The Many Faces of Dracula

Christopher Lee (May 5, 1922 – June 7, 2015) was an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973), Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in Star Wars episodes II and III (2002, 2005) and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003). Lee considers his most important role to have been his portrayal of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998). He is well known for his deep, commanding voice. Lee has performed roles in 266 films since 1948 making him the Guinness book world record holder for most film acting roles ever. He was knighted in 2009 and received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011.

William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.

Louise Allbritton (July 3, 1920 – February 16, 1979) was an American film and stage actress born in. She played in such films as Pittsburgh (1942), Son of Dracula (1943), The Egg and I (1947), and Sitting Pretty (1948).

Stephanie Beacham is an English television, radio, film and theatre actress. She is known for her television roles in the BBC drama Tenko, the ITV drama Connie, and for playing Sable Colby in the ABC soap operas The Colbys and Dynasty. Her film appearances include Dracula A.D. 1972, Schizo and Troop Beverly Hills.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Joseph Edward Bromberg (born Josef Bromberger, December 25, 1903 – December 6, 1951) was a Romanian-born American character actor in motion picture and stage productions dating mostly from the 1930s and 1940s. By virtue of his physique, the short, somewhat rotund actor was destined to play secondary roles. Bromberg made his stage debut at the Greenwich Village Playhouse and in 1926 made his first appearance in a Broadway play, Princess Turandot. The following year, Bromberg married Goldie Doberman, with whom he had three children. Occasionally credited as J.E. Bromberg' and Joseph Bromberg, he performed secondary roles in 35 Broadway productions and 53 motion pictures until 1951. For two decades, Bromberg was highly regarded in the New York theatrical world and was a founding member of the Civic Repertory Theatre (1928–1930) and of the Group Theatre (1931–1940). Bromberg made his screen debut in 1936 under contract to Twentieth Century-Fox. The versatile actor played a wide variety of roles ranging from a ruthless New York newspaper editor (in Charlie Chan on Broadway) to a despotic Arabian sheik (in Mr. Moto Takes a Chance). Although he spoke with no trace of an accent, he was often called upon to play humble immigrants of various nationalities. When Warner Oland, the actor who played Charlie Chan, died in 1938, Fox considered Bromberg as a suitable replacement, but the role ultimately went to Sidney Toler. Fox began loaning Bromberg to other studios in 1939 and finally dropped him from the roster in 1941. He kept working for various producers, including a stint at Universal Pictures in the mid-1940s. Bromberg's most outstanding attribute was his facility with sensitive character roles; he could take a standard, undistinguished supporting part and make it unforgettably sympathetic. In Hollywood Cavalcade he portrays Don Ameche's friend who knows he will never get the girl; in Three Sons he is the lowly business associate who longs to be given a partnership; in Easy to Look At he is the once-great couturier now reduced to night watchman. In September 1950, the anti-communist magazine Red Channels accused Bromberg of being a member of the American Communist Party. Subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in June 1951, Bromberg refused to answer any questions in accordance with his Fifth Amendment rights.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Veronica Carlson (born 18 September 1944 in Yorkshire, England) was an English model and actress, famous for her roles in Hammer horror films. Born as Veronica Mary Glazer, Veronica Carlson spent most of her childhood in Germany where her father was stationed. She attended the Thetford Girls' School and later, High Wycombe College of Technology and Design, where she studied art and participated in college amateur productions. In her mid-twenties, Veronica played a few minor parts in movies and television programmes. James Carreras, the boss of Hammer Films, saw one of her photographs in a newspaper and offered her a role opposite Christopher Lee in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. She was best-known in the late 1960s for a series of roles in three Hammer Horror films, including Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) and The Horror of Frankenstein (1970). She also appeared in the Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode "The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo" in 1969 and an episode of The Saint ("The Man who Gambled with Life") with Roger Moore and also an episode of Department S ("The Double Death of Charlie Crippen"). Veronica Carlson went into semi-retirement after marrying and moving to the U.S.. She lived in South Carolina with her husband and three children and was a professional painter. Description above from the Wikipedia article Veronica Carlson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Helen Chandler was an American stage and screen actress. She is today best remembered for her portrayal of Mina in the 1931 classic horror film Dracula.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973), born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. He is notable for playing Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man movies. Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935. Chaney had English, French and Irish ancestry. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lon Chaney, Jr., licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Lon Chaney (born Leonidas Frank Chaney) - nicknamed "Man of a Thousand Faces" - was an American Silent screen star. He died after completing his only sound film.

