Today Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, better known to today's world as Bela Lugosi, was born in 1882. Lugosi today represents the horrors of typecasting. He was a classically trained actor with tons of experience in dramatic roles in Austria-Hungary and Germany. His first role in the U.S. was Dracula and we all know what happened afterwards. His associationg with Edward D. Wood, Jr. was made popular by the Tim Burton film, Ed Wood.
A huge contributing factor to Lugosi's decline in pop culture (at the time), was his addiction to opiates. Lugosi suffered from chronic sciatica brought on by injuries he received while serving in World War I. Natural remedies grew to opiates grew to addiction grew to the man we saw portrayed in Ed Wood. I truly wish we had had a bit more explanation in the film.
Lugosi is an indelible part of horror film lore. Throughout film history, there have been many Draculas and many vampires. But there was only one Lugosi.Here is a great site for the documentary Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula.
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