Gothic rock (also referred to as goth rock or simply goth) is a musical subgenre of post-punk that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes. According to both Pitchfork^[2] and NME,^[3] protogoth bands are Joy Division,^[2][3][4] Siouxsie and the Banshees,^[2][3] Bauhaus^[2][3] and The Cure.^[2][3] The genre itself was defined as a separate movement from punk rock during the early 1980s largely due to the significant stylistic divergences of the movement; gothic rock, as opposed to punk, combines dark, often keyboard-heavy music with introspective and depressing lyrics. Gothic rock then gave rise to a broader subculture that included clubs, fashion and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s.

Style, roots and influences[link]

According to music journalist Simon Reynolds, standard musical fixtures of the Gothic rock include "scything guitar patterns, high-pitched Joy Division basslines that often usurped the melodic role; [and] beats that were either hypnotically dirgelike or 'tribal'".^[5] Reynolds described the vocal style as consisting of "deep, droning alloys of Jim Morrison and Leonard Cohen".^[5] Siouxsie and the Banshees tended to play the flanging guitar effect, producing a brittle, cold, and harsh sound that contrasted with their psychedelic rock predecessors.^[6] Several acts used drum machines that do not stress the back beat in the rhythm.^[7]

Gothic rock typically deals with dark themes addressed through lyrics and the music atmosphere. The poetic sensibilities of the genre led gothic rock lyrics to exhibit literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and/or supernatural mysticism.^[8] Musicians who initially shaped the aesthetics and musical conventions of gothic rock include Marc Bolan,^[9] The Velvet Underground,^[10] The Doors,^[10] David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and The Sex Pistols.^[10][11] However, Reynolds considers Alice Cooper as "the true ungodly godfather of Goth" due to his "theatrics and black humor".^[9] Nico's 1969 album, The Marble Index, was also particularly influential.^[12] Gothic rock creates a dark atmosphere by drawing influence from the drones used by protopunk group The Velvet Underground, and many goth singers are influenced by the "deep and dramatic" vocal timbre of David Bowie, albeit singing at even lower pitches.^[7] J.G. Ballard was a strong lyrical influence for many of the early gothic rock groups; The Birthday Party drew on Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire.^[13]

In 1976, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice was published. The main character, although dark, wanted companionship and love. The book, according to music journalist Dave Thompson, slowly created an audience for gothic rock by word of mouth. The same year saw the punk rock band The Damned debut. The group's vocalist Dave Vanian was a former gravedigger who dressed like a vampire 24 hours a day. Brian James, a guitarist for the group, noted, "Other groups had safety pins and the spitting and bondage trousers, but you went to a Damned show, and half the local cemetery would be propped up against the stage".^[14]

History[link]

Origins and early development[link]

The term gothic was used to describe Velvet Underground singer Nico as early in 1971. The term was used occasionally in the years that followed.^[14] In the late 1970s, the word "gothic" was used to describe the atmosphere of post-punk bands like Joy Division. In 1979, Martin Hannett described Joy Division as "dancing music with Gothic overtones"^[1] and in September, their manager Tony Wilson described their music as "gothic" on the television show Something Else.^[15] In 1980, Melody Maker wrote that "Joy Division are masters of this gothic gloom".^[16] When their final album Closer came out a couple of months after the death of their singer, Sounds noted in its review that there were "dark strokes of gothic rock".^[17] Not long after, this appellation "became a critical term of abuse" for a band like Bauhaus that had arrived later on the music scene.^[1] However, the term would not be adopted as "positive identity, a tribal rallying cry" until a shift in the scene in 1982.^[1] In addition, Simon Reynolds identifies The Birthday Party and Killing Joke as essential proto-goth groups.^[18] Despite their legacy as progenitors of gothic rock, these groups disliked the label.^[19] Adam Ant's early work was also a major impetus for the gothic rock scene, and much of the fan base came from his milieu.^[20]

