Lugosi's jealousy put an end to his union with Arch, who was more than three decades his junior. [2] When appearing in Hungarian silent films, he mostly used the stage name Arisztid Olt. Lugosi was proscribed from acting due to his participation in the formation of an actors' union. He lost out to Lionel Barrymore for the role of Grigori Rasputin in Rasputin and the Empress (also 1932); C. Henry Gordon for the role of Surat Khan in Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and Basil Rathbone for the role of Commissar Dimitri Gorotchenko in Tovarich (1937), a role Lugosi had played on stage. . He was buried in a Dracula costume, including a cape, but not the ones used in the 1931 film . Actually, Bela's widow Hope and ex-wife Lillian paid it; Sinatra's only connection to the aging actor was sending him a $1000 check . Want to more about Him? The biggest break, really. Lugosi had also expressed interest in playing Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey to help himself professionally. Youtube. Released in August 1979, it is often considered to be the first gothic rock record. According to SyFy Wire,he learned the language bit by bit, role by role, reading his lines out loud to himself. These low-budget thrillers indicate that Lugosi was much less discriminating than Karloff in selecting screen vehicles, but the exposure helped Lugosi financially if not artistically. In 1917, Lugosi married Ilona Szmik (1898-1991). Bela Lugosi was an actor who was best known for his role as Count Dracula in a 1931 movie. 2021. It's Dracula's curse.". Bela Lugosi Net Worth. He is the father of Bela Lugosi Jr. (1938). What terrible revenge has Lugosi's character concocted for his revenge? Throughout the 1930s, Lugosi, experiencing a severe career decline despite popularity with audiences (Universal executives always preferred his rival Karloff), accepted many leading roles from independent producers like Nat Levine, Sol Lesser, and Sam Katzman. For all time, at the moment, 2023 year, Bela Lugosi earned $96 Million. Lugosi's first film appearance was in the 1917 Hungarian silent film Leoni Leo. 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. (Weeks died 17 months later (at age 34) from alcoholism in Panama, Lugosi never receiving a penny from her fortune. Following a successful run as Count Dracula in the stage version of Bram Stoker's bloody tale, Lugosi was cast as the lead in the film adaptation. He lost even more. He spent a great deal of money. Full Real Name. Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. He wasn't Universal Pictures' first choice, though. The judge sent Lugosi to a nearby hospital, where he plotted a comeback that would never materialize. So, how much was Bela Lugosi networth at the age of years old? 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. Due to shady blacklisting among the top Hollywood studio executives, he refused to sell out or to compromise his integrity, and therefore ended his career working for the legendary Worst Director of All Time, Edward D. Wood Jr..Lugosi was married to Ilona Szmik (1917 - 1920), Ilona von Montagh (? Bela Lugosi Net Worth is $200,000 Bela Lugosi Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018. . In 1929, with no other film roles in sight, he returned to the stage as Dracula for a short West Coast tour of the play. Tor Johnson said in interviews that Lugosi kept screaming that he wanted to die the night they shared a hotel room together. Everywhere Lugosi went, people saw a blood-sucking bad guy from Transylvania. Sadly, his reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he had been blacklisted by the main studios and had no choice but to accept any part (and script) handed to him, and ended up playing parodies of his greatest role, in low-grade poverty row films. He was sent to fight in the Carpathian Winter War. Pg. Universal changed management in 1936 and, because of a British ban on horror films, dropped them from their production schedule; Lugosi found himself consigned to Universal's non-horror B-film unit, at times in small roles where he was obviously used for "name value" only. Bela Lugosi was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask on October 20, 1882, Lugos, Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), to Paula de Vojnich and Istvn Blask, a banker. Wood hired Tom Mason, his wife's chiropractor, to double for Lugosi in additional shots. Pg 61. 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. He also continued to lobby for his prized role in the film version of Dracula. This footage ended up posthumously in Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957[41]), which was filmed in 1956 soon after Lugosi died. [29][38], The Vincent Price film, House of Wax premiered in Los Angeles at the Paramount Theatre on April 16, 1953. Much like that of the vampire he brought to life, Lugosi's story is a fascinating one, full of ups and downs and twists of fate. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. The court ruled that under California law any rights of publicity, including the right to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death. In 1955, recently divorced from his fourth wife, he checked himself into the Los Angeles General Hospital Psychopathic Ward, hoping to kick his methadone and morphine habits. The studio then rehired Lugosi to star in new films. He was 48-years-old when he got the part in the iconic film, and he was already many years into his acting career. Despite the relative size of their roles, Lugosi inevitably received second billing, below Karloff. Some of the sources for his net worth are his salary, movies, and other earnings. They had a child, Bela G. Lugosi, in 1938. His immortal role as the count led him to play roles in 1934's The Black Cat and 1935's The Raven. Lugosi played Dracula for a second and final time on film in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), which was his last "A" movie. Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. Lugosi complained of her excessive drinking and dancing with other men at social gatherings. Embarrassed, Lugosi left abruptly, without attending the screening. He was born in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary in 1882 and died in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1956. He next played Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994). 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". Afterward, Lugosi was interviewed by a female reporter who botched the interview by asking the prearranged questions out of order, thoroughly confusing the aging star. It made the 6'1" Hungarian hunk irresistible to a series of beautiful women, including the notoriously sexy Clara Bow. It was a long way to fall for the star of one of Hollywood's most successful talkies. During these moves, Ilona lost her unborn child,[13] after which she left Lugosi and returned home to her parents where she filed for divorce, and soon after remarried. His immortal role as the count led him to play roles in 1934's The Black Cat and 1935's The Raven. How rich is Bela Lugosi [81], A 2021 hardcover graphic novel depicting the life of Bela Lugosi was written and drawn by Koren Shadmi, entitled Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula.[82]. List of Bela Lugosi Gone were Lugosi's middle class parents, his teenage struggles to make ends meet in the mines and rail yards of turn-of-the-century Hungary. Lugosi plays a character named The Scientist who narrates the hackneyed and often embarrassing but also hilarious exploration of sex and gender identity. In their place was a count's pedigree and a castle in the mountains of Transylvania. The film would be Bela Lugosi's last "A" movie. (Bela eventually had four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, although he did not live long enough to meet any of them.)[51]. Bela Lugosi Jr. attended the Elsinore Naval & Military School in Lake Elsinore. The Hungarian actor Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask, better known as Bela Lugosi, became known to many as the face of Dracula after his iconic appearance as the famous vampire in the 1931 film adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel. Bela's fifth wife was a fan who continuously wrote to him while he was recovering from drugs in a hospital. Bela Lugosi grew up in a solidly middle class family in Hungary, the son of a baker-turned-banker. [4], Lugosi eventually travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana in December, 1920 working as a crewman aboard a merchant ship, then made his way north to New York City, where he again took up acting in (and sometimes directing) stage plays in 19211922, then worked in the New York silent film industry from 1923 to 1926. 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. After moving to Budapest in 1911, he played dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary between 191319. According to TheVintage News, 100,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers perished in the battle, and Lugosi was promoted to ski patrol. He is often referred to as Bela Lugosi Jr. [21] A rumor has circulated for decades among film historians that Lugosi played an uncredited bit part as a clown in the 1924 Lon Chaney Hollywood film He Who Gets Slapped, but this has been heavily disputed. His earliest. The division's mission was to launch an attack against Russian troops in Poland. [19] In 1925, he played an Arab Sheik in Arabesque which premiered in Buffalo, New York at the Teck Theatre before moving to Broadway. Historian John McElwee reports, in his 2013 book Showmen, Sell It Hot!, that Bela Lugosi's popularity received a much-needed boost in August 1938, when California theater owner Emil Umann revived Dracula and Frankenstein as a special double feature. Lugosi claimed he performed the Dracula play around 1,000 times during his lifetime. Continue to the next page to see Bela Lugosi net worth, estimated salary and earnings. She claimed he slapped her in the face one night because she ate a pork chop he had hidden in their refrigerator. Frank Sinatra, fresh off the success of his album, In the Wee Small Hours, was quietly contributing to Lugosi's mental health fund. Lugosi's final resting place is Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Nationality. Lugosi will probably forever be remembered for playing Count Dracula in Tod Browning's 1931 film version of Bram Stoker's spooky novel. 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. . 71. [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]. To Lugosi's disappointment, however, his role in this film was that of a mute, with no dialogue. $4 Million. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island. In 1927, he got his big break. [6] He was raised in a Roman Catholic family. DETAILS BELOW. His real name is Bla Ferenc Dezs? Lillian and Bela, as well as his mother, vacationed on their lake property in Lake Elsinore, California (then called Elsinore), on two lots between 1944 and 1953. There are contradictory reports of Lugosi's attitude toward Karloff, some claiming that he was openly resentful of Karloff's long-term success and ability to gain good roles beyond the horror arena, while others suggested the two actors were for a time, at least amicable. ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover). Monday, Play episode. Lugosi made 12 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany. His immortal role as the count led him to play roles in 1934's The Black Cat and 1935's The Raven. Strange, but also fitting and bittersweet. Back in 1950 however, Lugosi had appeared on a one-hour TV program called Murder and Bela Lugosi (which WPIX-TV broadcast on Sept. 18, 1950) in which Lugosi was interviewed and provided commentary about a number of his old horror films while clips from the films were being shown; historian Gary Rhodes thinks some of this Lugosi TV production found its way into the 1959 British film, which would finally explain the mystery. Weeks subsequently filed for divorce on November 4, 1929, accusing Lugosi of infidelity, citing actress Clara Bow as the "other woman", and claimed Lugosi tried to take her checkbook and the key to her safe deposit box away from her. Lugosi left Germany in October 1920, emigrating by ship to the United States, and entered the country at New Orleans in December 1920. Wounded twice in the fighting, Lugosi received a medal for his faithful service. Following the blockbuster release of Dracula in 1931, the striving and serious actor from Transylvania would find himself typecast again and again by Hollywood, passed over for more meaty roles and given, almost without fail, the part of the cheesy villain. Bela Lugosi is a Libra and was born in The Year of the Horse. She filed for divorce four months later, citing actress Clara Bow as the "other woman". It was around this time, on January 31, 1933, that Lugosi married 21 year old Lillian Arch, and despite the almost 30 year age gap and Lugosi's previous marriage record, the pair would remain . In 2019 the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced acquisition of the cape via partial donation from the Lugosi family and that the cape will be on display in 2020. 1941. Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. Lugosi kept busy during the 1940s as a screen menace. Lillian's parents lived on one of their properties, and Lugosi frequented the health spa there. [16] He only declared his intention to become a US citizen in 1928; on June 26, 1931, he was naturalized. Due to his activism in the actors' union in Hungary during the revolution of 1919, he was forced to flee his homeland. The studio then rehired Lugosi to star in new films, fortunately just as Lugosi's fourth wife had given birth to a son. The story features Lugosi and John Carradine in a mad tale of love, suspicion, and rabies in the jungle. Lugosi died of a heart attack on 16 August 1956, while lying on a bed in his Los Angeles apartment. In 1925, he appeared as an Arab Sheik in Arabesque which premiered in Buffalo, New York at the Teck Theatre before moving to Broadway. After Dracula, the bulk of Lugosi's roles were in monster movies of varying degrees of ridiculousness. It ran for three years, and was subsequently, and memorably, filmed by Tod Browning in 1931, establishing Lugosi as one of the screen's greatest personifications of pure evil. Lugosi's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is mentioned in "Celluloid Heroes", a song performed by The Kinks and written by their lead vocalist and principal songwriter, Ray Davies. Wood hired Tom Mason, his wife's chiropractor, to double for Lugosi in additional shots. 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. Bela Lugosi. pg. She would sign her letters "A dash of Hope". [1] The rumor that Lugosi was clutching the script for The Final Curtain, a planned Ed Wood project, at the time of his death is not true. His performance had piqued the interest of Fox Film, and he was cast in the studio's silent film The Veiled Woman (1929). Lugosi tried to keep busy with stage work, but had to borrow money from the Actors Fund of America to pay hospital bills when his only child, Bela George Lugosi, was born in 1938. The film, daring as it is in its willingness to go where no one else would at the time, is considered one of the worst movies ever made. The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Bela Lugosi, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi. became famous? The picture was filmed in Cinecolor.The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role. He is 140 years old and is a Libra. . Lugosi was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask on 20 October 1882, in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (modern Lugoj . He was raised in a Roman Catholic family.. At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school and left home to work at a succession of manual labor jobs. In 1966, Bela Jr. and Lillian sued Universal Studios for using Lugosi's personality rights without his heirs' permission. Lugosi acted in several Hungarian plays before breaking out into his first English Broadway play, The Red Poppy, in 1922. [66], Andy Warhol's 1963 silkscreen The Kiss depicts Lugosi from Dracula about to bite into the neck of co-star Helen Chandler, who played Mina Harker. But his victory failed to last. . He also continued to lobby for his prized role in the film version of Dracula. 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. To his frustration, Lugosi, a charter member of the American Screen Actors Guild, was increasingly restricted to mad scientist roles because of his inability to speak English more clearly. [2] He was 73 and weighed 140 pounds. After almost breaking up their marriage in 1944, Lillian and Bela finally divorced on July 17, 1953,[52] at least partially because of Bela's excessive drinking[2] and his jealousy over Lillian taking a full-time job as an assistant to actor Brian Donlevy on Donlevy's radio and television series Dangerous Assignment. ? [22], Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in a Broadway theatre production of Dracula, which had been adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, moving with the play to the West Coast in 1928 and settling down in Hollywood. He also appeared in the film Prisoners (also 1929), believed lost, which was released in both silent and talkie versions. Lugosi later told reporters that he had no choice but to leave his home to find a job, walking 300 miles to an industrial center where he worked as a miner. He currently resides in Lugoj, Romania. Bela Lugosi was a working actor when World War I broke out in Europe. The article quotes Lugosi as saying, "Never has a role so influenced and dominated an actor's life as has the role of Dracula. Following a role as a mute in "The Black Sheep" (1956), Lugosi died on Aug. 16, 1956 of a heart attack while lying on his couch in Los Angeles. Karloff's monster was weak by comparison."[32].
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