Hungarian actor who was immortalized as Dracula in 1931. To Lugosi's disappointment, however, his role in this film was that of a mute, with no dialogue. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. He was born in Lugos on 1882-10-20. Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi is a member of Richest Celebrities and Movie Actors. The story features Lugosi and John Carradine in a mad tale of love, suspicion, and rabies in the jungle. Focusing on Lugosi and his well-documented struggle to escape from the role that had typecast him, the play went on to receive the Hamilton Deane Award for best dramatic presentation from the Dracula Society in 2002. His Hungarian accent led to him being typecasted as a horror villain in many films. 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. Some of the sources for his net worth are his salary, movies, and other earnings. In September 1949, Milton Berle invited Lugosi to appear in a sketch on Texaco Star Theatre. Appeared with Lon Chaney Jr. in five films: The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man . With fellow expatriate Hungarian actors he formed a small stock company that toured Eastern cities, playing for immigrant audiences. Instead, he was relegated to the horror genre, written off as a B-movie hack. 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. So, how much was Bela Lugosi networth at the age of years old? Bela Lugosi Net Worth 2022: Money, Salary, Bio - CelebsMoney The bank ultimately foreclosed on the home Lugosi and his then wife, Lillian, were living in at the time. ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover), Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. He was eventually invited to join the National Theater of Budapest. ), On June 26, 1931, Lugosi became a naturalized United States citizen. Bela Lugosi was born on October 20, 1882 in Lugoj, Romania. In 1998, he played Mike McDermott in John Dahl's Rounders. [75], On July 19, 2003, German artist Hartmut Zech erected a bust of Lugosi on one of the corners of Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest. List of Bela Lugosi 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 . Lugosi died of a heart attack prior to filming. Bela Lugosi Net Worth, Height, Age, and More - Popular Celebrity Biography In 1951, while in England to play a six-month tour of Dracula, Lugosi co-starred in a lowbrow film comedy, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (also known as Vampire Over London and My Son, the Vampire), released the following year. Landau won an Oscar for his turn as the Hungarian heartthrob who'd fallen on hard times. pg. Not true, but so is the power of suggestion. The picture was filmed in Cinecolor.The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role. Although Lugosi would later claim that he "became the leading actor of Hungary's Royal National Theatre", almost all his roles there were small or supporting parts. They only lived together for a few weeks, but their divorce took until October 1925 to be finalized. Occupation: Actor. She claimed he slapped her in the face one night because she ate a pork chop he had hidden in their refrigerator. At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school. Lugosi remained in California where he resumed his film work under contract with Fox, appearing in early talkies often as a heavy or an "exotic sheik". [17], On his arrival in America, the 6-foot-1-inch (1.85m),[15] 180-pound (82kg) Lugosi worked for some time as a laborer, and then entered the theater in New York City's Hungarian immigrant colony. Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. His earliest known performances are from provincial theatres in the 190304 season, playing small roles in several plays and operettas. When appearing in Hungarian silent films, he used the stage name Arisztid Olt. The once-handsome, Hungarian-born star of Dracula had seen his career degenerate over the previous two decades until at last he was reduced to playing a cruel parody of himself in some of the tackiest B horror films ever made. According to Classic Monsters, his third bride was the wealthy widow, Beatrice Weeks, who grew so enraged over his flirtation with "It Girl" Clara Bow that she dissolved the union after only three months. Bela's fourth wife Lillian paid for the cemetery plot and stone (which was inscribed "Beloved Father"), while Hope Lugosi paid for the coffin and the funeral service. ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover). Age (2022) Update Soon. Bela Lugosi beckons us to enter The Mystery House ! Hungarian actor who was immortalized as Dracula in 1931. 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. 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. Lugosi was proscribed from acting due to his participation in the formation of an actors' union. The divorce became final on July 17, 1920 and was uncontested as Lugosi could not show up for the proceedings. His real name is Bla Ferenc Dezs? He descended into drug use and despair. Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack August 16, 1956. Net Worth 2020, Salary. Bela Lugosi (born October 20, 1882) is famous for being movie actor. If you dare Bela Lugosi grew up in a solidly middle class family in Hungary, the son of a baker-turned-banker. The studio then rehired Lugosi to star in new films. "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (, Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape by Robert Cremer (1976), Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers. 