The immortal Bela Lugosi would have been 127 years old today.Born October 20, 1882, as Béla Blasko in Lugoj, Romania, the handsome actor gained screen immortality as Dracula in the 1931 Universal film of the same name. Although his career had more than its share of peaks and valleys (or, perhaps more accurately, "peaks and chasms"), Lugosi's filmography is an embarrasment of riches for the dedicated horror movie fan.
Regardless of the quality of the production, Lugosi nearly always delivered a memorable performance, and, in potboilers like Bowery at Midnight, The Invisible Ghost, Voodoo Man, Scared to Death, The Corpse Vanishes or Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster, it is often only Lugosi's presence that makes them watchable at all.
With Halloween around the corner, it's the perfect time to pay tribute to the legendary actor by watching one or more of his remarkable performances. May I humbly suggest White Zombie (1932), The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Return of the Vampire (1944), or Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)?
2 comments:
A true one-of-a-kind actor. No Halloween is complete without a couple of Lugosi films.
I agree Lugosi is unique along with some of the other Universal actors that played monsters. I think he tried to act as well as possible even when he teamed up with Ed Wood. I recently read a little factiod (although I forget where) that Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, & Vincent Price all had the same birthday: May 27, though I was just over on Wikipedia and they have Price's birthdate a day earlier. Still interesting bit of trivia.
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