name	Ed Wood
director	Tim Burton
producer	Tim BurtonDenise Di Novi
writer	Scott AlexanderLarry Karaszewski
based on	''Nightmare of Ecstacy''Rudolph Grey
starring	Johnny DeppMartin LandauPatricia ArquetteSarah Jessica ParkerJeffrey JonesLisa Marieand Bill Murray
music	Howard Shore
cinematography	Stefan Czapsky
editing	Chris Lebenzon
distributor	Touchstone Pictures
released
runtime	127 minutes
country	United States
language	English
budget	$18 million
gross	$5,887,457 }}

''Ed Wood'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama biopic directed and produced by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp as cult filmmaker Ed Wood. The film concerns the period in Wood's life when he made his best-known films as well as his relationship with actor Bela Lugosi, played by Martin Landau. Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, Lisa Marie, and Bill Murray are among the supporting cast.

The film was conceived by writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski when they were students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Irritated at being thought of solely as writers for family films with their work on ''Problem Child'' and its sequel, Alexander and Karaszewski struck a deal with Burton and Denise Di Novi to produce the ''Ed Wood'' biopic, and Michael Lehmann as director. Due to scheduling conflicts with ''Airheads'', Lehmann had to vacate the director's position, which was taken over by Burton.

''Ed Wood'' was originally in development at Columbia Pictures, but the studio put the film in 'turnaround' over Burton's decision to shoot in black-and-white. ''Ed Wood'' was taken to Walt Disney Pictures, who released the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner. The film was released to critical acclaim, but was not a box office success. It won two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Landau and Best Makeup for Rick Baker (who designed Landau's prosthetic makeup), Ve Neill and Yolanda Toussieng.

Plot[link]

In 1952, Ed Wood is struggling to join the film industry. Upon hearing of an announcement in ''Variety'' that producer George Weiss is trying to purchase Christine Jorgensen's life story, Ed is inspired to meet Weiss in person. Weiss explains that ''Variety'''s announcement was a news leak, and it is impossible to purchase Jorgensen's rights. The producer decides to 'fictionalize' the film titled ''I Changed My Sex!'', and "do it without the shemale". One day, Ed meets his longtime idol Béla Lugosi, after spotting him trying out a casket. Ed drives Béla home and the two become friends. Later, Ed decides to star Béla in the film and convinces Weiss that he is perfect to direct ''I Changed My Sex!'' because he is a transvestite.

Ed and Weiss argue over the film's title: Weiss has already had the poster printed, which Ed changes to ''Glen or Glenda''. The shoot finishes on ''Glen or Glenda'', and Ed is enthusiastic that he starred, directed, wrote and produced his own film just like his hero Orson Welles did when he made ''Citizen Kane''. ''Glen or Glenda'' is released to critical and financial failure. Ed is unsuccessful in getting a job at Warner Bros., a producer there tells him ''Glen or Glenda'' is the worst film he has ever seen, but Ed's girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, tells him that he is not "studio material", and that he should find independent backers for his next film, ''Bride of the Monster''. Ed is unsuccessful in finding money for ''Bride of the Monster'', but is introduced to the psychic The Amazing Criswell.

At a bar, Ed meets Loretta King, who he thinks has enough money to fund ''Bride of the Monster''. Filming begins, but is halted. Ed convinces meat packing industry tycoon, Don McCoy, to take over funding the film. McCoy does so, but on the condition that the film ends with a giant explosion, and that his son Tony, who "is a little slow", is the leading man. The filming of ''Bride of the Monster'' finishes, but Dolores and Ed break up after the wrap party, because of Ed's circle of friends and transvestism. Also, Béla, who is revealed to be highly depressed and a morphine addict, attempts to conduct a double suicide with Ed, but is talked out of it. Béla checks himself into rehab, and Ed finds love when he meets Kathy O'Hara, who is visiting her father at the same hospital. Ed takes her on a date and reveals to her his transvestism, which she accepts.

Ed begins to shoot a film with Béla outside his home. When Ed and company attend the premiere for ''Bride of the Monster'', an angry mob chases them out of the theater. Sometime later, Béla dies leaving Ed without a star. Ed convinces a church leader named Reynolds that funding Ed's script for "Grave Robbers from Outer Space" would result in a box office success, and generate enough money for Reynolds' dream project (the Twelve Apostles films). Dr. Tom Mason, Kathy's chiropractor, is chosen to be Béla's stand-in. However, Ed and the Baptists begin having conflicts over the title and content of the script which they want to have changed to ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' along with Ed's B movie directing style, his casting decisions and his transvestism. This causes a distressed Ed to leave the set and immediately take a taxi to the nearest bar, where he encounters his idol Orson Welles. Welles tells Ed that "visions are worth fighting for", and filming for ''Plan 9'' finishes with Ed taking action against his producers. The film ends with the premiere of ''Plan 9'', and Ed and Kathy taking off to Las Vegas, Nevada to get married.

Cast[link]

Johnny Depp as Ed Wood: Burton approached Depp and "within 10 minutes of hearing about the project, I was committed," the actor remembers. At the time, Depp was depressed about films and filmmaking. By accepting this part, it gave him a "chance to stretch out and have some fun", and working with Martin Landau, "rejuvenated my love for acting". He watched several Reagan speeches because the actor felt he had a kind of blind optimism that was perfect for Ed Wood. Depp also borrowed some of Kasem's cadence and "that utterly confident, breezy salesman quality in his voice". For research, Landau watched 25 of Lugosi's films and seven interviews between the years of 1931 and 1956.

Lisa Marie as Vampira: Hostess of the local ''Vampira Show''. She is dismissive of Ed at first, but decides to join the cast of ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', on the condition that she have no lines.

Jeffrey Jones as The Amazing Criswell: A local psychic TV entertainer. Criswell helps Ed with usual production duties, finding investors and acting in Ed's films.

Max Casella and Brent Hinkley portray Paul Marco and Conrad Brooks: Two of Ed's all-around production assistants and frequent actors. Paul is hired to find the Lugosi stand-in for ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', while Conrad accidentally has a brief dispute with Lugosi during ''Glen or Glenda''.

Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge: Ed's openly-gay friend. Bunny is assigned to find transvestites to appear in ''Glen or Glenda'', as well as portraying the "The Ruler" in ''Plan 9 from Outer Space''. Bunny also has an unsuccessful sex reassignment therapy attempt.

George "The Animal" Steele as Tor Johnson: A Swedish professional wrestler hired by Wood to be in two of his films, ''Bride of the Monster'' and ''Plan 9''.

Juliet Landau as Loretta King: King has an (implied) brief relationship with Ed. She replaces Dolores in the movie "Bride of the Monster" after Wood mistakes her for an heiress able to front the money for the production costs.

Ned Bellamy as Tom Mason: Kathy's chiropractor who is chosen to be Lugosi's stand-in for ''Plan 9''.

Mike Starr as George Weiss: Foul-mouthed Z movie producer known for his work on exploitation films. Weiss hires Ed to direct ''Glen or Glenda''.

Vincent D'Onofrio makes a cameo appearance as Orson Welles. His voice was dubbed by Maurice LaMarche. The film also includes cameos from actors who worked with Wood on ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', Gregory Walcott and Conrad Brooks.

Production[link]

Writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski conceived the idea for a biopic of Ed Wood when they were students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Alexander even proposed making a documentary about Wood, ''The Man in the Angora Sweater'' in his sophomore year at USC. However, Karaszewski figured, "there would be no one on the planet Earth who would make this movie or want to make this movie, because these aren't the sort of movies that are made." a full-length biography, which draws on interviews from Wood's family and colleagues. Lehmann presented their treatment to his producer on ''Heathers'', Denise Di Novi. Di Novi had previously worked with Tim Burton on ''Edward Scissorhands'', ''Batman Returns'' and ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'', and a deal was struck with Lehmann as director and Burton and Di Novi producing.

Burton began reading ''Nightmare of Ecstasy'' and some of Wood's letters. He was taken by how he "wrote about his films as if he was making ''Citizen Kane'', you know, whereas other people perceived them as, like, the worst movies ever". Burton admits to having always been a fan of Ed Wood, which is why the biopic is filmed with an aggrandizing bias borne of his admiration rather than derision of Wood's work. The relationship between Wood and Lugosi in the script echoes closely Burton's relationship with his own idol and two-time colleague, Vincent Price. He said in an interview, "Meeting Vincent had an incredible impact on me, the same impact Ed must have felt meeting and working with his idol." Meanwhile, Burton had been asked to direct ''Mary Reilly'' for Columbia Pictures with Winona Ryder in the title role.

However, Burton dropped out of ''Mary Reilly'' over Columbia's decision to fast track the film and their interest with Julia Roberts in the title role instead of Ryder. This prompted Burton to becoming interested in directing ''Ed Wood'' himself, on the understanding it could be done quickly. Lehmann said, "Tim wanted to do this movie immediately and direct, but I was already committed to ''Airheads''." Lehmann was given executive producer credit. Alexander and Karaszewski delivered a 147-page screenplay in six weeks. Burton read the first draft and immediately agreed to direct the film as it stood, without any changes or rewrites. ''Ed Wood'' gave Burton the opportunity to make a film that was more character-driven as opposed to style-driven. He said in an interview, "On a picture like this I find you don't need to storyboard. You're working mainly with actors, and there's no effects going on, so it's best to be more spontaneous."

Initially, ''Ed Wood'' was in development with Columbia, but when Burton decided he wanted to shoot the film in black-and-white, studio head Mark Canton would not agree to it unless Columbia was given a first look deal. Burton said black-and-white was "right for the material and the movie, and this was a movie that ''had'' to be in black-and-white". He insisted on total creative control, and so in April 1993, a month before the original start date, Canton put ''Ed Wood'' into turnaround. The decision sparked interest from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox in optioning the film rights, but Burton accepted an offer from Disney, who had previously produced ''The Nightmare Before Christmas''. Similar to ''Nightmare'', Disney distributed ''Ed Wood'' under their Touchstone Pictures banner. With a budget of $18 million, Disney did not feel the film was that much of a risk, and granted Burton total creative autonomy. Burton also refused a salary, and was not paid for his work on ''Ed Wood''. Principal photography began in August 1993, and lasted 72 days.