Bauhaus's debut single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released in late 1979, is retrospectively considered to be the beginning of the gothic rock genre.^[21] According to Peter Murphy the song was written to be tongue in cheek but since the group performed it with "naive seriousness" that is how the audience understood it.^[14] Around the same time, post-punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure included more gothic characteristics in their music.^[22] According to Simon Reynolds, with their fourth album, 1981's Juju, Siouxsie and the Banshees introduced several Gothic qualities, lyrically and sonically^[22] but for The Guardian, Juju was also art-rock on certain songs and pop on the singles.^[23] Bassist Steven Severin attributes the aesthetic used by the band around that time to the influence of The Cramps.^[22] The Cure's "oppressively dispirited" trio of album Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in the genre.^[24] The line "It doesn’t matter if we all die" began the Pornography album, which is considered as "The Cure’s gothic piece de resistance".^[25] They would later become the most commercially successful of these groups.^[26] The Cure's style was "withdrawn",^[24] contrasting with their contemporaries like Nick Cave's first band The Birthday Party, who drew on funk, blues, and spastic, violent turmoil.^[27] With the Birthday Party's Junkyard album, Nick Cave combined "sacred and profane" things,^[28] using old testament imagery,^[29] with stories about sin, curses and damnation.^[29] Their 1981 single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential in the scene.^[30]

Killing Joke were originally inspired by Public Image Ltd., borrowing from funk, disco, dub, and later, heavy metal.^[31] Calling their style "tension music", Killing Joke distorted these elements to provocative effect, as well as producing a morbid, politically charged visual style.^[31] After being a punk band, The Damned performed dramatic surges with a crooner's voice on The Black Album.^[32]

Gothic rock thrived in the early 1980s. In London, the Batcave club opened in July 1982^[33] to provide a venue for the goth scene.^[34] That same year, Ian Astbury of the band Southern Death Cult used the term "gothic goblins" to describe Sex Gang Children's fans.^[35] Southern Death Cult appeared on the cover of NME in October:^[36] they became themselves icons of the scene, drawing aesthetic inspiration from Native American culture.

Expansion of the scene[link]

Rubella Ballet at the Clarendon Club, London 1985.

In February 1983, the emerging scene was described as "positive punk" on the front cover of the NME:^[10] in his article, journalist Richard North described Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate as "the immediate forerunners of today's flood" and declared, "So here it is: the new positive punk, with no empty promises of revolution, either in the rock'n'roll sense or the wider political sphere. Here is only a chance of self awareness, of personal revolution, of colourful perception and galvanisation of the imagination that startles the slumbering mind and body from their sloth".^[10] That year, myriad Goth groups emerged, including Flesh for Lulu, Play Dead, Rubella Ballet, Gene Loves Jezebel,^[37] UK Decay, Blood and Roses, The Virgin Prunes and Ausgang.^[29] The 4AD label released music in a more ethereal style, by groups such as Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and Xmal Deutschland.^[29] The Icelandic group Kukl also appeared in this period, which included Björk and other musicians who later participated in The Sugarcubes.^[29]

Simon Reynolds speaks of a shift from early Goth to gothic rock proper, advanced by The Sisters of Mercy.^[38] As journalist Jennifer Park puts it, "the original blueprint for gothic rock had mutated significantly. Doom and gloom was no longer confined to its characteristic atmospherics, but as the Sisters demonstrated, it could really rock".^[39] The Sisters of Mercy, influenced by Leonard Cohen, Gary Glitter, Motörhead, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, The Birthday Party, Suicide and The Fall, created a new, harder form of gothic rock.^[40] In addition, they incorporated a drum machine.^[40] Reynolds identifies their 1983 single "Temple of Love" as the quintessential Goth anthem of the year, along with Southern Death Cult's "Fatman".^[41] The group created their own record label, Merciful Release, which also signed The March Violets, who performed in a similar style.^[42] According to Simon Reynolds, The March Violets "imitated Joy Division sonically".^[43] Another band, The Danse Society was particularly inspired by The Cure in their Pornography period.^[42]

Subsequent developments[link]

Fields of the Nephilim, Live at the Agra Hall, Leipzig, Germany 2008.

