Hollywood Memorial

Legendary stage and screen actor of the 1910s through 1950s, he is most widely identified with his 1931 title role in the movie ‘Dracula.’ Born Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko in Lugos, Banat, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), he began his acting career on the stage in Hungary, playing in several Shakespearean plays and appeared in several silent movies of the Hungarian cinema. When World War I broke out, he became an infantry lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army, being wounded three times. Following the death of his first wife, in 1921 he emigrated to the US, and worked as a laborer before being spotted in the title role of the 1927 stage play ‘Dracula.’ In 1929, he married a wealthy San Francisco widow named Beatrice Weeks, their marriage lasted only three days and their divorce papers named actress Clara Bow as the cause of the breakup; the notoriety quickly brought him to Hollywood film attention. When Universal Pictures decided to film ‘Dracula’ (1931), he had to campaign vigorously for the opportunity to get the same role. When the movie, ‘Dracula’ (1931) became successful, Lugosi was given a studio contract with Universal; that same year, he became a US citizen. Due in part to his heavy accent and his success in ‘Dracula,’ he was soon typecast in such B-horror films. He was often paired with Boris Karloff, an actor most famous as the Frankenstein monster, and despite their reputed rivalry they actually remained good friends. In the 1940s he became addicted to morphine. On the set, he would disguise his addiction by sipping burgundy wine. He ended up making movies for Ed Wood, considered by many as the worst director in Hollywood history, and he died while shooting the now-cult classic film ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space.’ He died of a drug related heart attack in his Los Angeles home, a copy of the script for ‘Final Curtain,’ written by director Ed Wood, in his lap. He was buried wearing one of his many Dracula capes, per the request of his fifth wife, Hope Lininger, and his son, Bela Jr. At the time of his death, he was so poor that his family could not afford to bury him, and his friend Frank Sinatra quietly picked up the cost of the funeral. No self-respecting vampire would have a cross on his grave, but there it is in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.