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. 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 by Lugosi and his co-stars, as well as Maila Nurmi (TV's horror host "Vampira"). 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. The case took 11 years to litigate and went all the way to the California Supreme Court, where, according to FindLaw, the justices ruled that dead people do not have any right to their own likeness and that their heirs are likewise without recourse. Short biography, height, weight, dates: Birth date: October 20, 1882, Lugoj, Romania Death date: August 16, 1956, Los Angeles, California, United States Birth place: Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary . What's clear, though, is that Lugosi was often on the losing end of Tinsel Town's notoriously flaky attention span. You've got your Bette Davises vs. your Joan Crawfords, your Sarah Jessica Parkers vs. your Kim Cattralls, your Marlon Brandos vs. your Frank Sinatras. Itsvan, a strict and conventional man, had high hopes for his son, but Bela struggled in school and, when asked what profession he hoped to pursue in the future, he answered, "highway bandit." Karloff himself in interviews suggested that Lugosi was initially mistrustful of him when they acted together, believing that the Englishman would attempt to upstage him. 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. [3], Lugosi, the youngest of four children,[4] was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask in 1882 in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania) to Hungarian father Istvn Blask, a baker who later became a banker,[5] and Serbian-born mother Paula de Vojnich. Lugosi was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask on October 20, 1882, in Lugos . He later allowed himself to be photographed drinking a glass of milk at a Red Cross booth there. Three more parts came in 192526, including a five-month run in the comedy-fantasy The Devil in the Cheese. Bela Lugosi Net Worth (Actor) According to One Room With A View, the two men never met and Lugosi never discovered the reason behind Sinatra's generosity. A copy sold for $798,000 at Christie's in May 2000. Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib. . Thursday, [26] Lugosi had played the role on Broadway,[27] and was considered before director Tod Browning cast him in the role. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Speaking of, Lugosi married Lillian Arch, his fourth wife, in 1933. The division's mission was to launch an attack against Russian troops in Poland. Lugosi addressed his plea to be cast in non-horror roles directly to casting directors through his listing in the 1937 Players Directory, published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in which he (or his agent) calls the idea that he is only fit for horror films "an error."[31]. Insult to injury, Karloff was able to move on from his appearances in silly vampire and wolfman and monster flicks to more illustrious roles, whereas Lugosi was stuck in a hall of mirrors of sorts, every new part more ridiculous and broad than the last. Bela Lugosi Net Worth, Biography, Age, Weight, Height Bela Lugosi is an Actor, zodiac sign: Libra. Youtube. Among his teamings with Karloff, he performed major roles only in The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939); even in The Raven, Karloff received top billing despite Lugosi performing the lead role. His legal actions in Lugosi v. Universal Pictures led to the creation of the California Celebrities Rights Act. The same can be said for Plan 9 FromOuter Space, whichSmithsonian Magazine describes as Wood's "magnum opus of sci-fi schlock." At Universal, he often received star billing for what amounted to a supporting part. [7], At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school and left home to work at a succession of manual labor jobs. Actor: Dracula. Nearly 20 years later, Lugosi found himself the beneficiary of an unlikely guardian angel. Or Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker. Regardless, it seems safe to say that, when it came to philanthropy, Sinatra did it his way. Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein(1948). Bela Lugosi Net Worth Without his knowledge, a beloved singer, actor, and fan was helping pay his way through rehab. The one that had been on the night before was Dracula [1931]. She died in 1997 at age 78. )[55], Lugosi married Hope Lininger, his fifth wife, in 1955; she was 37 years his junior. Bela had four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He never got to see the finished film. Whether or not the two men actually disliked each other is a matter of lively debate. 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. Bela Lugosi Net Worth - Valued Plan She would sign her letters "A dash of Hope". Bela Lugosi's film career was all but dead when the B-movie (D-movie?) Bela Lugosis source of wealth comes from being a movie actor. Later, the emotional and physical wounds of the war not to mention the pressures of Hollywood caught up with him and he had a very public struggle with drug addiction. [35] Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib. Lugosi claimed he performed the Dracula play around 1,000 times during his lifetime. The film would be Bela Lugosi's last "A" movie. Regarding Son of Frankenstein, the film's director Rowland V. Lee said his crew let Lugosi "work on the characterization; the interpretation he gave us was imaginative and totally unexpected when we finished shooting, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he stole the show. [8] He took the last name "Lugosi" in 1903 to honor his birthplace,[4][9] and went on to perform in Shakespeare plays. Lugosi left Germany in October 1920, intending to emigrate to the United States, and entered the country at New Orleans in December 1920. 