Happy birthday to the man Chaney insisted get second billing, Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, who started acting on the Transylvanian stage before puberty, and played dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary in the period 1913–1919, taking time out to serve as an infantry man and rise to captain in the war, who, as Arisztid Olt made 12 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before the collapse of Béla Kuns Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 when he was proscribed from acting due to his participation in the formation of an actors’ union. In exile in Germany, he began appearing in a small number of well-received films, including adaptations of Karl May novels, opposite the Jewish actress Dora Gerson, who died in Auschwitz). Lugosi left Germany in October 1920, emigrating to the United States, where he changed his name to Lagosi (Man of Lagoj his birthplace) and played villains or continental types in silent films before staring in a Broadway production of Dracula, and the type was cast! Lugosi did attempt to break type by auditioning for other roles. He lost out to Lionel Barrymore for the role of Rasputin in Rasputin and the Empress; C. Henry Gordon for the role of Surat Khan in Charge of the Light Brigade; Basil Rathbone for the role of Commissar Dimitri Gorotchenko in Tovarich, a role Lugosi had played on stage. He did play the elegant, somewhat hot-tempered Gen. Nicholas Strenovsky-Petronovich in International House, an ensemble comedy also featuring W. C. Fields, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway and Baby Rose Marie. Universal did wind up giving Lugosi a couple of heroic parts, as in The Black Cat after Karloff had been accorded the more colorful role of the villain, The Invisible Ray, and a romantic role in the adventure serial The Return of Chandu, but his typecasting problem appears to have been too entrenched to be alleviated by those films. 1936, and because of a British ban on horror films, dropped them from their production schedule; Lugosi found himself consigned to Universals non-horror B-film unit, at times in small roles where he was obviously used for name value only. Throughout the 1930s, Lugosi, experiencing a severe career decline despite popularity with audiences (Universal executives always preferred his rival Karloff), accepted many leading roles from independent producers like Nat Levine, Sol Lesser, and Sam Katzman. These low-budget thrillers indicate that Lugosi was less discriminating than Karloff in selecting screen vehicles, but the exposure helped Lugosi financially if not artistically. Lugosi tried to keep busy with stage work, but had to borrow money from the Actors Fund to pay hospital bills when his only child, Bela George Lugosi, was born in 1938. Historian John McElwee reports, in his 2013 book Showmen, Sell It Hot!, that Bela Lugosis popularity received a much-needed boost in August 1938, when California theater owner Emil Umann revived Dracula and Frankenstein as a special double feature. The combination was so successful that Umann scheduled extra shows to accommodate the capacity crowds, and invited Lugosi to appear in person, which thrilled new audiences that had never seen Lugosis classic performance. I owe it all to that little man at the Regina Theatre, said Lugosi of exhibitor Umann. I was dead, and he brought me back to life. Universal took notice of the tremendous business and launched its own national re-release of the same two horror favorites. The studio then rehired Lugosi to star in new films. The first was Universals Son of Frankenstein (1939), when he played the character role of Ygor, who uses the Monster for his own revenge, in heavy makeup and beard. The same year saw Lugosi playing a straight character role in a major motion picture: he was a stern commissar in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers comedy Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo. This small but prestigious role could have been a turning point for the actor, but within the year he was back on Hollywoods Poverty Row, playing leads for Sam Katzman. These horror, comedy and mystery B-films were released by Monogram Pictures. At Universal, he often received star billing for what amounted to a supporting part. The Gorilla (1939) had him playing straight man to Patsy Kelly. Ostensibly due to injuries received during military service, Lugosi developed severe, chronic sciatica. Though at first he was treated with pain remedies such as asparagus juice, doctors increased the medication to opiates. The growth of his dependence on pain-killers, particularly morphine and, after 1947 when it became available in America, methadone, was directly proportional to the dwindling of screen offers. He was finally cast in the role of Frankensteins monster for Universals Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), but Lugosi had no dialogue. Lugosis voice had been dubbed over that of Lon Chaney, Jr., from line readings at the end of The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). He also came to recreate the role of Dracula a second and last time on film in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). By this time, Lugosis drug use was so notorious that the producers were not even aware that Lugosi was still alive, and had penciled in actor Ian Keith for the role. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was Bela Lugosis last A movie. For the remainder of his life he appeared — less and less frequently — in obscure, low-budget features. From 1947 to 1950, he performed in summer stock, often in productions of Dracula or Arsenic and Old Lace, and during the rest of the year made personal appearances in a touring spook show and on early commercial television, before finally ending as nine seconds in a can in Ed Woods basement. youtube/watch?v=mwpCTYJpeNg
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 01:51:06 +0000
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