Historical inaccuracies[link]

When describing historical inaccuracies, Burton explained, "it's not like a completely hardcore realistic biopic. In doing a biopic you can't help but get inside the person's spirit a little bit, so for me, some of the film is trying to be through Ed a little bit. So it's got an overly optimistic quality to it." Burton acknowledged that he probably portrayed Wood and his crew in an exaggeratedly sympathetic way, stating he did not want to ridicule people who had already been ridiculed for a good deal of their life. Burton decided not to depict the darker side of Wood's life because his letters never alluded to this aspect and remained upbeat. To this end, Burton wanted to make the film through Wood's eyes. He said in an interview, "I've never seen anything like them, the kind of bad poetry and redundancy– saying in, like, five sentences what it would take most normal people one [...] Yet still there is a sincerity to them that is very unusual, and I always found that somewhat touching; it gives them a surreal, weirdly heartfelt feeling."

The scenes of Bela Lugosi used for ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' were not filmed outside his own house, as the film depicts. They were, in fact, filmed outside Tor Johnson's house. Additionally, Lugosi was not prone to fits of swearing, particularly in front of women and did not perform his own water stunt in ''Bride of the Monster''. Lugosi is also depicted as dying alone and miserable. Lugosi's wife of twenty years, Lillian, did leave him in 1953, but he remarried in 1955 to Hope Lininger. They were together until his death a year later. This, plus any reference to Lugosi's teenage son, Bela G. Lugosi, were omitted.

Burton biographer Ken Hanke criticized the depiction of Dolores Fuller. "The real Fuller is a lively, savvy, humorous woman," Hanke said, "while Parker's performance presents her as a kind of sitcom moron for the first part of the film and a rather judgmental and wholly unpleasant character in her later scenes." During her years with Wood, Fuller had regular TV jobs on ''Queen for a Day'' and ''The Dinah Shore Show'', which are not mentioned. Fuller criticized Parker's portrayal and Burton's direction, but still gave ''Ed Wood'' a positive review. "Despite the dramatic liberties, I think Tim Burton is fabulous. I wished they could have made it a deeper love story, because we really loved each other. We strove to find investors together, I worked so hard to support Ed and I."

Release[link]

''Ed Wood'' had its premiere at the 32nd New York Film Festival at the Lincoln Center. The film was then shown shortly after at the 21st Telluride Film Festival and later at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, where it was in competition for the Palme d'Or.

Box office[link]

''Ed Wood'' had its limited release on September 30, 1994. When the film went into wide release on October 7, 1994 in 623 theaters, ''Ed Wood'' grossed $1,903,768 in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $5,887,457 domestically,

Reviews[link]

Despite the film's low box office gross, ''Ed Wood'' went on to receive critical acclaim. Based on 57 reviews collected by ''Rotten Tomatoes'', 91% of the critics enjoyed ''Ed Wood'', with an average score of 7.9/10. By comparison, ''Metacritic'' collected an average score of 70/100, based on 19 reviews. Roger Ebert gave a largely positive review: "What Burton has made is a film which celebrates Wood more than it mocks him, and which celebrates, too, the zany spirit of 1950s exploitation films, in which a great title, a has-been star and a lurid ad campaign were enough to get bookings for some of the oddest films ever made." Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' presented Burton's decision with positive feedback on not making a direct satire or parody of Wood's life. "Ed Wood is Burton's most personal and provocative movie to date," he wrote. "Outrageously disjointed and just as outrageously entertaining, the picture stands as a successful outsider's tribute to a failed kindred spirit."

Janet Maslin, writing in ''The New York Times'', thought Johnny Depp "proved" himself as an established "certified great actor". "Depp captures all the can-do optimism that kept Ed Wood going, thanks to an extremely funny ability to look at the silver lining of any cloud." Todd McCarthy from ''Variety'' called ''Ed Wood'' a "a fanciful, sweet-tempered biopic about the man often described as the worst film director of all time. Always engaging to watch and often dazzling in its imagination and technique, picture is also a bit distended, and lacking in weight at its center. The result is beguiling rather than thrilling." Richard Corliss, writing in ''Time'' magazine, gave a negative review. "The script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski posits Wood as a classic American optimist, a Capraesque hero with little to be optimistic about, since he was also a classic American loser. That's a fine start, but the film then marches in staid chronological order." Corliss continued, "One wonders why this Burton film is so dishwatery, why it lacks the cartoon zest and outsider ache of ''Beetlejuice'', ''Edward Scissorhands'' or ''Batman Returns''."

Awards[link]

''Ed Wood'' was nominated for three Golden Globes: Best Musical or Comedy, Johnny Depp for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and Martin Landau for Best Supporting Actor. Landau won in his category. Landau and Rick Baker won Academy Awards for their work on the film. Landau also won Best Supporting Actor at the first Screen Actors Guild Awards. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski were nominated for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen by the Writers Guild of America, which was a surprise as few predicted that it would be considered.

Home media[link]

The DVD edition of ''Ed Wood'' initially had difficulty reaching store shelves in North America due to unspecified legal issues. The initial release had a featurette on transvestites — not relating to the film or its actors in any way — which was removed from subsequent releases. An initial street date of August 13, 2002 was announced only to be postponed. A new date of February 3, 2003 was set, only for it to be recalled again without explanation, although some copies quickly found their way to collectors' venues such as eBay. The DVD was finally released on October 19, 2004.

References[link]

External links[link]

Category:1990s comedy-drama films Category:1994 films Category:American biographical films Category:American comedy-drama films Category:Biographical films Category:Black-and-white films Category:Cross-dressing in film Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Tim Burton Category:Films about actors Category:Films about film directors and producers Category:Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winning performance Category:Films set in Los Angeles, California Category:Films set in the 1950s Category:Films that won the Academy Award for Best Makeup Category:Touchstone Pictures films Category:American LGBT-related films

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Name	Ed Wood
Birth name	Edward Davis Wood, Jr.
Birth date	October 10, 1924
Birth place	Poughkeepsie, New York, United States
Death date	December 10, 1978
Death place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active	1947–1978
Death cause	Heart attack
Spouse
Occupation	Screenwriter, film director, film producer, actor, author, and editor
Children	Kathleen Emily Wood
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch	United States Marine Corps
Birth place	Poughkeepsie, New York
Death place	Los Angeles, California
Serviceyears	1942–1946
Battles	World War II: Guadalcanal Campaign Battle of Tarawa }}

}}

Edward Davis "Ed" Wood, Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, actor, author, and editor, who often performed many of these functions simultaneously. In the 1950s, Wood made a number of low-budget genre films, now notable for their technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, large amounts of ill-fitting stock footage, idiosyncratic dialogue, eccentric casts and outlandish plot elements, although his flair for showmanship gave his projects at least a modicum of critical success.

Wood's popularity waned soon after his biggest name star Bela Lugosi died (in August 1956). He was able to salvage a saleable feature from Lugosi's last moments on film, but his career declined thereafter. Toward the end of his life, Wood made pornographic movies and wrote pulp crime, horror, and sex novels. His infamy began two years after his death, when he was awarded a Golden Turkey Award as Worst Director of All Time. The lack of filmmaking ability in his work has earned Wood and his films a considerable cult following.

Following the publication of Rudolph Grey's biography ''Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr.'' (1992), Wood's life and work have undergone a public rehabilitation of sorts, with new light shed on his evident zeal and honest love of movies and movie production. Tim Burton's biopic of the director's life, ''Ed Wood'', earned two Academy Awards.

Early years[link]

Wood's father, Edward Sr., worked for the Postal Service and his family relocated numerous times around the United States. Eventually, they settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, where Ed Wood, Jr. was born.

During his childhood, Wood was interested in the performing arts and pulp fiction. He collected comics and pulp magazines, and adored movies, most notably Westerns, and anything involving the occult. He would often skip school in favor of watching pictures at the local movie theater, where stills from the day's movie would often be thrown in the trash by theater staff, allowing Wood to salvage them to add to his extensive collection.

It is believed that Wood's mother, Lillian, always wanted a girl and would sometimes, until he was about 12 years old, dress her son in skirts and dresses. For the rest of his life, Wood was a heterosexual crossdresser.

On his 12th birthday, Wood received his first movie camera, a Kodak "Cine Special". One of his first pieces of footage, and one that imbued him with pride, was the airship ''Hindenburg'' passing over the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, shortly before its famous fiery demise at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

One of his first paid jobs was as a cinema usher, and he also sang and played drums in a band. He later fronted a singing quartet called Eddie Wood's Little Splinters, having learned to play a variety of string instruments.

Wood enlisted in the Marines at age 17, just months after the Attack on Pearl Harbor. He served from 1942–46 and claimed that he had participated in the Battle of Guadalcanal while secretly wearing a brassiere and panties beneath his uniform.

Fascinated by the exotic and bizarre, Wood joined a carnival following his discharge from the Marines. His several missing teeth and disfigured leg (wounds suffered while in combat) combined with personal fetishes and acting skills made him a perfect candidate for the freak show. Wood played, among others, the geek and the bearded lady. As the bearded lady, he donned women's clothing and created his own prosthetic breasts. Carnivals would be frequently depicted in Wood's works, most notably the semi-autobiographical novel ''Killer in Drag''.

Wood's other habits included soft drugs, alcohol, and sex. He was a womanizer in his younger days, but in later life he was faithful to his girlfriends (most notably Dolores Fuller) and wife (Kathy O'Hara). Wood had one child, a daughter named Kathleen Emily Wood.

Wood's first wife, Norma McCarty, kicked him out of their house not long after they were married. McCarty had a son, Michael ("Mac"), from a relationship prior to Wood.

