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10 unusual facts about Bela Lugosi


Art Greenhaw

In 1997, Greenhaw took the lead in composing and arranging the music and recording the soundtrack for a documentary film about actor Bela Lugosi, LUGOSI: HOLLYWOOD'S DRACULA.

Arthur Q. Bryan

Bryan never earned a big break in film, his live action work remained largely uncredited cameos, usually employing the Fudd persona, or minor supporting roles in B-movies (like the apoplectic newspaper editor in the Bela Lugosi thriller The Devil Bat).

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, released in 1943, is an American monster horror film produced by Universal Studios starring Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster.

Gustav Brock

During his professional career, Brock hand-colored scenes from a number of motion pictures, including Erich von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922), The Death Kiss (1932) with Bela Lugosi, and the independently-made feature film Adventure Girl (1934).

Lennie Weinrib

H.R. Pufnstuf - Voices of H.R. Pufnstuf, Bela Lugosi Tree, Dr. Blinky's Talking Book, Orson Vulture, Polka Dotted Horse, Stupid Bat, Pop Lolly, West Wind

Small Wonder Records

Teeny 2 Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead / Boys / Dark Entries (Demo) 12" (White vinyl, 5000 only - reissued many times)

Sol Lesser

His productions usually had higher budgets than the usual independent features; Lesser was able to produce entire series with name stars like Bela Lugosi, George O'Brien, and Bobby Breen.

The Ape Man

Dr. James Brewster (Bela Lugosi) and his colleague Dr. Randall (Henry Hall) are involved in a series of scientific experiments which have caused him to transform into an ape-man.

The Funny Company

Villainous Belly Laguna (who was modeled after Bela Lugosi in his Dracula role) always tried to thwart the Funny Company's plans (for his own profit), but never with any success.

Walking After You

A stack of vintage television sets displays clips of retro fare such as Bela Lugosi films and Betty Boop cartoons.


Alexander Gauge

Gauge appeared in the films The Interrupted Journey in 1949, and, all in 1952, Murder in the Cathedral, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, with Old Mother Riley and Béla Lugosi, and The Pickwick Papers.

Alfréd Deésy

The Star-film unit was the main incubator of Hungarian talent in the silent period, and Bela Lugosi made his motion picture debut acting in Deésy's films, and Michael Curtiz also made some of his early films there.

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla

Though Paradise has been found, for the time being, the duo soon discovers that a mad scientist named Dr. Zabor (Bela Lugosi), lives on the other side of the island.

Bucks County Playhouse

Other notable actors who performed at the theater over the years include Bela Lugosi, Dick Van Dyke, Tyne Daly, Grace Kelly, Angela Lansbury, and Walter Matthau.

Frank Moran

One exception was Monogram Pictures's Return of the Ape Man (1944), starring Bela Lugosi and John Carradine, in which Moran shared credit for the title role with George Zucco, although, in fact, Zucco became ill and Moran replaced him – Zucco does not appear in the film as released.

Hollywood on Parade No. A-8

Betty asks Eddie to accompany her in a rendition of "My Silent Love." Dracula who is played by Bela Lugosi comes to life gets Betty Boop in the Clinch, bends over her menacingly and sensually at the same time, and utters: "Boop! You have Booped your last boop!"

Horror Hospital

Balch asked Michael Gough to base his performance on Bela Lugosi, screening him a 16mm print of The Devil Bat, in which Lugosi plays a mad, perfume manufacturer.

Irene Ware

Irene appeared in 29 films between 1932-1940, and is mostly remembered for her roles as Princess Nadji in Chandu the Magician (1932) with Edmund Lowe and Bela Lugosi, and as Boris Karloff's and Lugosi's leading lady in 1935's The Raven.

La Crescenta-Montrose, California

Bela Lugosi attempted to overcome his morphine addiction at the Kimball, as represented in the Tim Burton film "Ed Wood." Actress Frances Farmer, misdiagnosed as a "paranoid schizophrenic," received insulin shock therapy at Kimball.

Malcolm McGregor

Like so many of his contemporaries, McGregor's career quickly waned after the changeover to sound and he was reduced to playing second fiddle to Bela Lugosi in the Mascot serial The Whispering Shadow (1932).

Murray Bernthal

For many years, he welcomed a variety of stars to Central New York such as: Gloria Swanson, Charlton Heston, Tom Jones, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bela Lugosi, Beverly Sills, Luciano Pavarotti and Arthur Rubinstein.

Sam Katzman

He is noted for numerous westerns of the '30s, his Bela Lugosi and East Side Kids features of the '40s, the 15-chapter Superman serial of 1948 and a string of rock-'n'-roll musicals in the '50s. At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the '60s Katzman produced several Elvis Presley films and singer Roy Orbison's only film, The Fastest Guitar Alive.

Teenage Zombies

As with similar zombie-films of this era (such as Bela Lugosi's Bowery at Midnight), the zombies in this film are markedly unlike those portrayed in contemporary zombie-films.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

The adventure, set in the mythic world of Monsterland, also features Murray the Robot (Brian Posehn), Suzi-X's sidekick and vehicle, based on the robot featured in the 1939 serial The Phantom Creeps starring Bela Lugosi.

The Return of Chandu

Béla Lugosi, in a rare sympathetic role, plays Frank Chandler: a powerful but kind man who has spent most of his life in the Orient, where he is renowned under the name of "Chandu the Magician" for his tremendous skill with White Magic.

Tom Mason

Best known as the stand-in for the recently deceased Bela Lugosi in Wood's movie Plan 9 from Outer Space, Mason, who was taller than and bore a questionable physical resemblance to Lugosi, hunched over and held a cape over his face in all of his scenes.

Wally Brown

Out of their eight films together, one of their most notable films include Zombies on Broadway co-starring Bela Lugosi, a semi-sequel to Val Lewton's I Walked With a Zombie.