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Louis Francis Costello (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello was famous for his bumbling, chubby, clean-cut image that has appealed to many Americans over the decades, and for his shouted line of "HEEEEYYY ABBOTT!!." Description above from the Wikipedia article Lou Costello, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rupert Davies (22 May 1916 – 22 November 1976) was a British actor. He remains best known for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of Maigret, based on the Maigret novels written by Georges Simenon. Davies was born in Liverpool. After a service in the British Merchant Navy, during the Second World War he was a Sub-Lieutenant Observer with the Fleet Air Arm. In 1940 the Swordfish aircraft in which he was flying ditched in the sea off the Dutch Coast. Davies was captured and interned in the famous Stalag Luft III POW camp. He made three attempts to escape. All failed. It was during his captivity that he began to take part in theatre performances, entertaining his fellow prisoners. On his release, Davies resumed his career in acting almost immediately, starring in an ex Prisoner Of War show, 'Back Home', which was hosted at the Stoll Theatre, London. After the war Davies became a staple of British television appearing in numerous plays and series, including Quatermass II, Ivanhoe, Emergency - Ward 10, Danger Man, The Champions, Doctor at Large (1971), Arthur of the Britons and War and Peace (1972). He also provided the voice of "Professor Ian McClaine" in the Gerry Anderson series Joe 90. In 1964 he became the first person to be awarded Pipe Smoker of the Year. Davies also played supporting roles in many films, appearing briefly as George Smiley in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). He also appeared in several horror films in the late 1960s, including Witchfinder General (1968) and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), as well as such international blockbusters as Waterloo (1970) and Zeppelin (1971). He died of cancer in London in 1976, leaving a wife, Jessica, and two sons, Timothy and Hogan, and is buried at Pistyll Cemetery, near Nefyn in North Wales. Description above from the Wikipedia article Rupert Davies, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Nina Foch (born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock; April 20, 1924 – December 5, 2008) was a Dutch American actress. After signing a contract with Columbia Pictures at age 19, Foch became a regular in the studio's horror pictures and films noir before establishing herself as a leading lady in the mid-1940s through the 1950s, often playing roles as cool, aloof sophisticates. Her career spanned six decades, consisting of over 50 feature films and over 100 television appearances.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Dwight Iliff Frye (February 22, 1899 – November 7, 1943) was an American stage and screen actor, noted for his appearances in the classic horror films Dracula, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Frye was born in Salina, Kansas. Nicknamed "The Man with the Thousand-Watt Stare," and "The Man of a Thousand Deaths," he specialized in the portrayal of mentally unbalanced characters, including his signature role, the madman Renfield in Tod Browning's 1931 version of Dracula. Later that same year he also played the hunchbacked assistant in the film Frankenstein. (This character, named Fritz, is often mistakenly referred to as Ygor, a character originated by Béla Lugosi in the later film Son of Frankenstein.) Frye had a prominent role in the 1933 horror film The Vampire Bat, starring Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray, in which he played Herman, a half-wit suspected of being a killer. He also had a memorable role in the classic Bride of Frankenstein, in which he played Karl. The part of Karl was originally much longer and many extra scenes of Frye were shot as a sub plot but were edited out of the final version to shorten the running time as well as to appease the censor boards. The most memorable of these "cut scenes" was that of Karl killing the Burgomaster portrayed by E. E. Clive. No known prints of these scenes survive today, but photographs of the scene were used to illustrate the scene's synopsis and are included in the recent Universal DVD release of the film. During the early 1940s, Frye alternated between film roles and appearing on stage in a variety of productions ranging from comedies to musicals, as well as appearing in a stage version of Dracula. In 1924 he played the Son in a translation of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.[1] There was a Dwight Frye Fan Club at one time,[2] but it is currently dormant. He also made a contribution to the war effort by working nights as a tool designer for Lockheed Aircraft. Frye's strong resemblance to former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker helped land him what would have been a substantial role in the biographical film Wilson, based on the life of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, but he died of a heart attack while riding on a bus in Hollywood a few days before filming was to have begun. Frye was interred in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Description above from the Wikipedia article Dwight Frye, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Boris Karloff (November 23, 1887 – February 2, 1969), whose real name was William Henry Pratt, was an English-born actor who emigrated to Canada in 1909. Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939). His popularity following Frankenstein was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or "Karloff the Uncanny". His best-known non-horror role is as the Grinch in the television special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Description above from the Wikipedia article Boris Karloff, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Bela George Lugosi was born on January 5, 1938 in Los Angeles. He is also known as Bela Lugosi Jr. – he is the son of our legendary transylvanian actor, Béla Lugosi. He didn’t become an actor like his father, but he is deeply involved with the film industry through his work and his family legacy. He works as a attorney in California, and his long legal battle versus Universal Pictures led to the creation of the California Celebrities Rigths Act, which means that the rights of publicity survive the celebrity’s death and descend to heirs by wills. We reached the 77 year old lawyer via e-mail to talk about his father and his legal work, among other things.