Movies[link]

:''For a list of films involving Ed Wood, see Ed Wood Jr. filmography.''

thumb|Ed Wood clad in wig and angora sweater for ''Glen or Glenda'' (1953)About his films, Wood is quoted as stating,

Wood's film career began after moving to Hollywood in 1947. He wrote scripts and directed television pilots, commercials, and several forgotten micro-budget westerns with names such as ''Crossroads of Laredo'' and ''Crossroad Avenger: The Legend of the Tucson Kid''. Wood wrote, produced, directed, and starred in ''Casual Company'', a play from his unpublished novel which was based on his service in the United States Marine Corps. The play opened at the Village Playhouse in Hollywood to disastrous reviews on October 25, 1948.

''Glen or Glenda''[link]

Wood's big break came in 1953 when he was hired by producer George Weiss to make an exploitation film, ''I Changed My Sex'', based on the life of transsexual Christine Jorgensen. After Jorgensen refused to collaborate on the film, Wood wrote a new autobiographical screenplay titled ''Glen or Glenda'', a sincere and sympathetic study of transvestism. Wood directed and, using the alias Daniel Davis, played the titular character who has a fetish for cross-dressing and angora sweaters.

Angora was regularly featured in his films. His wife Kathy O'Hara and others recall that Wood's transvestism was not a sexual inclination, but rather a neomaternal comfort derived mainly from angora fabric (''Ann Gora'' also happened to be one of Wood's pen names). The medical experts in the film go to great lengths to stress that the transvestite is a perfectly normal heterosexual man who simply feels more comfortable and "more himself" when wearing women's apparel. There is even a fantasy vignette showing Glenda rebuffing the advances of a homosexual man. Even in his later years, Wood was not shy about going out in public dressed in drag as Shirley, his alter ego—female characters named Shirley also appear in many of his screenplays and stories.

Most of Wood's films have a rushed quality due to the tight shooting schedule and limited budgets. While most directors film around one to ten scenes per day, Wood might complete up to thirty scenes. He seldom ordered a retake, even if the original was obviously flawed. ''Glen or Glenda'', shot in just four days for $26,000, was done in a semi-documentary style. Narration and voice-over dialog was added to generous amounts of film-library stock footage (a cost-saving trick he used in his later films). The love-interest role of Barbara was played by Wood's real-life girlfriend, Dolores Fuller. She went on to appear in his next two films. Bela Lugosi, who was not told the film was about a transvestite, was paid $1,000 in cash for one day of filming. In a dark haunted-house set, speaking in metaphors and nursery rhymes, he played a portentous, omnipotent narrator.

The centerpiece of the film is a 15-minute fantasy sequence that illustrates Glen's tormented state of mind. Wood utilizes a barrage of surreal, dream-like vignettes with personalized symbolism. Producer George Weiss also inserted footage of flagellation and bondage, reminiscent of the fetish films of Irving Klaw, from another production. In this sequence, Barbara is pinned beneath a large tree (in her living room), and Glen rescues her; they are married with the Devil acting as best man; a shirtless man vigorously flogs a woman reclining on a couch; lewd burlesque dancers gyrate to blaring jazz music and tear at their clothes; a woman gagged and bound to a yoke-like pole is untied by another gagged woman; a lust-crazed man roughly assaults a seductress in a flimsy negligee; an enraged Glenda rips Barbara's blouse to shreds after she laughs at his appearance. Bela Lugosi appears in several scenes also rejecting Glenda and repeating the phrase "snips and snails and puppy-dog tails". The film was released under several regional titles such as ''Transvestite'', ''I Led Two Lives'', and ''He or She?''.

Middle years: ''Jail Bait'' and ''Bride of the Monster''[link]

Wood's next project was a proposed TV series called ''Dr. Acula'', to star Lugosi as an investigator into the supernatural. When this fell through, he directed and produced the low-budget film ''Jail Bait'' (1954), a 1930s-style gangster film with a twist ending à la ''The Twilight Zone.'' Originally called ''The Hidden Face'', the title was inexplicably changed to ''Jail Bait'', from an offhand reference in the script to an illegal hand gun. Wood also co-wrote the screenplay with writer-producer friend Alex Gordon. It was Gordon who introduced Wood to Bela Lugosi in 1952. (Gordon soon went on to help create American International Pictures.) Lugosi was originally cast as the father of the lead character, but dropped out due to illness. Around this time, Wood became friends with a group of B-movie actors who became part of his entourage and stock company, appearing in most of his later films. These included Kenne Duncan, Lyle Talbot, Conrad Brooks, Duke Moore, Timothy Farrell, Swedish professional wrestler Tor Johnson, pin-up model and TV horror hostess Maila Nurmi (aka Vampira), gay socialite Bunny Breckinridge, and psychic Criswell.

In 1955, he produced and directed his first horror film, ''Bride of the Monster'' (originally titled ''Bride of the Atom''). Although Wood took most of the writing credit, the original story, ''The Atomic Monster,'' was written by Alex Gordon. Wood contributed about half the dialogue, according to Gordon (in ''Starlog,'' November 1994). Bela Lugosi, in his last speaking role, stars as a mad scientist bent on creating an army of atomic supermen. 400-pound Tor Johnson plays Lobo, his lumbering henchman. Billy Benedict of The Bowery Boys has a walk-on role as a newspaper seller. The female lead, Loretta King, wears the same angora hat worn by Wood in ''Glen or Glenda''.

The style and content of the film is highly reminiscent of the low-budget horror films Lugosi made for Monogram Pictures in the 1940s, particularly ''The Corpse Vanishes''. Wood's script even recreates a laboratory scene from that film (Lugosi's mad scientist flogging his henchman) with the same fake, painted stone wall backdrop. Budget-saving film library footage of lightning, explosions, a nuclear blast, and a giant "atomic" octopus was also inserted. In one scene the hero, trapped in quicksand, is menaced by an obvious stock footage alligator. Contrary to what's seen in ''Ed Wood'', Lugosi's stunt double was reduced to thrashing about in the mud with a large rubber octopus when the motor needed to turn it into a flailing beast could not be located (Burton's film implies that Lugosi himself performed the stunt, however the performer playing Varnoff in this scene is clearly not Lugosi). Allegedly, the octopus's motor was left behind when Wood and the crew stole the octopus from a Warner Bros. prop warehouse.

''Plan 9 from Outer Space''[link]

In 1956, Wood planned to follow ''Bride of the Monster'' with ''The Ghoul Goes West'' (a.k.a. ''The Phantom Ghoul''), which would have been a combination of his two favorite genres: Horror and Westerns. The story was mainly a rehash of ''Bride of the Monster'' in a western setting (a synopsis of the screenplay was published in ''Filmfax'' no. 18, December/January 1989–90). Lugosi, recently out of rehab for morphine addiction, was to star as the undertaker/mad scientist. Gene Autry and Lon Chaney, Jr. were also attached to the project for a time. Wood could only raise enough money to shoot one day's worth of silent test footage. A few random scenes were filmed of Lugosi at a funeral, in front of Tor Johnson's house, and stalking about in his Dracula costume (possibly intended for ''The Vampire's Tomb'', another unrealized film). The scenes were filmed to show to prospective financial backers. Lugosi died soon afterward on August 16 and the footage became the seed for Wood's next project.

''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' incorporated the final Lugosi scenes into a new story that combined horror and science fiction. Wood's chiropractor, his face hidden behind a cape, doubled for Lugosi in several scenes. Tor Johnson and wasp-waisted Vampira (Maila Nurmi) are memorable, even iconic, as zombies risen from the grave by alien invaders. The film was shot over a five-day period in November 1956 on a budget of around $20,000. All of Nurmi's scenes were filmed in just two hours (she was paid the union minimum wage of $200). Resorting again to the "docu-fantasy" approach, Criswell, the flamboyantly inaccurate TV psychic, acts as on-screen host and narrator. He cryptically describes the story as "something more than a fact". Cost-free stock footage of airliners, explosions and fighter jets were edited in. The flying saucers (made from plastic toy store models) are fired upon by an artillery barrage taken from World War II newsreels. Although completed in 1956, the film was not released until 1959, due to the inability of the producer to secure distribution.

Most notably, for ''Plan 9'' he convinced members of churches of the Southern Baptist Convention (through his landlord at the time) to invest the initial capital, allegedly convincing them that a successful science fiction picture would make enough money to fund their own pet project of 12 movies about the 12 Apostles. They reportedly changed the name of the movie from ''Grave Robbers from Outer Space'' and removed lines from the script which they considered profane; one source alleges they required the actors to accept their church's baptism as part of the deal. The grave-diggers in the picture are the two primary backers. Wood's frequently being overruled by producers and financiers was one factor contributing to his depression and was something he personally blamed for his lack of commercial success.

Wood had planned to make another posthumous Lugosi collaboration to be called ''Ghouls of the Moon'' using additional unseen footage he had of Lugosi. Described as "wild stuff" by one of Wood's friends, the material was found to have deteriorated beyond usage when Wood opened the film can it was stored in. Thus the project was cancelled, with Wood moving on to ''Night of the Ghouls'' instead.

Later years: ''The Violent Years'' and ''Night of the Ghouls''[link]

Also in 1956, Wood's ''Teenage Girl Gang'' script was produced as ''The Violent Years'', an exploitation film about a gang of juvenile delinquent high school girls. Directed by William M. Morgan, it starred first-time actress Jean Moorhead, a former ''Playboy'' Miss October 1955 centerfold model. The film is notable for its unusual girls-gone-bad premise and risqué abduction scene where a girl is bound and gagged with strips of her shredded dress while her boyfriend is sexually assaulted (off-camera) by the lusty girl gang. This foreshadows Wood's fearless, anything-goes attitude seen in his later, racier novels and films, as well as a demonstration of his life-long inability to see when he was being totaly ridiculous.