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. 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. Lugosi took his place in Hollywood society and scandal when he married wealthy San Francisco resident Beatrice Woodruff Weeks (18971931), widow of architect Charles Peter Weeks, on July 27, 1929. The heat clearly worked. Lugosi's life as an actor had begun. pg. It was his first English-speaking role. [68], In 1979, a song called "Bela Lugosi's Dead" was released by UK post-punk band Bauhaus and is widely considered to be a pioneering song in the gothic rock genre. [64] In 2019, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced acquisition of the cape via partial donation from the Lugosi family. Universal took notice of the tremendous business and launched its own national re-release of the same two horror favorites. He dropped out of school when he was twelve years old, and began appearing in Shakespeare plays. Incidentally, Lugosi persuaded Bow to pose nude for a portrait artist friend of his, and, as this article on Nitrateville reveals, he happily hung the painting in his many homes, over the possible objections of Mrs. Lugosi Number Four and Five. The film is lost today, but a March 16, 1959, critical review in the Kinematograph Weekly mentioned that the movie contained new Lugosi footage (intriguing since Lugosi had died in 1956). 1979)", "Bela Lugosi's 'Dracula' Cape To Be Auctioned Off", "Bonhams: Bela Lugosi's Count Dracula cape from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", "Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Announces Acquisition of Bela Lugosi's Cape from Dracula", "Bela Lugosi's Screen-Worn 'Dracula' Cape Will Be on Display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures", Andy Warhol (19281987): The Kiss (Bela Lugosi), "Bauhaus on 'Bela Lugosi's Dead': "It was the 'Stairway To Heaven' of the 1980s", "Die Bela Lugosi Story Mller, Pter / Theobalt , Gerold / Schmidtke, Wolfgang", "Hartmut Zech Steinmetz- und Steinbildhauermeister", "A Bla Lugosi Bust Was Snuck Onto the Facade of This Budapest Castle", "Visiting the Ellis Island Immigration Museum", "Review: Can carnivore instinct be overcome in BEASTARS? Lugosi's first film appearance was in the 1917 Hungarian silent film Leoni Leo. 's salary? During an impromptu interview upon his release from the treatment center in 1955, Lugosi stated that he was about to begin work on a new Ed Wood film called The Ghoul Goes West. He was simply, as he put it in this biography, the boogeyman. Bela Lugosi Remembered 65 Years After His Death 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 (? Lillian's father was against her marriage to Lugosi at first as the actor was experiencing financial difficulties at the time, so Bela talked her into eloping with him to Las Vegas in January 1933. [50] They remained married for 20 years and they had a child, Bela G. Lugosi, in 1938. Following the collapse of Bla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, leftists and trade unionists became vulnerable, some being imprisoned or executed in public. Lugosi was quite effective in this small but prestigious character part and he even received top billing among the film's supporting cast, all of whom had significantly larger roles. Continue to the next page to see Bela Lugosi net worth, estimated salary and earnings. ? The judge sent Lugosi to a nearby hospital, where he plotted a comeback that would never materialize. Wood hired Tom Mason, his wife's chiropractor, to double for Lugosi in additional shots. In 1951, while in England to play a six-month tour of Dracula, Lugosi co-starred in a lowbrow film comedy, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (also known as Vampire over London and My Son, the Vampire), released the following year. Everywhere Lugosi went, people saw a blood-sucking bad guy from Transylvania. He was kept employed by the studios principally so that they could put his name on the posters. Bela Lugosi was born on October 20, 1882 in Lugoj, Romania (73 years old). Lugosi complained of her excessive drinking and dancing with other men at social gatherings. 's birthday? On choosing the topic of the song, the band's bassist David J remarked "It's so weird you should say that, because I've got this lyric about Bela Lugosi, the actor who played a vampire. The film was a major hit, but Lugosi was paid a salary of only $3,500, since he had too eagerly accepted the role.[12][28]. Life of Bela Lugosi: Hollywood's Most Famous Dracula - LiveAbout [8] His earliest known performances are from provincial theatres in the 190304 season, playing small roles in several plays and operettas. Hope later moved to Hawaii, where she worked for many years as a caregiver in a leper colony. On 26 June 1931, Lugosi became a naturalized United States citizen. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. Wood plays Glen/Glenda. According to Kitty Kelley's biography of Frank Sinatra, when the entertainer heard of Lugosi's problems, he visited Lugosi at the hospital and gave him a $1,000 check. In Celebrities Gabrielle Miller Wiki: Wedding, Salary, Nationality, Parents. He is the father of Bela Lugosi Jr. (1938). You get the point. When it was clear the film was going to be a monster at the box office, the over-heated publicity department of Universal Studios got busy concocting a backstory for Lugosi worthy of Bram Stoker. [46], In 1933, the 51-year-old Lugosi married 22-year-old Lillian Arch (19111981), the daughter of Hungarian immigrants living in Hollywood. Lugosi: His Life in Films, on Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers. Bela Lugosi Net Worth. Lugosi, the youngest of four children, was born Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask in 1882 in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania) to Hungarian father Istvn Blask, a baker who later became a banker, and Serbian-born mother Paula de Vojnich. Bela Lugosi Net Worth 2023 During World War I, he served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. In addition to his nine Monogram features, he worked in three features for RKO and one for Columbia (Return of the Vampire, 1943). The article quotes Lugosi as saying, "Never has a role so influenced and dominated an actor's life as has the role of Dracula. Itsvan died when Bela was just 12-years-old, throwing the family fortunes into turmoil. It made the 6'1" Hungarian hunk irresistible to a series of beautiful women, including the notoriously sexy Clara Bow. Lugosi had also expressed interest in playing Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey to help himself professionally. Scared to Death is a 1947 thriller Gothic film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Bela Lugosi. He made his way to New York and was inspected by immigration officers at Ellis Island in March 1921. 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. [43], In 1959, a British film called Lock Up Your Daughters was theatrically released (in the U.K.), composed of clips from Bela Lugosi's Monogram pictures from the 1940s. 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. The growth of his dependence on opiates, particularly morphine and (after 1947, when it became available in America) methadone, was directly proportional to the dwindling of Lugosi's screen offers. How much money is Bela Lugosi worth at the age of 140 and whats his real net worth now? Pg. Lew Ayres was eventually hired to play Dracula, only to be replaced by Robert Ames after being cast in a different role in a different Universal Pictures film. California Supreme Court decision on personality rights. Hope told Sheffield she had searched the apartment for several days looking for $3,000 she suspected Lugosi had hidden there, but she never found it. [14], He later moved to California in 1928 to tour in the Dracula stage play, and his Hollywood film career took off. . In 1933, he married 22-year-old Lillian Arch (1911-1981), the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. Play episode. In September 1921, he married Hungarian actress Ilona von Montagh in New York City, and she filed for divorce on November 11, 1924, charging him with adultery and complaining that he wanted her to abandon her acting career to keep house for him. [67], 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. Bela Lugosi Jr. was boarded at the Elsinore Naval and Military School in Lake Elsinore, and also lived with Lillian's parents while she and Bela were touring. ISBN 0977379817 (hardcover). ), and Lillian Arch (1933 - 1951). Bela Lugosi Death: and Cause of 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. 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 . 134th birthday - In 1986, the court's decision was, in effect, overturned with the ruling in the California Celebrity Rights Act stipulating that children and spouses of celebrities have jurisdiction over the use of their loved one's likeness up to 70 years after the celebrity's death. From 1947 to 1950, he performed in summer stock, often in productions of Dracula or Arsenic and Old Lace, and during the rest of the year, made personal appearances in a touring "spook show", and on early commercial television. Bla Ferenc Dezs Blask. In the same interview he expressed a desire to play more comedy, as he had in the Mother Riley farce. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff are referenced in the Curtis Stigers' song "Sleeping with the Lights On", from the 1991 album Curtis Stigers. He was tortured by the idea that, after his star-turn in the Dracula movie in 1931, no one saw would see him as a complicated human being or a talented, sensitive artist. It's Dracula's curse.". Bela Lugosi Jr. attended the Elsinore Naval & Military School in Lake Elsinore. 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. Regardless of controversy, five films at Universal The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), Son of Frankenstein (1939), Black Friday (1940), plus minor cameo performances in Gift of Gab (1934) and two at RKO Pictures, You'll Find Out (1940) and The Body Snatcher (1945) paired Lugosi with Boris Karloff. These horror, comedy and mystery B-films were mostly released by Monogram Pictures. 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. It was not immediately successful, though. It's worthy of its own movie the love story of two tragically underestimated and maligned men.
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