Bela Lugosi - Legacy

Legacy

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. Blasko".

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.

In 2009 a book loosely-based on his 1940 film "The Devil Bat" called "Devil Bat Diary" was dedicated to Lugosi.