Bela Lugosi (born Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko) was a Hungarian stage, screen, and television actor. He was born on October 20, 1882 and passed away on August 16, 1956. He is best remembered for his iconic portrayal of Count Dracula in the classic 1931 Dracula film.

David Joseph Manners (born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom, April 30, 1900 – December 23, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor who played John Harker in Todd Browning's 1931 horror classic Dracula. The following year he portrayed the archaeologist Frank Whemple in another pre-Code thriller by Universal Pictures, The Mummy. Manners abandoned his film career in 1936, and his theatrical career seventeen years later.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Paul Muni (born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund, September 22, 1895 – August 25, 1967) was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American stage and film actor. During the 1930s, he was considered the most prestigious actor at Warner Brothers studios, and one of the rare actors who was given the privilege of choosing which parts he wanted. His acting quality, usually playing a powerful character, such as Scarface, was partly a result of his intense preparation for his parts, often immersing himself in study of the real character's traits and mannerisms. He was also highly skilled in using makeup techniques, a talent he learned from his parents, who were also actors, and from his early years on stage with the Yiddish Theater, in New York. At the age of 12, he played the stage role of an 80-year-old man; in one of his films, Seven Faces, he played seven different characters. He was nominated six times for an Oscar, winning once as Best Actor in The Story of Louis Pasteur. Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Muni, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (January 21, 1896 – January 24, 1973) was an American character actor born in New York City, New York. Naish did many film roles, but they were eclipsed when he found fame in the title role of radio's Life with Luigi (1948–1953), which surpassed Bob Hope in the 1950 ratings. Naish appeared on stage for several years before he began his film career. He began as a member of Gus Edwards's vaudeville troupe of child performers. In Paris after World War I, Naish formed his own song and dance act. He was traveling the globe from Europe to Egypt to Asia, when his China-bound ship developed engine problems, leaving him in California in 1926. His uncredited bit role in What Price Glory (1926) launched his career in more than two hundred films. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first for his role in the 1943 film Sahara, then for his performance in the 1945 film A Medal for Benny, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, Motion Picture. He notably played Boris Karloff's hunchback assistant in The House of Frankenstein in 1944. He was of Irish descent, but never used his dialect skills to play Irishmen, explaining, "When the part of an Irishman comes along, nobody ever thinks of me." Instead, he portrayed myriad other ethnic groups on screen: Latino, Native American, East Asian, Polynesian, Middle Eastern/North African, South Asian, Eastern European, and Mediterranean. Besides his film roles, he often appeared on television later in his career. He spent many of his later years in San Diego studying philosophy and theology. Naish was married (1929–1973) to actress Gladys Heaney (1907–1987). They had one daughter. For his contributions to television and film, J. Carrol Naish has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6145 Hollywood Boulevard.

James David Graham Niven (1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983), known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther. He was awarded the 1958 Academy Award for Best Actor in Separate Tables.

Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi known professionally as Maila Nurmi, was a Finnish-American actress and television personality who created the campy 1950s character Vampira.