Southern Death Cult reformed as The Cult, a more conventional hard rock group.^[41] In their wake, The Mission UK, which included two former members of The Sisters of Mercy, achieved commercial success in the mid-1980s,^[44] as did Fields of the Nephilim and All About Eve.^[45] Bands who continue to be associated with gothic rock include Alien Sex Fiend, All Living Fear, And Also the Trees, Balaam and the Angel, Claytown Troupe, Dream Disciples, Feeding Fingers, Inkubus Sukkubus, Libitina, Fields of the Nephilim, Nosferatu, Rosetta Stone and Suspiria.^[46]

American gothic rock began with 45 Grave and Christian Death, both of whom were strongly influenced by The Cramps.^[47] This style is often described as deathrock.^[48] European groups inspired by the style have also proliferated, including Xmal Deutschland^[49] and Clan of Xymox.^[50] These groups are associated with Dark Wave, which draws on gothic rock in addition to synthpop and industrial.^[51]

In the nineties, several mainstream acts including PJ Harvey,^[52][53] Marilyn Manson^[54] and Nine Inch Nails^[55] put gothic characteristics in their music without being assimilated to the genre. According to Rolling Stone, PJ Harvey's music in 1993 "careens from blues to goth to grunge, often in the space of a single song"^[52] where as American bands like Marilyn Manson combined "atmosphere from goth and disco"^[56] with "industrial sound".^[57]

In the years 2000s, critics regularly noticed that new comers were marked by the genre.^[58][59] English band The Horrors mixed sixties garage with eighties goth.^[58] When presenting female singer Zola Jesus, writers questioned if she announced the second coming of the genre^[60] as her music was described with this term.^[61][59]

Gothic subculture[link]

Members of the Toronto goth scene after leaving a goth rock event in 2008.

The gothic subculture that grew up with the beginnings of the genre in London, spread to continental Europe and North America in the 1980s.^[62] Although going through periods of decline, as in the late 1980s, it has enjoyed several revivals and has continued to diversify and develop, with active subcultures in places such as Portland, Oregon, New Orleans and Toronto.^[63] In terms of dress it incorporated influences from 19th-century Gothic literature along with horror films and to a lesser extent the BDSM culture.^[64] Gothic fashions within the subculture range from deathrock, punk, androgynous, Victorian, some Renaissance and Medieval style attire, or combinations of the above, most often with black clothing, makeup and hair.^[11] Modern gothic novels and films, particularly the works of Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite, have been highly influential on the development of the sub-culture.^[62] Gothic subculture has also become incorporated into works of fiction, including graphic novel The Crow and role playing games, including Vampire: The Masquerade, which has also been adapted into two video games.^[65]

See also[link]

• List of gothic rock bands

References[link]

Footnotes

Bibliography

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Bela Lugosi
Bela Lugosi in 1920
Born	Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (1882-10-20)20 October 1882 Lugos, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania)
Died	16 August 1956(1956-08-16) (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, United States
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1917–1956
Spouse	Ilona Szmick (1917–1920) (divorced) Ilona von Montagh (1921–1924) (divorced) Beatrice Weeks (1929–1929) (divorced) Lillian Arch (1933–1953) (divorced) 1 child[1] Hope Lininger (1955–1956) (his death)
Children	Bela George Lugosi
Parents	István Blaskó (father) Paula de Vojnich (mother)
Website
http://www.lugosi.com

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956), commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen.^[2] 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,^[3] 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.^[4] He later based his last name on his hometown.^[3] He and his sister Vilma were raised in a Roman Catholic family.^[5] At the age of 12, Lugosi dropped out of school.^[3] 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[3]

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.^[3] He first went to Vienna, Austria, and then settled in Berlin, Germany, in the Langestrasse where he continued acting.^[3] Eventually, he traveled to New Orleans, United States as a crewman aboard a merchant ship.^[3]

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.^[8] He declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen in 1928, and on June 26, 1931, he was naturalized.^[9]

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.^[10] 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.

[edit] Dracula

Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927^[11] 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."^[12]

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.

From The Devil Bat, 1940

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.^[13] Lugosi memorized the script for the skit, but became confused on the air when Berle began to ad lib.^[14]

Working with Ed Wood[link]

Lugosi in Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, 1959

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.^[15]

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.^[16] 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".^[17]

In 1933 he married 19-year-old Lillian Arch, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. They had a child, Bela G. Lugosi, in 1938.^[18]

Lillian and Béla divorced in 1953,^[1] 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^[19] — 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's grave at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California

Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956, while lying on a couch in his Los Angeles home. He was 73.^[20] 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.^[21]

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.^[22]

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.^[23][24]

Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6340 Hollywood Blvd.

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.^[25]

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.^[26]

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]