In 1958, Wood's screenplay ''Queen of the Gorillas'' was released as ''The Bride and the Beast'', a fantasy tale about a gorilla reincarnated in the body of a beautiful woman. That same year Wood wrote, produced, and directed ''Night of the Ghouls'' (original title: ''Revenge of the Dead''), an "old dark house" tale about a fake medium and evil spirits. The setting is the rebuilt house on Willows Lake that burned down in ''Bride of the Monster''. There are frequent references to the mad scientist (Lugosi) and monster from the previous film, and Tor Johnson reprises his Lobo role, his face now half-destroyed from the fire. Paul Marco makes his third appearance as Kelton, the cowardly, inept policeman. Criswell, billed as himself, returns as host and narrator, rising from his coffin to introduce this tale of "Monsters to be pitied. Monsters to be despised!" (Tim Burton's ''Ed Wood'' biopic opens with a faithful recreation of this scene.) Criswell also plays a character role as one of the vengeful ghosts seen at the climax of the film.

In one of the early scenes, a girl (wearing an angora sweater) and her boyfriend are attacked by the Black Ghost. Wood, his face hidden by a dark veil, doubles for the female ghoul in several shots. A fight scene from the unfinished ''Hellborn'' was edited in (more scenes from that project appeared in ''The Sinister Urge''). Most of Lieutenant Bradford's exploration of Dr. Acula's house was lifted from Wood's short film ''Final Curtain'' and given a voice-over by Criswell to integrate it into the current story. A publicity photo of Wood is seen on a wanted poster on the wall of the police station. The finale, with the ghouls reduced to skeletons and Criswell's epilogue, were used again in 1965 for ''Orgy of the Dead''. For decades this remained a lost film that was never released to theaters. Wood lacked the funds to pay the film processing fees, so it languished in limbo until it was finally released on video in 1983.

Final years: scriptwriting and adult films[link]

Wood wrote and directed ''The Sinister Urge'' from his ''Racket Queen'' script. Released in December 1960, this lurid exposé on the "smut picture racket" purports to warn against the dangers of pornography. The story concerns a police manhunt for a sex maniac psycho-killer. The police are played by Wood regulars Kenne Duncan, Duke Moore, and Carl Anthony. Filmed in five days, this is the last mainstream film Wood directed, although it has grindhouse elements. Ironically, his career would soon spiral downward into a blur of "smut racket" nudie flicks, softcore pornography, and end with X-rated novels and films. The scenes of teenagers at a pizza place were shot in 1956 for the unfinished juvenile-delinquency film ''Rock and Roll Hell'' (a.k.a. ''Hellborn''). This includes a fight scene performed by Ed Wood himself (uncredited) and Conrad Brooks.

In 1963, he wrote the screenplay for ''Shotgun Wedding'', an exploitation film about hillbillies marrying child brides. Wood's transitional film, once again combining two genres, horror and grindhouse skin-flick, was ''Orgy of the Dead'' (1965). Wood wrote the screenplay, originally called ''Nudie Ghoulies'', and handled various production details while Stephen C. Apostolof directed under the pseudonym ''A.C. Stephen''. The film begins with a re-creation of the opening scene from the then unreleased ''Night of the Ghouls''. Criswell, wearing one of Lugosi's old capes, rises from his coffin to deliver an introduction taken almost word-for-word from the previous film. Set in a misty graveyard, the Lord of the Dead (Criswell) and his sexy consort, The Black Ghoul (a Vampira lookalike) preside over a series of macabre performances by topless dancers from beyond the grave (recruited by Wood from local strip clubs). Together, Wood and Apostolof went on to make a string of sexploitation flicks up to 1977. Wood co-wrote the screenplays and occasionally acted. ''Venus Flytrap'' (1970), a US/Japan horror film, was based on an unproduced screenplay of Wood's from the 1950s.

His remaining output until his death in 1978 was confined to writing lurid crime and sex novels, often featuring girl gangs and transvestites, and a dozen obscure, low-budget adult films, some with an occult theme. Titles include ''The Photographer'' (1969), ''Take It Out in Trade'' (1970), ''The Only House in Town'' (1970), with Uschi Digard, ''Necromania'' (1971), ''The Undergraduate'' (1972), and ''Fugitive Girls'' (1974). As told in ''Nightmare of Ecstasy'', Maila Nurmi declined Wood's offer to do a nude scene sitting up in a coffin for ''Necromania''.

Wood as an author[link]

Beginning in the early 1960s, Wood supplemented his directing and screenwriting income with hastily-written pulp fiction, including innumerable pulp crime, horror, and sex novels and occasional non-fiction pieces. As he became increasingly unable to fund film projects, the novels seem to have become Wood's primary source of income.

Wood's novels frequently include transvestite or drag queen characters, or entire plots centering around transvestism (including his angora fetish), and tap into his love of crime fiction and the occult. Wood would often recycle plots of his films for novels, write novelizations of his own screenplays, or reuse elements from his novels in scripts. His first novel, ''Black Lace Drag'' was published in 1963 and reissued in 1965 as ''Killer in Drag''. Among his other books are ''Orgy of the Dead'' (1965), ''Devil Girls'' (1967), ''Death of a Transvestite'' (1967), ''The Sexecutives'' (1968) and ''A Study of Fetishes and Fantasies'' (1973).

From 1963 until his death in December 1978, Wood wrote at least 80 novels in addition to hundreds of short stories and non-fiction pieces for magazines.

In a December 2010 published article at Mondo Film & Video Guide, indie print publisher Feral House, who in the last few years had re-printed dozens of Wood's novels, ended sales on all Wood titles. Feral House informed the online film magazine, that the estate of Ed Wood had requested a cease and desist, due to uncertainty about whether Wood might not have written all the novels published under his name.

''Hollywood Rat Race''[link]

Descriptions of Wood's working methods in ''Nightmare of Ecstasy'' indicate he would work on a dozen projects at once, simultaneously watching television, eating, drinking, and carrying on conversations while typing. In his quasi-memoir, ''Hollywood Rat Race'', Wood advises new writers to "just keep on writing. Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better". But mostly the book concerns the pitfalls of Hollywood, and has advice for those dreaming of making it in Hollywood. Wood does not candy coat the experience that a first-timer in the movie business will discover. He also devotes time in ''Hollywood Rat Race'' to making the reader wary of beauty pageant and modelling scams and con games, both in Hollywood and the world over.

As Wood's most famous films of the 1950s are not explicitly sexual or violent, the ''outré'' content of his novels may shock the unprepared reader even more than the remakably inept writing. Wood's dark side emerges in such sexual shockers as ''Raped in the Grass'' or ''The Perverts'' and in short stories such as ''Toni: Black Tigress'', which exploit hot-button topics such as violence, rape, racial issues, juvenile delinquency and drug culture.

Unpublished[link]

Some of Wood's books remained unpublished during his lifetime. ''Hollywood Rat Race'', for example, was written in the 1960s, and finished in 1965, but was not finally published until 1998. The non-fiction book is part-primer for young actors and filmmakers, and part-memoir. In ''Hollywood Rat Race'', Wood recounts tales of dubious authenticity, such as how he and Bela Lugosi entered the world of nightclub cabaret.

Later years and death[link]

Wood had serious financial difficulties in his final years, often producing full movie scripts for as little as $100 in order to make ends meet. His career as a director had degenerated into making pornographic films such as ''Take It Out in Trade'' (1970), a softcore take on Philip Marlowe detective films, and ''Necromania'' (1971).

Wood also made occasional appearances as an actor, appearing in two films produced by a Marine buddy, Joseph F. Robertson. ''Love Feast'' (1969), also known as ''Pretty Models All in a Row'', was his first lead role in a film since 1953's ''Glen or Glenda'', as a photographer using his position to engage in sexual antics with professional models. He had a smaller role in Robertson's ode to swinger parties, ''Mrs. Stone's Thing''. Wood appeared as a transvestite who spends his time at a party trying on lingerie in a bedroom. In Rudolph Grey's ''Nightmare of Ecstasy'', Robertson makes a reference to Wood reappearing in a film called ''Misty'', of which no other record remains.

His primary film work in the 1970s was working with friend Stephen C. Apostolof, usually cowriting scripts, but also serving as an assistant director and associate producer. His last known on-screen appearance was in Apostolof's ''Fugitive Girls'' (aka ''Five Loose Women''), where he played a dual cameo as a gas station attendant called Pops and as the sheriff on the women's trail.

Wood's depression worsened, and with it a serious drinking problem. Evicted from his Hollywood apartment on Yucca Street, Wood and his wife moved into the North Hollywood apartment of friend Peter Coe. On December 10, 1978, only days after the move, 54-year-old Edward D. Wood, Jr., died of a heart attack while watching a football game alone in Coe's bedroom. In ''Nightmare of Ecstasy'', it was reported Wood yelled out "Kathy, I can't breathe!", a plea his wife in the living room ignored for 90 minutes before finally going in to find him dead; apparently, he frequently feigned heart attacks and screamed for help as a way of teasing her, and at one point she even shouted at him to shut up.

Wood was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. Wood's wife Kathy died on June 26, 2006, having never remarried.

Legacy[link]

Among connoisseurs of kitsch and bad cinema, Edward Wood Jr. is revered as one of the ultimate ''bad'' directors of all time for a variety of reasons. His cult status began two years after his death with his recognition in the Michael and Harry Medved book ''The Golden Turkey Awards'', and has continued with the rediscovery of many of his long-lost works. In an essay paying homage to Wood in ''Incredibly Strange Films'', Jim Morton writes: "Eccentric and individualistic, Edward D Wood Jr was a man born to film. Lesser men, if forced to make movies under the conditions Wood faced, would have thrown up their hands in defeat."

The University of Southern California holds an annual ''Ed Wood Film Festival'', in which students of all disciplines are challenged to form teams to write, film and edit an Ed Wood-inspired short film based on a preassigned theme. Past themes have included ''Slippery When Wet'' (2006), ''What's That in Your Pocket?'' (2005), and ''Rebel Without a Bra'' (2004). 2007 saw a break in this tradition when the theme ''My eyes are killing me'' was accompanied by a theme object: a mirror.