Robert Paige (born John Arthur Page December 2, 1911 in Indianapolis, Indiana, died Dec 21,1987) was a TV star and Universal Pictures leading man who made 65 films in his lifetime and was the only actor ever allowed to sing on film with Deanna Durbin (in 1944's Can't Help Singing). He was a graduate of West Point and was related to Admiral David Beatty, hero of the World War I Battle of Jutland. Paige began his screen career in 1934. His handsome features and assured speaking voice earned him prominent roles in motion pictures, such as Cain and Mabel with Clark Gable and Marion Davies. In 1936, to avoid confusion with another rising leading man, John Payne, Paige briefly adopted the screen name "David Carlyle." He worked primarily for Warner Brothers and Republic Pictures during this period. In 1938 he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures, which changed his screen name to Robert Paige. Columbia cast him in "B" features and starred him in one serial, Flying G-Men. When the Columbia contract lapsed, Paige moved to Paramount Pictures and finally found a home in 1941 at Universal Pictures. Robert Paige quickly became one of Universal's reliable stars, playing romantic leads. He is prominent in many of Universal's comedies and musicals, including those of Abbott and Costello, Olsen and Johnson, Gloria Jean, and Hugh Herbert. He had a good singing voice and a flair for comedy, and the studio capitalized on these talents. Beginning in 1943 Universal gave Paige important roles in its biggest productions, but by then he was so established as a B-picture lead that he never quite graduated to mega-stardom. Paige, along with other contract players, left Universal after a corporate shakeup in 1946. He became an independent film producer in 1947 and entered the new field of television. He was the last permanent host of NBC's variety series The Colgate Comedy Hour, and won an Emmy in 1955 for "Best Male Personality" (a category that no longer exists). In the 1960s he became a TV newscaster in Los Angeles. Paige continued to work in occasional films through 1963; his last two films were The Marriage-Go-Round (1961) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963). From 1966 to 1970 Paige was a newscaster and political correspondent for ABC News in Los Angeles. He left the news desk to become Deputy Supervisor of Los Angeles under Baxter Ward, and then moved into the public relations field. He retired in the late 1970s. Robert Paige died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm in 1987.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert Walter Quarry (3 November 1925 – 20 February 2009) was an American actor, known for several prominent horror film roles. Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable and Paul Quarry, a doctor. His films include Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), its sequel The Return of Count Yorga (1971), and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), in which he played alchemist Dr. Biederbeck pitted against Vincent Price's Phibes in a race to find the mythical elixir of eternal life. Although it is well-known that Price did not care for his co-star - once, when Quarry was singing in his dressing room during the making of Dr Phibes Rises Again, he said to Price, "You didn't know I could sing did you?" and Price replied: "Well I knew you couldn't act." - the two were later also paired in Madhouse (1974). American International Pictures had plans for Quarry to succeed Price, but the decline in the company's fortunes, and old style horror films falling out of fashion, meant that it never happened. Quarry did make further horror film appearances, as the hippy guru vampire Khorda in 1973's The Deathmaster and as a gangster in the 1974 zombie movie Sugar Hill. A third Count Yorga film was often rumored to be in the works, but never materialised. Quarry's career was further set back by a road accident that resulted in serious facial injuries (in which he was hit by a drunk driver), but he made several memorable guest appearances on TV shows, notably The Rockford Files episode, "Requiem For a Funny Box", as Lee Russo. He also played disfigured gunrunner Commander Corliss in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Return of the Fighting 69th". In the 1980s and 1990s, he returned to film, becoming a favorite of director Fred Olen Ray. Quarry died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 83. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Quarry, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Friedrich Gustav Max Schreck (September 6, 1879 – February 20, 1936) was a German actor. He is most often remembered today for his lead role in the film Nosferatu (1922). Description above from the Wikipedia article Max Schreck, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Onslow Stevens (March 29, 1902 – January 5, 1977) was an American stage, television and film actor. Stevens became involved in performing in 1926 at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where his entire family worked as performers, directors and teachers. His Broadway debut came in Stage Door (1936). He starred over 80 films, at first as the lead actor, but mostly in character roles later in his career. Description above from the Wikipedia article Onslow Stevens, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

At various times in his life a rancher, deputy sheriff and rodeo performer, this huge, towering (6' 5") beast of a man was born George Glenn Strange in Weed, New Mexico, on August 16, 1899, but grew up a real-life cowboy in Cross Cut, Texas. Of Irish and Cherokee Indian descent, he taught himself (by ear) the fiddle and guitar at a young age and started performing at local functions as a teen. In the late 1920s, Glenn and his cousin, Taylor McPeters, better known later as the western character actor Cactus Mack, joined a radio singing group known as the "Arizona Wranglers" that toured throughout the country.

Edward Van Sloan (born Edward Paul Van Sloun) was an American screen and stage character actor best remembered for his roles in Universal Studios horror films.

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Man Who Laughs (1928). After a successful career in German silent film, where he was one of the best-paid stars of Ufa, he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 with his new Jewish wife after the Nazis came to power. They settled in Britain, where he participated in a number of films, including The Thief of Bagdad (1940), before emigrating to the United States around 1941, which lead to him having a supporting role in Casablanca (1942). From 1916 until his death, Veidt appeared in more than 100 films. One of his earliest performances was as the murderous somnambulist Cesare in director Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a classic of German Expressionist cinema, with Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. His starring role in The Man Who Laughs (1928), as a disfigured circus performer whose face is cut into a permanent grin, provided the (visual) inspiration for the Batman villain the Joker, created in 1940 by Bill Finger. Veidt also starred in other silent horror films such as The Hands of Orlac (1924), another film directed by Robert Wiene, The Student of Prague (1926) and Waxworks (1924) where he played Ivan the Terrible. Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, 1919), one of the first films to sympathetically portray homosexuality, although the characters in it do not end up happily. He had a leading role in Germany's first talking picture, Das Land ohne Frauen (Land Without Women, 1929). He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s and made a few films, but the advent of talking pictures and his difficulty with speaking English led him to return to Germany. During this period he lent his expertise to tutoring aspiring performers, one of whom was the later American character actress Lisa Golm.

Carlos Villarías (7 July 1892 – 27 April 1976) was a Spanish actor who was born in Córdoba, Spain and died in California, USA. His most famous role is in the title role of the Spanish language version of Dracula (1931), with Barry Norton and Lupita Tovar filmed at night on the same sets as the English language version starring Bela Lugosi. Description above from the Wikipedia article Carlos Villarías, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.