Bram Stoker

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel, Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.

Early life

Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, on the northside of Dublin, Ireland. His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876), from Dublin, and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), who was raised in County Sligo. Stoker was the third of seven children, the eldest of whom was Sir Thornley Stoker, 1st Bt. Abraham and Charlotte were members of the Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf and attended the parish church with their children, who were baptised there.

Stoker was bedridden with an unknown illness until he started school at the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years." He was educated in a private school run by the Rev. William Woods.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula (or simply Dracula) is a 1992 American romantic horror film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula, Winona Ryder as Mina Harker, Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, and Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker.

Dracula was greeted by a generally positive critical reception and was a box office hit, although Reeves's performance has been widely criticized. Its score was composed by Wojciech Kilar and featured "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox, which became an international hit, as the closing credits theme.

Plot summary

In 1462, Vlad Dracula, a member of the Order of the Dragon, returns from a victory against the Turks to find his wife, Elisabeta, has committed suicide after receiving a false report of his death. Enraged that his wife is now damned for committing suicide, Dracula desecrates his chapel and renounces God, declaring that he will rise from the grave to avenge Elisabeta with all the powers of darkness. In a fit of rage, he stabs the chapel's stone cross with his sword and drinks the blood which pours out of it.

Francis Ford

Francis Ford may refer to:

See also

Gary Oldman

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor, filmmaker, musician and author. Renowned for his "big" acting style, Oldman is one of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television.

Oldman began acting on stage in 1979, and gained his first starring film role in Meantime (1983). He continued to lead an acclaimed theatre career, during which he performed at London's Royal Court and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with credits including The Massacre at Paris (1980), Entertaining Mr Sloane (1983), Saved (1983), Women Beware Women (1986), The Country Wife (1987) and Hamlet (1987). Oldman's portrayals of Sid Vicious and Joe Orton, in the biographical films Sid and Nancy (1986) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987) respectively, prompted critic Roger Ebert to declare him "the best young British actor around"; the latter brought Oldman his first BAFTA Award nomination. Roles as a football firm leader in The Firm (1989) and the titular Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) further increased his renown within British film.

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola (/ˈkoʊpələ/; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking.

After directing The Rain People (1969), he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer, with Edmund H. North, of Patton in 1970. His directorial prominence was cemented with the release in 1972 of The Godfather, a film which revolutionized movie-making in the gangster genre, earning praise from both critics and the public before winning three Academy Awards—including his second Oscar (Best Adapted Screenplay, with Mario Puzo), Best Picture, and his first nomination for Best Director.

He followed with The Godfather Part II in 1974, which became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Highly regarded by critics, it brought him three more Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture, and made him the second director, after Billy Wilder, to be honored three times for the same film. The Conversation, which he directed, produced and wrote, was released that same year, winning the Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. He next directed 1979's Apocalypse Now. Notorious for its over-long and strenuous production, the film was nonetheless critically acclaimed for its vivid and stark depiction of the Vietnam War, winning the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. In 1990, he directed the second Godfather sequel, The Godfather Part III, which he considers to be the series' epilogue. Coppola is one of only eight filmmakers to win two Palme d'Or awards.