Some of Wood's most famous films, including ''Glen or Glenda'' and ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' have been remade as pornographic movies (as ''Glen & Glenda'' and ''Plan 69 from Outer Space'', respectively). They were not simply spoofed or referenced, but reshot, with the same or similar script, and sex scenes worked into the original plots.

In 1998, Wood's previously unfilmed script ''I Woke Up Early the Day I Died'' was finally produced, starring Billy Zane and Christina Ricci, and has preserved the inept, goofy character that made Wood's films famous. Outside of a brief New York theatrical engagement, the film did not receive a commercial release in the United States, and was only available on video in Germany due to contractual difficulties.

Three of his films (''Bride of the Monster'', ''The Violent Years'', and ''The Sinister Urge'') have been featured on the television series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'', which has given those works wider exposure. Producers considered including ''Plan 9'', but found it had too much dialogue for the show's format. Series head writer and host Michael J. Nelson recorded an audio commentary for a 2005/2006 DVD release of the film, which was newly colorized.

Reverend Steve Galindo of Seminole, Oklahoma, created a legally recognized religion in 1996 with Wood as its official savior. Originally founded as a joke, the Church of Ed Wood now boasts over 3,500 baptized followers. Woodites, as Steve's followers are called, celebrate Woodmas on October 10, which is Ed's birthday. Numerous parties and concerts are held worldwide to celebrate Woodmas. On October 4–5, 2003, horror host Mr. Lobo was canonized as the "Patron Saint of late night movie hosts and insomniacs" in the Church of Ed Wood. Most documents and interviews with other Wood associates in ''Nightmare of Ecstasy'' suggest that Wood and Lugosi were genuine friends and that Wood helped Lugosi through the worst days of his depression and addiction.

The 1994 film ''Ed Wood'', by director Tim Burton, tells the story of Wood and Lugosi and the making of their three films (''Glen or Glenda'', ''Bride of the Monster'', and ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'') from a sympathetic point of view. Wood was played by Johnny Depp and Lugosi by Martin Landau, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film also won an Academy Award for Best Makeup for Rick Baker. Burton's successes for previous studios such as Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox were at odds with his insistence on shooting the Wood film in black-and-white, and the studios turned it down as a probable box office failure. Eager to embrace Burton, Disney accepted the project, monochrome and all. As others had anticipated, the film received mass critical acclaim, but did poorly at the box office. It has since developed a cult following.

Documentaries[link]

''Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion'', was released in 1992. This exhaustive two-hour documentary by Mark Carducci chronicles the making of ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' and features interviews with Maila Nurmi (Vampira), Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, et al. In 2000, Image Entertainment included the documentary on the DVD reissue of ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' (in a two-disc set with ''Robot Monster'').

''Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora'', released in 1994 by Rhino Home Video, is a one-hour documentary on Wood's life and films. This includes rare outtakes and interviews with Dolores Fuller, Kathy Wood, Stephen Apostolof, and Conrad Brooks. Gary Owens narrates; Ted Newsom wrote and directed.

''The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr.'', written and directed by Brett Thompson, came out in 1995. This documentary about the life and films of Ed Wood features interviews with Wood's friends and co-workers and closely resembles Wood's own style, albeit with slightly better miniatures.

''The Incredibly Strange Film Show'' presented by ''Jonathan Ross''.

Lost films[link]

Wood's 1972 film ''The Undergraduate'' is considered to be a lost film, along with his 1970 film ''Take It Out in Trade'', which exists only in outtakes without sound (released by Something Weird Video). Wood's 1971 film ''Necromania'' was believed lost for years until an edited version resurfaced at a yard sale in 1992, followed by a complete unedited print in 2001. A complete print of the previously lost Wood pornographic film ''The Young Marrieds'' was discovered in 2004.

Collaborations[link]

Acting[link]

!	Glen or Glenda>Glen orGlenda''	! ''CrossroadAvenger''	Jail Bait (1954 film)>Jail Bait''	Bride of the Monster>Bride ofthe Monster''	! ''FinalCurtain''	Plan 9 from Outer Space>Plan 9 fromOuter Space''	Night of the Ghouls>Night ofthe Ghouls''	The Sinister Urge (film)>TheSinisterUrge''	Take It Out in Trade>Take It Outin Trade''	! ''Necromania''	! ''Crossroadsof Laredo''
Carl Anthony
Conrad Brooks
Kenne Duncan
Harvey B. Dunn
Timothy Farrell
Dolores Fuller
Tor Johnson
Bela Lugosi
Paul Marco
Tom Mason
Duke Moore
Bud Osborne
Lyle Talbot
Ed Wood

Other[link]

William C. Thompson was Wood's cinematographer for all but ''Take it Out in Trade''.

Frank Worth composed music for ''Bride of the Monster'' and ''Plan 9 from Outer Space''.

See also[link]

B movie

''Ed Wood'', a biopic on Wood's life

Edward D. Wood, Jr. bibliography

Edward D. Wood, Jr. filmography

List of films considered the worst

Z movie

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Rudolph Grey, ''Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr.'', Feral House, 1992, ISBN 978-0-922915-04-0; reprinted 1994, ISBN 978-0-922915-24-8

Rob Conway, ''Ed Wood, Mad Genius: A Critical Study of the Films'', McFarland, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7864-3955-3

External links[link]

The Hunt for Edward D. Wood, Jr. Exhaustive guide to Ed's films and their commercial releases.

A good website for him

Ed Wood, Jr.'s magazine work (Caution: Adult images)

Ed Wood: A Neighbor on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

The Church of Ed Wood

Ed Wood's lost TV pilot, "Final Curtain"

Category:Actors from New York Category:American writers Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film editors Category:American film producers Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American screenwriters Category:Cross-dressers Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:People from Dutchess County, New York Category:United States Marines Category:1924 births Category:1978 deaths

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birth date	April 08, 1968
birth name	Patricia T. Arquette
birth place	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
spouse
occupation	Actress
years active	1987–present }}

Patricia T. Arquette (born April 8, 1968) is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series ''Medium'' for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Early life and family[link]

Arquette was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Lewis Arquette, an actor, and Brenda "Mardi" Olivia (née Nowak), an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher and therapist. Arquette's mother was Jewish, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor from Poland, and Arquette's father was a convert to Islam and related to explorer Meriwether Lewis. Her paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette, and her siblings are actors Rosanna, Alexis, Richmond and David Arquette.

Arquette was raised in Virginia and California.

Career[link]

In 1987, Arquette's first starring roles were as pregnant teenager Stacy in television film ''Daddy'', boarding school student Zero in ''Pretty Smart'', and the attention-getting Kristen Parker in ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors''. In 1991, she won a CableACE Award for her portrayal of a deaf epileptic in ''Wildflower''. In 1993, she starred in Tony Scott's ''True Romance''. She has since appeared in such critically acclaimed movies as ''Ed Wood'' as the "worst ever" film director's eventual wife, ''Beyond Rangoon'', ''Ethan Frome'', ''Lost Highway'', ''Little Nicky'', ''Stigmata'', ''Bringing Out the Dead'', ''Human Nature'', Disney's ''Holes'', and ''Flirting with Disaster''.

In January 2005, she began starring in her first television series, NBC's ''Medium''. Her role as (a fictionalized version of) psychic medium Allison DuBois won her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2005, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe in 2005, 2006 and 2007, a SAG Award in 2006 and 2010, and an Emmy Award in 2007. In 2009 NBC cancelled ''Medium'', then CBS picked the show up and it lasted another two seasons. By 2011 she was earning $225,000 per episode for the series. Arquette played the role of Allison DuBois until 2011 when CBS cancelled the series. The final episode of ''Medium'' aired on January 21, 2011.

Personal life[link]

In April 1995, Arquette married Nicolas Cage (with whom she would later co-star in ''Bringing Out the Dead'' in 1999). They separated after nine months, but acted as a couple in public until Cage filed for divorce in February 2000. The divorce petition was withdrawn, but Arquette filed again in November 2000.

Arquette has a son, Enzo (born January 3, 1989), with musician Paul Rossi.

Arquette and actor Thomas Jane became engaged in 2002. Their daughter Harlow Olivia Calliope was born on February 20, 2003. Arquette and Jane subsequently married on June 25, 2006 at the Palazzo Contarini in Venice, Italy. In January 2009, Arquette filed for divorce from Jane on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, but the couple soon reconciled and Arquette requested to abandon the divorce petition on July 9, 2009. However, on August 13, 2010, Jane's representative announced that Arquette and Jane had decided to proceed with a divorce due to “irreconcilable differences”. The divorce was finalized on July 1, 2011. The pair were granted joint custody of their child.

Charity work[link]

After the Haiti earthquake in 2010, Arquette and childhood friend Rosetta Millington-Getty formed GiveLove, a non-profit organization supporting ecological sanitation and composting, community development projects and housing construction in Haiti. She has also worked with Eracism Foundation, Libby Ross Foundation, The Art of Elysium, and The Heart Truth. Most recently, she is doing a commercial for ABC on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for homeless dogs and cats.

In 1997, after her mother died of breast cancer, Arquette worked to raise awareness about the disease. She has run in the annual Race for the Cure, and in 1999 was the spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. In April 2010, she teamed-up with welding students of the Robert Morgan Educational Center, in Miami, Florida, to build shelters in earthquake-ravaged Haiti from 20 used shipping containers.

