Topic: No one mentioned this?

[darkmanx_429]

Yesterday was Bela Lugosi's Birthday.

[Ratty]

I wasn't aware or I would have. That's pretty neat. We all owe a lot to Lugosi for his iconic and influential portrayal of our favorite vampire. I did know (thanks to twitter) that yesterday was the 20th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VI's US release as well. Neat coincidence.

[Lelygax]

20 years of Kefka and Lugosi... and yet I dont have played FF6 for more than 5 hours each time I tried and never watched a Dracula movie with Lugosi. 

[Dracula9]

Lugosi defined Dracula, Lelygax. All the stereotypical "Blaugh, BLAUGH, I vant to drink your blood!" vampire are caricatures of Lugosi's portrayal of the big man himself. In fact, Lugosi would walk around in costume, even when the movie wasn't rolling, and just go up to mirrors and other people saying "I am Dracula."

Guy was a boss. Happy Bela-ted birthday, Mr. Lugosi.

[Belmontoya]

Plan 9 from Outer Space was his last movie if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I am.

Lugosi was the man! I saw Dracula when I was around 7 years old and it scared the crap out of me. But it gave me the obsession with Dracula that I've never been able to shake!

[EisaKrieger]

White Zombie is a great movie with him.  The Vampire Bat is alright.  I've only seen clips of his Dracula, mostly on youtube.  In the scene where he wakes his wives and they come out of their coffins, there's a little bit where a honey bee comes out of a miniature coffin.  Was that bit in the original movie or did someone insert it to bee funny?

[Ratty]

White Zombie is a great movie with him.  The Vampire Bat is alright.  I've only seen clips of his Dracula, mostly on youtube.  In the scene where he wakes his wives and they come out of their coffins, there's a little bit where a honey bee comes out of a miniature coffin.  Was that bit in the original movie or did someone insert it to bee funny?

It was in there, along with armadillos for some reason. I guess they just thought it would look creepy and weird, which apparently it did for people in the 30s.
But yeah Lugosi played Dracula hundreds of times on stage but only twice on film, in 1931's "Dracula" and then in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein". He did have one or two turns as other vampires though. His 1931 appearance was enough to cement him as the unquestioned definitive Dracula, despite imitators to the throne like John Carradine, until Christopher Lee came along about 30 years later.

Plan 9 from Outer Space was his last movie if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I am.

Lugosi was the man! I saw Dracula when I was around 7 years old and it scared the crap out of me. But it gave me the obsession with Dracula that I've never been able to shake!

Plan 9 was kind-of his last movie. There were a few minutes of silent footage of Lugosi taken by Ed Wood before he died. These shots of Lugosi were incorporated into the movie (one of them 2 or 3 times iirc) the rest of which was shot after his death. The actor who played Lugosi's character for the rest of the movie famously looks nothing like him and just holds his cape over the bottom half of his face.