting and the limitations of his heavy native accent, and spent the vast bulk of his career eking out a living in various low-budget productions, culminating (if that is the word) in his work with director Creator/EdWood.
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7	Born in Lugos, Hungary (hence his [[StageNames stage name]]), he began acting in theater at a young age. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, getting wounded in action against Russia. Lugosi began his film career while the war was still ongoing, and also became involved in Hungarian politics and trade unions. After Bela Kun's failed communist revolution, Lugosi was marked for arrest due to his political views and fled to Germany. There Lugosi continued his career (including, oddly enough, appearing in several successful {{Western}}s). He emigrated to the United States in 1920 and became a citizen in 1931.
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9	After some minor film roles through the '20s (already typecast as villains) and a successful stage career (where he often played romantic and heroic characters), Lugosi achieved his StarMakingRole as [[{{Dracula}} Count Dracula]] in Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's stage adaptation of ''Dracula''. Lugosi first took on the role in 1927, playing the Count in 261 performances on Broadway before touring the country. After the tour concluded he relocated to Los Angeles and began focusing on movie roles. Ironically, he had to lobby to play ''Dracula'' on film, as Creator/{{Universal}} initially wanted an established star for the role.[[note]][[Creator/LonChaney Lon Chaney Sr.]] was Universal's first choice, but he died before production began.[[/note]]
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11	Although Lugosi appeared in several successful films for Universal after ''Dracula'', he failed to break through his typecasting and remained overwhelmingly cast in horror and science fiction movies, often of negligible quality. During this time, he worked on several occasions with--and was overshadowed by--his rival Creator/BorisKarloff. He managed to make a sort of comeback in death, however, when Creator/MartinLandau won an Oscar for his brilliant portrayal of Lugosi in Creator/TimBurton's 1994 film ''Film/EdWood''.
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13	Some of the other famous--or infamous--films in which Lugosi appeared include ''Film/WhiteZombie'', ''Film/MurdersInTheRueMorgue'', ''[[Film/TheWolfMan1941 The Wolf Man]]'', ''Film/SonOfFrankenstein'' (as Ygor, generally regarded as one of his best performances), ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'' (in which he reprised the Dracula role), ''Film/GlenOrGlenda'', and ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace''. He also had a supporting role in the classic Creator/GretaGarbo comedy ''Film/{{Ninotchka}}'', although he's still scary (he's a commissar). Many ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fans will also remember him from the serial ''The Phantom Creeps'' ([[MemeticMutation "Zees vill zimplify everytink!"]]), as well as the movies ''Film/TheCorpseVanishes'' and ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'' ([[MemeticMutation "He tampered in God's domain"]]).
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15	Also rather well known for being [[Music/{{Bauhaus}} dead]]. It wasn't his idea, but he was buried in his Dracula costume. (A persistent urban myth holds that Creator/PeterLorre joked at Lugosi's funeral that they should "drive a stake through his heart, just in case". In fact, Lorre wasn't even at Lugosi's funeral.)
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18	!!Bela Lugosi on TV Tropes:
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20	* ''Theatre/{{Dracula\|1924}}'' (1927 Broadway production)
21	* ''Film/TheThirteenthChair'' (1929)
22	* ''Film/{{Dracula\|1931}}'' (1931)
23	* ''Film/IslandOfLostSouls'' (1932)
24	* ''Film/MurdersInTheRueMorgue'' (1932)
25	* ''Film/WhiteZombie'' (1932)
26	* ''Film/TheDeathKiss'' (1933)
27	* ''Film/TheBlackCat'' (1934)
28	* ''Film/MarkOfTheVampire'' (1935)
29	* ''Film/{{The Raven\|1935}}'' (1935)
30	* ''Film/PhantomShip'' (1936)
31	* ''Film/TheInvisibleRay'' (1936)
32	* ''Film/{{Ninotchka}}'' (1939)
33	* ''Film/SonOfFrankenstein'' (1939)
34	* ''Film/ThePhantomCreeps'' (1939)
35	* ''Film/TheDevilBat'' (1940)
36	* ''[[Film/TheWolfMan1941 The Wolf Man]]'' (1941)
37	* ''Film/TheCorpseVanishes'' (1942)
38	* ''Film/TheGhostOfFrankenstein'' (1942)
39	* ''Film/FrankensteinMeetsTheWolfMan'' (1943)
40	* ''Film/TheReturnOfTheVampire'' (1943)
41	* ''Film/TheBodySnatcher'' (1945)
42	* ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'' (1948)
43	* ''Film/GlenOrGlenda'' (1953)
44	* ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'' (1955)
45	* ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'' (1959)[[note]]Released posthumously; Lugosi's only appearance consists of unrelated footage of him prancing about a yard in his Dracula costume, inserted into the film just to give him a creditable role[[/note]]
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48	!!Bela Lugosi is known for these tropes:
49	* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Lugosi had double-jointed fingers, allowing him to make creepy motions with his hands.
50	* AllInTheEyes: Multiple movies would make good use out of an illuminated close-up of Lugosi's. Dracula aside, both ''White Zombie'' and its sequel (which Lugosi wasn't actually in, funny enough) used this effect.