Filmography[link]

Title

Year	|	Role	Notes
	''Daddy''	Stacy	Television film
''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors''
''Pretty Smart''	Zero
1988		Jilly
1990	''Prayer of the Rollerboys''	Casey
	''The Indian Runner''	Dorothy
	Alice
	''Trouble Bound''	Kit Clifton
''Inside Monkey Zetterland''	Grace Zetterland
	''True Romance''	Alabama Worley	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best ActressNominated — MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Christian Slater)
	Mattie Silver
		Kathy O'Hara
	Havana
1995	''Beyond Rangoon''	Laura Bowman
		Nancy
	Arline Greenbaum
		Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield
	Katherine
1998	''The Hi-Lo Country''	Mona Birk
	''Bringing Out the Dead''	Mary Burke
''Goodbye Lover''	Sandra Dunmore
	Frankie Paige
2000	''Little Nicky''	Valerie Veran	Nominated — Golden Raspberry Award
2001		Lila Jute
	''[[The Badge''	Scarlet
''Searching for Debra Winger''	Herself
	''Deeper Than Deep''	Linda Lovelace
''Tiptoes''	Lucy
	Miss Katherine/Kissin' Kate Barlow
	Cameo
2005–2011	''Medium (TV series)	[[Allison DuBois
2006		Cindy
	''Girl in Progress''	Ms. Armstrong
''Mystery White Boy''	Mary Guibert	In progress - filming to begin Summer 2012
2013		Mom

References[link]

External links[link]

Category:1968 births Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:American film actors Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:American television actors Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:Arquette family

an:Patricia Arquette da:Patricia Arquette de:Patricia Arquette et:Patricia Arquette es:Patricia Arquette eo:Patricia Arquette fa:پاتریشا آرکت fr:Patricia Arquette gl:Patricia Arquette ko:패트리샤 아켓 io:Patricia Arquette id:Patricia Arquette it:Patricia Arquette he:פטרישה ארקט ka:პატრიცია არკეტი hu:Patricia Arquette ms:Patricia Arquette nl:Patricia Arquette ja:パトリシア・アークエット no:Patricia Arquette oc:Patricia Arquette pl:Patricia Arquette pt:Patricia Arquette ro:Patricia Arquette ru:Аркетт, Патрисия simple:Patricia Arquette sh:Patricia Arquette fi:Patricia Arquette sv:Patricia Arquette tr:Patricia Arquette zh:帕特里夏·阿奎特

birth date	June 20, 1928
birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
occupation	Actor, producer
years active	1956–present
spouse	; divorced
children	Susan Landau,Juliet Landau }}

Martin Landau (born June 20, 1928) is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's ''North by Northwest'' (1959). He played continuing roles in the television series ''Mission: Impossible'' (for which he received several Emmy Award nominations) and ''Space:1999''. He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture and his first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in ''Tucker: The Man and His Dream'', and was nominated for an Oscar for his role in ''Crimes and Misdemeanors'' (1989). His performance in the supporting role of Bela Lugosi in ''Ed Wood'' (1994) earned him the Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe. He continues to perform in film and television and heads the Hollywood branch of the Actors Studio.

Early life[link]

Landau was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Selma and Morris Landau. His family was Jewish, and his father, an Austrian-born machinist, scrambled to rescue relatives from the Nazis. He attended James Madison High School and The Pratt Institute before finding full-time work as a cartoonist.

Career[link]

Cartoonist on ''The Gumps''[link]

At the age of 17, he began working as a cartoonist for the ''Daily News'', illustrating Billy Rose's "Pitching Horseshoes" column and assisting Gus Edson on ''The Gumps'' comic strip during the 1940s and 1950s, eventually drawing the Sunday strip for Edson. (Some sources have confused him with the comic book artist Kenneth Landau and incorrectly claim that Martin Landau drew for comic books using the name Ken Landau as a pseudonym.) When he was 22, he quit the ''Daily News'' job in order to concentrate on theater.

Films, theater and TV[link]

Influenced by Charlie Chaplin and the escapism of the cinema, he pursued an acting career. He attended the Actors Studio, became good friends with iconic actor James Dean, and later was in the same class with Steve McQueen. In 1957, Landau made his Broadway debut in ''Middle of the Night''. In 1959, Landau made his first major film appearance in Alfred Hitchcock's ''North by Northwest''.

Landau took the role of master of disguise Rollin Hand in ''Mission: Impossible,'' becoming one of the TV show's better-known stars. According to ''The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier,'' by Patrick J. White (Avon Books, 1991), Landau initially declined to be contracted to the show as he did not want it to interfere with his film career; instead, for the first season he was credited in "special guest appearances by" him. He became a "full-time" cast member with the second season, although the studio agreed to only contract him on a year-by-year basis rather than the then-standard five years. The role of Rollin Hand required Landau to perform a wide range of accents and characters from dictators to thugs, and several episodes saw Landau playing dual roles—not only Hand's impersonation but also the person Hand is impersonating. He co-starred in the series with his then wife, Barbara Bain.

In the mid-1970s, Landau and Bain, teamed with Barry Morse, returned to television in the British science fiction series, ''Space: 1999'', produced first by Gerry Anderson in partnership with Sylvia Anderson and then by Fred Freiberger. Although it remains a cult classic for its high production design values, the series was critically derided during its run and was cancelled after two seasons. Landau himself became very critical of the show's scripts and storylines, especially during its second season, but he praised the cast and crew. He wrote forewords for Barry Morse's 2006 theatrical memoir ''Remember with Advantages'' and for Jim Smith's critical biography of Tim Burton.

After ''Space: 1999,'' Landau appeared in supporting roles in a number of films and television shows of varying quality, including ''The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island,'' which again co-starred Bain. This was the last time the two acted together on screen, as of December 2007. In the late 1980s, Landau staged a major career comeback by winning an Academy Award nomination for his role in ''Tucker: The Man and His Dream''. He later received a second nomination for ''Crimes and Misdemeanors'' and won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his uncanny portrayal of Bela Lugosi in ''Ed Wood.'' Upon accepting the award, he was visibly frustrated by the orchestra's attempt to cut short his speech. When the music level rose, he pounded his fist on the podium and yelled "No!" He later stated that he had intended to thank Lugosi and dedicate the award to him and his frustration was that he did not get to mention the man whom he portrayed. Landau received a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe, and a Saturn Award for the role, as well as awards from several critics groups. When Landau won the Academy Award, a reporter for the ''Los Angeles Times'' said that "the award goes to Martin Landau; its shadow goes to Bela Lugosi." Landau admitted, on the ''Ed Wood'' DVD, to having been very impressed by the comment.

In 2006 Landau made a guest appearance on the TV series ''Entourage,'' playing a washed-up, but determined and sympathetic, Hollywood producer attempting to relive his glory days. Landau received a 2007 Emmy Award nomination for his performance in this role.

In June 2011 Landau began filming the Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-TV movie of Mitch Albom's ''Have a Little Faith,'' in which he plays Rabbi Albert Lewis. The film had a "world premiere charity screening" November 16, 2011, in Royal Oak, Michigan, near Detroit. All ten theaters within the Emogine multiplex theater showed the film, with proceeds benefiting the "A Hole in the Roof Foundation" and the "Rabbi Albert Lewis Fund." The film premiered on ABC Sunday November 27, 2011, the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Acting coach[link]

Encouraged by his mentor Lee Strasberg, Landau also taught acting. Actors he has coached include Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. In 2009, Landau, working with director Mark Rydell and screenwriter/playwright Lyle Kessler teamed up to produce an educational seminar, The Total Picture Seminar. It was an unusual two-day event covering the disciplines of acting, directing and writing for film. The three have worked together as a team for many decades at the Actors Studio teaching and coaching professional actors, writers, and directors.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Martin Landau has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6841 Hollywood Boulevard.

Personal life[link]

Landau has two daughters, Susan and Juliet, from his marriage to actress and former co-star Barbara Bain. Landau and Bain married on January 31, 1957, and divorced in 1993. Landau lives in West Hollywood, California.

Filmography [link]

! Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
	''Pork Chop Hill''	Lt. Marshall
''North by Northwest''	Leonard
''The Gazebo''	The Duke aka A. Wellington Broos
1962	''Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock''	Dade Coleman
	''Decision at Midnight''
	Rufio
1964	"The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre"	Nelson Orion
	''The Hallelujah Trail''	Chief Walks-Stooped-Over
''The Greatest Story Ever Told''	Caiaphas
1966	''Nevada Smith''	Jesse Coe
		Joe Mellone
''They Call Me Mister Tibbs!''	Logan Sharpe
1970	''A Town Called Hell''	The Colonel
1972		Capelli
1972	''Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol''	Johnny Bristol
1976	''A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta''	Dr. George Tracer
1979		Major General Adlon
		Fred 'Sarge' Dobbs
''The Last Word''	Captain Garrity
''The Return''	Niles Buchanan
		Byron 'Preacher' Sutcliff
''The Fall of the House of Usher''	Roderick Usher
	''Trial by Terror''
''The Being''	Garson Jones
	''Access Code''	Agency Head
''Terror in the Aisles''		archival footage
1985		Old Captain
	''W.A.R.: Women Against Rape''	Judge Shaw
''Cyclone''	Bosarian
''Sweet Revenge''	Cicero
''Empire State''	Chuck
''Delta Fever''	Bud
''Run If You Can''	Malvani
1988	''Tucker: The Man and His Dream''	Abe Karatz / Voice of Walter Winchell	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActorGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion PictureKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor (tied with Tom Cruise and Dean Stockwell) Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
		Daniel Lambert
''Crimes and Misdemeanors''	Judah Rosenthal	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1990	''Real Bullets''	Sallini
1991	''Firehead''	Admiral Pendleton
1992		Jack Roth
	''No Place to Hide''	Frank McCoy
	Alex Parsons
	Dr. Thadius Moxley
''Eye of the Stranger''	Mayor Howard Bains
	''The Color of Evening''	Max Loeb
	Neal
	Bela Lugosi
''Time Is Money''	Mac
1995		Jacob
		Roy Tilden
	Judge Walter Stern
	Mister Geppetto
	''B*A*P*S''	Mr. Donald Blakemore
''Legend of the Spirit Dog''	Storyteller	voice
		Alvin Kurtzweil, MD
	Abe Petrovsky
	''EDtv''	Al
''Carlo's Wake''	Carlo Torello
''The Joyriders''	Gordon Trout
''The New Adventures of Pinocchio''	Geppetto
	Peter Van Garrett	uncredited
	''Ready to Rumble''	Sal Bandini
	Frank Spedding
	Abraham
''Very Mean Men''	Mr. White
2001		Harry Trimble
	''Hollywood Homicide''	Jerry Duran
''Wake''	Older Sebastian Riven
''The Commission''	Sen. Richard Russell
2004		Joseph Krauzenberg
	''Love Made Easy''	Don Farinelli Sr
''An Existential Affair''	Doctor
	''David & Fatima''	Rabbi Schmulic
''City of Ember''	Sul
''Billy: The Early Years''	Older Charles Templeton
''Harrison Montgomery''	Harrison Montgomery
''Lovely, Still''	Robert Malone
''Ivory''	Leon Spencer
2009		2	voice
2011			Filming, with Christmas season release date (Hallmark Hall of Fame)
2012		Mr. Rykurski	voice

