Yeah, Lugosi's role was amazing. I watched a documentary about him. Dracula was not just his best role, it was his ONLY popular role. It's both interesting and sad, because when you're a one-role actor you can never play roles much different from that one role that made you popular. No matter how much you try to act differently, people would always watch you and see that character which made you popular. It kills you off as an actor. Directors wouldn't want to hire you for roles that don't fit that image the public is used to seeing you.
Lugosi's case was different. He loved being Dracula. He was good at being Dracula. The problem is, at a certain point people got sick of Dracula. And then Lugosi was doomed. Then the morphine addiction, then the rehab, then the lonely death.
But after all, Dracula is never dead.