51	** Many critics have unfairly said that Bela wasn't that great of an actor, but pretty much everyone agrees that those eyes of his... those eyes... eyes that pierce you to your very soul. There is no escaping them... Uh. That is to say: Most people agree that he could use his eyes to amazing effect.
52	* BadassCape: Dracula's long cape.
53	* BlackCloak: Buried with one, too, at his family's request, though against his own wishes.
54	* ClassicalMovieVampire: His role is the TropeMaker. Most Dracula parodies follow this trope because of how renowned Lugosi's performance was.
55	* CompellingVoice: He made sure to try to vocalize Dracula's hypnotic voice.
56	* DramaticPause: Somewhat justified in the fact that English is ''quite'' different from Hungarian (so different that the heavy accent it leaves when transitioning to English probably made his English sound worse than it really was to most people. He was actually a very good speaker!) In fact, in 1934's ''Film/TheBlackCat'', he has a small bit of dialogue in Hungarian, and naturally, the delivery of it flows like melted butter.
57	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Lugosi's most notable film role before moving to America is probably that of Chingachgook in the 1920 silent two-parter ''[[Literature/TheLeatherstockingTales Lederstrumpf]]''.
58	* FakeShemp: His character in ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'' is played in some scenes by an obvious double hiding his face behind a cape.
59	* GoshDangItToHeck: Bela Lugosi did not swear (not much, anyway), but ''Film/EdWood'' made him give a [[ClusterFBomb whole lot of it]].
60	* HighCollarOfDoom: By wearing the collar of the black cape up in the stage play of ''Theatre/{{Dracula\|1924}}'', turning around would blend in with the curtain and make it seem like he disappeared. In the movie version, he kept the collar up just for the heck of it, and high collars became an iconic part of the VillainousFashionSense.
61	* IDoNotDrinkWine: Dracula didn't, but Béla? It's said he was quite a fan.
62	* TheIgor: His role in ''Film/SonOfFrankenstein'' helped codify this trope. He's the original Ygor!
63	* ImmigrantPatriotism: Lugosi was a proud and patriotic naturalized American, though also maintained pride in his Hungarian roots.
64	* LargeHam: He could play the part subtly at moments, but he loved to just flourish with the role.
65	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The man's name, and most of his characters.
66	* OddFriendship: He was genuine friends with Creator/EdWood. It helped that Wood's then-girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, knew how to make good goulash (a Hungarian comfort food).
67	* OminousOperaCape: The way he flourished the long, black cape as Dracula made dark capes a common villain accessory.
68	* PlayingAgainstType: He portrayed the protagonists in ''The Thirteenth Chair'' (as a dogged police inspector), ''The Return of Chandu'' (as the titular crime-fighting sorcerer) and ''Film/TheBlackCat'' (as a shell shocked psychiatrist). He had comedy roles in ''Broadminded'' and ''International House'', and played [[RedHerring red herring characters]] in murder mysteries like ''TheBlackCamel'', ''The Death Kiss'', and ''Murder by Television''. (The latter notably sees him playing both a murder victim and his identical twin brother, an undercover cop who at the end, in true Creator/AgathaChristie style, unveils the killer via SummationGathering.)
69	* ProductionPosse: Tod Browning, Edward Van Sloan, Creator/BorisKarloff, Creator/BasilRathbone, Creator/LionelAtwill, Creator/LonChaneyJr, and Creator/EdWood.
70	* TheRival: With Creator/BorisKarloff, to an extent. Lugosi resented that Karloff always received top billing when they costarred together, and they often competed for roles when they weren't collaborating. Lugosi often half-jokingly took credit for Karloff's stardom since he had turned down the role of the Monster in ''Film/Frankenstein1931'' before Karloff was cast. Most film historians tend to discount stories that they had a full-on feud, however; Karloff said that after some initial tension, they became friends and enjoyed working together. Lugosi's children seem to confirm this, indicating that while the two weren't particularly close, Lugosi generally held Karloff in high esteem despite his occasional jealousy about his greater success.
71	* StageName: He was born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (or Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső in Hungarian name order), and took the name Lugosi from his hometown of Lugos, Hungary (which is now Lugoj, Romania). In many of his Hungarian films, Lugosi also used the name Arisztid Olt.
72	* Franchise/UniversalHorror: The genre in which he did his most famous work.
73	* VampiresAreSexGods: He played Dracula as a seductive and charismatic villain. The studio forbade him from [[HomoeroticSubtext preying on men]] for [[ValuesDissonance exactly this reason]].
74	** Lugosi himself became a sex symbol overnight because of Dracula.
75	* VampireVords: Averted. Even though people imagine (and frequently parody) him as speaking this way -- to the point he's often imagined to be the TropeMaker -- he actually had no problems pronouncing his W's.
76	* WhiteDwarfStarlet: He got roles after Dracula, but they eventually dried up. You can see ''Film/EdWood'' for a potrayal of his later years.

Context Creator / BelaLugosi