Selected television [link]

! year	! film	! role	! notes
1957		First Mate	"Sanctuary"
1959	''The Lawless Years''	Silva	"Lucky Silva"
1959		Dan Hotaling	"Mr. Denton on Doomsday"
1959	''Johnny Staccato''	Jerry Lindstrom	"Murder for Credit"
1961	''The Law and Mr. Jones''		The episode entitled "Lincoln"
1963		Andro	"The Man Who Was Never Born"
	''The Outer Limits''	Richard Bellero	"The Bellero Shield"
	Major Ivan Juchenko	"The Jeopardy Room"
1965	''The Big Valley''	Mariano Montoya	"The Way to Kill a Killer"
1966–1969	''Mission: Impossible''	Rollin Hand	Golden GlobeNominated - Emmy Award, 1967, 1968, 1969
1969	''Get Smart''	Himself
1973		Identical-twin brothers Dexter Paris and Norman Paris
1975–1977	''Space: 1999''	Commander John Koenig, leader of Moonbase Alpha	48 episodes, TV Series
1981	''The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island''	J.J. Pierson
1985	''The New Twilight Zone''	William Cooper-Janes
1990	''By Dawn's Early Light''	The President of the United States
1993	''12:01''	Dr. Thadius Moxley
1999	''Bonanno: A Godfather's Story''	Joseph Bonanno at age 94
2000		Abraham
2004–2005	''Without a Trace''	Frank Malone	4 episodesNominated - Nominated - Emmy Award Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, 2004, 2005
		Dr. Sol Gold	8 episodes
	Bob Ryan	4 episodesNominated - Emmy Award Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
2008		Bob Ryan	1 episode
2009	''In Plain Sight''	Joseph Thomas/Joseph Tancredi	Training Video, special guest appearance
2011	''The Simpsons''	The Great Raymondo	Guest Voice Appearanceepisode The Great Simpsina

References [link]

Bibliography[link]

''Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television.'' Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1999.

Hellmann, Paul T. ''Historical Gazetteer of the United States.'' Florence, Ky.: Taylor and Francis, 2005.

Laufenberg, Norbert. ''Entertainment Celebrities.'' Victoria, B.C.: Trafford, 2005.

Riggs, Thomas. ''Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television.'' Detroit, Mich.: Gale/Cengage Learning, 2004.

Stewart, John. ''Italian Film: A Who's Who.'' Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1994.

Welsh, James Michael; Phillips, Gene D.; and Hill, Rodney. ''The Francis Ford Coppola Encyclopedia.'' Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2010.

''Who's Who in Entertainment.'' Wilmette, Ill.: Marquis Who's Who, 1989.

Willis, John and Monush, Barry. ''Screen World 2005 Film Annual.'' New York: Applause, 2006.

External links [link]

The Total Picture Seminar - A Seminar with Martin Landau, Mark Rydell, and Lyle Kessler covering filmmaking.

Category:1928 births Category:Actors from New York City Category:Actors Studio alumni Category:American cartoonists Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:American film actors Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:American television actors Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Chicago Tribune people Category:Living people Category:Saturn Award winners

an:Martin Landau bg:Мартин Ландау ca:Martin Landau da:Martin Landau de:Martin Landau es:Martin Landau fo:Martin Landau fr:Martin Landau id:Martin Landau it:Martin Landau he:מרטין לנדאו hu:Martin Landau nl:Martin Landau ja:マーティン・ランドー no:Martin Landau pl:Martin Landau pt:Martin Landau ro:Martin Landau ru:Ландау, Мартин simple:Martin Landau sr:Мартин Ландау sh:Martin Landau fi:Martin Landau sv:Martin Landau tl:Martin Landau yo:Martin Landau

name	Bela Lugosi
birth name	Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó
birth date	October 20, 1882
birth place	Lugos, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania)
death date	August 16, 1956
death place	Los Angeles, California, United States
resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery
death cause	Heart attack
occupation	Actor
years active	1917–1956
website	http://www.lugosi.com
spouse	Ilona Szmick(1917–1920) (divorced)Ilona von Montagh (1921–1924) (divorced)Beatrice Weeks (1929–1929) (divorced)Lillian Arch (1933–1953) (divorced) 1 childHope Lininger (1955–1956) (his death)
children	Bela George Lugosi
parents	István Blaskó (father)Paula de Vojnich (mother) }}

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (20 October 188216 August 1956), commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his career.

Early life[link]

Lugosi, the youngest of four children, was born as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in Lugos (at the time part of Austria–Hungary, now Lugoj in Romania), to Paula de Vojnich and István Blaskó, a banker. He later based his last name on his hometown. He and his sister Vilma were raised in a Roman Catholic family. At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school. He began his acting career probably in 1901 or 1902. His earliest known performances are from provincial theaters in the 1903–1904 season, playing small roles in several plays and operettas. He went on to Shakespeare plays and other major roles. Moving to Budapest in 1911, he played dozens of roles with the National Theater of Hungary in the period 1913–1919. Although Lugosi would later claim that he "became the leading actor of Hungary's Royal National Theater", almost all his roles there were small or supporting parts.

During World War I, he served as an infantry lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916. There he rose to the rank of captain in the ski patrol and was awarded a medal for being wounded at the Russian front.

Due to his activism in the actors union in Hungary during the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1919, he was forced to flee his homeland. He first went to Vienna, Austria, and then settled in Berlin, Germany, in the Langestrasse where he continued acting. Eventually, he traveled to New Orleans, United States as a crewman aboard a merchant ship.

Career[link]

Early films[link]

Lugosi's first film appearance was in the 1917 movie ''Az ezredes'' (known in English as ''The Colonel''). When appearing in Hungarian silent films he used the stage name Arisztid Olt. Lugosi made 12 films in Hungary between 1917 and 1918 before leaving for Germany. Following the collapse of Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, leftists and trade unionists became vulnerable. Lugosi 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 the Karl May novels, ''Auf den Trümmern des Paradieses'' (''On the Brink of Paradise''), and ''Die Todeskarawane'' (''The Caravan of Death''), opposite the ill-fated Jewish actress Dora Gerson. Lugosi left Germany in October 1920, intending to emigrate to the United States, and entered the country at New Orleans in December 1920. He made his way to New York and was legally inspected for immigration at Ellis Island in March 1921. He declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen in 1928, and on June 26, 1931, he was naturalized.

On his arrival in America, the 6 foot 1 inch (1.85 m), 180 lb. (82 kg) Béla worked for some time as a laborer, then entered the theater in New York City's Hungarian immigrant colony. With fellow Hungarian actors he formed a small stock company that toured Eastern cities, playing for immigrant audiences. He acted in his first Broadway play, ''The Red Poppy'', in 1922. Three more parts came in 1925–1926, including a five-month run in the comedy-fantasy ''The Devil in the Cheese''. His first American film role came in the 1923 melodrama ''The Silent Command''. Several more silent roles followed, as villains or continental types, all in productions made in the New York area.

''Dracula''[link]

Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in a Broadway production of ''Dracula'' adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel. The Horace Liveright production was successful, running 261 performances before touring. He was soon called to Hollywood for character parts in early talkies.

Despite his critically acclaimed performance on stage, Lugosi was not Universal Pictures’ first choice for the role of Dracula when the company optioned the rights to the Deane play and began production in 1930. A persistent rumor asserts that director Tod Browning's long-time collaborator, Lon Chaney, was Universal's first choice for the role, and that Lugosi was chosen only due to Chaney's death shortly before production. This is questionable, because Chaney had been under long-term contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer since 1925, and had negotiated a lucrative new contract just before his death.

Chaney and Browning had worked together on several projects (including four of Chaney's final five releases), but Browning was only a last-minute choice to direct the movie version of ''Dracula'' after the death of director Paul Leni, who was originally slated to direct.

Typecasting[link]

Through his association with Dracula (in which he appeared with minimal makeup, using his natural, heavily accented voice), Lugosi found himself typecast as a horror villain in such movies as ''Murders in the Rue Morgue'', ''The Raven'', and ''Son of Frankenstein'' for Universal, and the independent ''White Zombie''. His accent, while a part of his image, limited the roles he could play.

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''.

Regardless of controversy, five films at Universal — ''The Black Cat'', ''The Raven'', ''The Invisible Ray'', ''Son of Frankenstein'', ''Black Friday'' (plus minor cameo performances in 1934's ''Gift of Gab'') and two at RKO Pictures, ''You'll Find Out'' and ''The Body Snatcher'' — paired Lugosi with Boris Karloff. Despite the relative size of their roles, Lugosi inevitably got second billing, below Karloff. Lugosi's attitude toward Karloff is the subject of contradictory reports, some claiming that he was openly resentful of Karloff's long-term success and ability to get good roles beyond the horror arena, while others suggested the two actors were — for a time, at least — good friends. Karloff himself in interviews suggested that Lugosi was initially mistrustful of him when they acted together, believing that the Englishman would attempt to upstage him. When this proved not to be the case, according to Karloff, Lugosi settled down and they worked together amicably (though some have further commented that Karloff's on-set demand to break from filming for mid-afternoon tea annoyed Lugosi).

