From Transylvania to Hollywood and immortality. The case of Bela Lugosi

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the film career of a famous actor Bela Lugosi (1882–1956) and its most important turning points. Born as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in Austria-Hungary Lugosi was one of the most important stars of „The Golden Age” of Hollywood horror film in the 1930s but soon after his huge success in a role of Dracula in Tod Browning’s film he had to cope with a career breakdown. Horror as a genre and its changes during the 1930s, the 1940s and the 1950s and the myth of Dracula-Lugosi are the main frames of the article. The author describes also his significant place in popular culture and asks about his hypothetical presence in the notable horror film movements that reached popularity just after Lugosi’s death.