Universal tried to give Lugosi more heroic roles, as in ''The Black Cat'', ''The Invisible Ray'', and a romantic role in the adventure serial ''The Return of Chandu'', but his typecasting problem was too entrenched for those roles to help.

Lugosi addressed his plea to be cast in non-horror roles directly to casting directors through his listing in the 1937 Players Directory, published by the Motion Picture Academy, in which he (or his agent) calls the idea that he is only fit for horror films "an error."

Career path[link]

A number of factors worked against Lugosi's career in the mid-1930s. Universal changed management in 1936, and because of a British ban on horror films, dropped them from their production schedule; Lugosi found himself consigned to Universal's 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. His career was given a second chance by Universal's ''Son of Frankenstein'' in 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 MGM's 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 Hollywood's 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, in a role she told author Boze Hadleigh was her finest role.

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 methadone, was directly proportional to the dwindling of screen offers. In 1943, he finally played the role of Frankenstein's monster in Universal's ''Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman'', which this time contained dialogue (Lugosi's voice had been dubbed over that of Lon Chaney, Jr., from line readings at the end of 1942's ''The Ghost of Frankenstein'' because Ygor's brain had been transplanted into the Monster). Lugosi continued to play the Monster with Ygor's consciousness but with groping gestures because the Monster was now blind. Ultimately, all of the Monster's dialogue and all references to his sightlessness were edited out of the released film, leaving a strange, maimed performance characterized by unexplained gestures and lip movements with no words coming out. He also came to recreate the role of Dracula a second and last time on film in ''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'' in 1948. By this time, Lugosi's 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 Lugosi's 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 television. While in England to play a six-month tour of ''Dracula'' in 1951, he co-starred in a lowbrow movie comedy, ''Mother Riley Meets the Vampire'' (also known as ''Vampire over London'' and ''My Son, the Vampire''). Upon his return to America, Lugosi was interviewed for television, and revealed his ambition to play more comedy, though wistfully noting, "Now I am the boogie man." Independent producer Jack Broder took Lugosi at his word, casting him in a jungle-themed comedy, ''Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla''. Another opportunity for comedy came in September 1949 when Milton Berle invited Lugosi to appear in a sketch on ''Texaco Star Theater''. Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib.

Working with Ed Wood[link]

Late in his life, Bela Lugosi again received star billing in movies when filmmaker Ed Wood, a fan of Lugosi, found him living in obscurity and near-poverty and offered him roles in his films, such as an anonymous narrator in ''Glen or Glenda'' and a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist in ''Bride of the Monster''. During post-production of the latter, Lugosi decided to seek treatment for his drug addiction, and the premiere of the film was said to be intended to help pay for his hospital expenses. According to Kitty Kelley's biography of Frank Sinatra, when the entertainer heard of Lugosi's problems, he helped with expenses and visited at the hospital. Lugosi would recall his amazement, since he did not even know Sinatra.

During an impromptu interview upon his exit from the treatment center in 1955, Lugosi stated that he was about to go to work on a new Ed Wood film, ''The Ghoul Goes West''. This was one of several projects proposed by Wood, including ''The Phantom Ghoul'' and ''Dr. Acula''. With Lugosi in his famed Dracula cape, Wood shot impromptu test footage, with no storyline in mind, in front of Tor Johnson's home, a suburban graveyard and in front of Lugosi's apartment building on Carlton Way. This footage ended up in ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', which was mostly filmed after Lugosi's death. Wood hired Tom Mason, his wife's chiropractor, to double for Lugosi in additional shots. Mason is thinner than Lugosi, and in every shot covers the lower half of his face with his cape, as Lugosi sometimes did in ''Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.''

Following his treatment, Lugosi made one final film, in late 1955, ''The Black Sleep'', for Bel-Air Pictures, which was released in the summer of 1956 through United Artists with a promotional campaign that included several personal appearances. To his disappointment, however, his role in this film was of a mute, with no dialogue.

Personal life[link]

In 1917, Lugosi married Ilona Szmick. The couple divorced in 1920, reputedly over political differences with her parents.

In 1929, Lugosi took his place in Hollywood society and scandal when he married wealthy San Francisco widow Beatrice Weeks, but she filed for divorce four months later. Weeks cited actress Clara Bow as the "other woman".

In 1933 he married 19-year-old Lillian Arch, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. They had a child, Bela G. Lugosi, in 1938.

Lillian and Béla divorced in 1953, at least partially because of Béla's jealousy over Lillian taking a full-time job as an assistant to Brian Donlevy on the sets and studios for Donlevy's radio and television series ''Dangerous Assignment'' — Lillian eventually did marry Brian Donlevy, in 1966.

Lugosi married Hope Lininger, his fifth wife, in 1955. She had been a fan of his, writing letters to him when he was in hospital recovering from addiction to Demerol. She would sign her letters 'A dash of Hope'.

Death[link]

Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956, while lying on a couch in his Los Angeles home. He was 73. The rumor that Lugosi was clutching the script for ''The Final Curtain'', a planned Ed Wood project, at the time of his death is not true.

Lugosi was buried wearing one of the ''Dracula'' Cape costumes, per the request of his son and fourth wife, in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his cloak; Bela G. Lugosi confirmed on numerous occasions that he and his mother, Lillian, actually made the decision but believed that it is what his father would have wanted.

Legacy[link]

In 1979, the ''Lugosi v. Universal Pictures'' decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs, as a copyright would have. The court ruled that under California law any rights of publicity, including the right to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death. In Tim Burton's 1994 ''Ed Wood'', Lugosi is played by Martin Landau who received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. According to Bela G. Lugosi (his son), Forrest Ackerman, Dolores Fuller and Richard Sheffield, Lugosi never used profanity, owned small dogs, or slept in coffins. The film fabricated much about the Hungarian actor.

Three Lugosi projects were featured on the television show ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''. ''The Corpse Vanishes'' appeared in episode 105, the serial ''The Phantom Creeps'' throughout season two and the Ed Wood production ''Bride of the Monster'' in episode 423.

An episode of ''Sledge Hammer'' titled "Last of the Red Hot Vampires" was a homage to Bela Lugosi; at the end of the episode, it was dedicated to "Mr. Blaskó".

In 2001, BBC Radio 4 broadcast ''There Are Such Things'' by Steven McNicoll and Mark McDonnell. Focusing on Lugosi and his well-documented struggle to escape from the role that had typecast him, the play went on to receive the Hamilton Dean Award for best dramatic presentation from the Dracula Society in 2002.

A statue of Lugosi can be seen today on one of the corners of the Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest.

The Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York City features a live, 30-minute play that focuses on Lugosi's illegal entry into the country and then his arrival at Ellis Island to enter the country legally.

The cape Lugosi wore in the 1931 film ''Dracula'' still survives today in the ownership of Universal Studios.

The theatrical play ''Lugosi - a vámpír árnyéka'' (''Lugosi - the Shadow of the Vampire'', in Hungarian) is based on Lugosi's life, telling the story of his life as he becomes typecast as Dracula and as his drug addiction worsens. He was played by one of Hungary's most renowned actors, Ivan Darvas.

Andy Warhol's 1963 silkscreen ''The Kiss'' depicts Lugosi from ''Dracula'' about to bite into the neck of co-star Helen Chandler, who played Mina Harker. A copy sold for $798,000 at Christie's in May 2000.

Lugosi was also the subject of "Bela Lugosi's Dead", the first single by English rock band Bauhaus. It was released in August 1979 and it is often considered to be the first gothic rock record.

Bela Lugosi was a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

''Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares'' by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers, ISBN 0-9773798-1-7 (hardcover)

''The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi'' by Arthur Lennig (2003), ISBN 0-8131-2273-2 (hardcover)

''Bela Lugosi (Midnight Marquee Actors Series)'' by Gary Svehla and Susan Svehla (1995) ISBN 1-887664-01-7 (paperback)

''Bela Lugosi: Master of the Macabre'' by Larry Edwards (1997), ISBN 1-881117-09-X (paperback)

''Films of Bela Lugosi'' by Richard Bojarski (1980) ISBN 0-8065-0716-0 (hardcover)

''Sinister Serials of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr.'' by Leonard J. Kohl (2000) ISBN 1-887664-31-9 (paperback)

''Vampire over London: Bela Lugosi in Britain'' by Frank J. Dello Stritto (2000) ISBN 0-9704269-0-9 (hardcover)

''Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape'' by Robert Cremer (1976) ISBN 0-8092-8137-6 (hardcover)

''Bela Lugosi: Biografia di una metamorfosi'' by Edgardo Franzosini (1998) ISBN 88-459-1370-8

External links[link]

Category:1882 births Category:1956 deaths Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States Category:Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Lugosi Bela Lugosi Bela Lugosi Bela Lugosi Bela Category:American people of Hungarian descent Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Lugoj

ar:بيلا لوغوسي an:Béla Lugosi az:Bela Luqoşi ca:Béla Lugosi cs:Béla Lugosi da:Bela Lugosi de:Bela Lugosi et:Béla Lugosi el:Μπέλα Λουγκόζι es:Béla Lugosi eo:Béla Lugosi eu:Béla Lugosi fr:Béla Lugosi fy:Bela Lugosi gl:Béla Lugosi id:Béla Lugosi it:Bela Lugosi he:בלה לוגוסי ht:Bela Lugosi hu:Lugosi Béla nl:Béla Lugosi ja:ベラ・ルゴシ no:Bela Lugosi pl:Béla Lugosi pt:Béla Lugosi ro:Béla Lugosi ru:Лугоши, Бела simple:Béla Lugosi sk:Béla Lugosi sr:Бела Лугоси sh:Béla Lugosi fi:Bela Lugosi sv:Bela Lugosi tr:Béla Lugosi