At one time just when movies were being made with sound, an actor by the name of Bela Lugosi was on top of the world.  After begging and pleading with Universal to play the role of Dracula (because he had played the role so many times onstage), he finally got the part because their first choice, Lon Chaney, had died from throat cancer.  He also got the role because after Universal had spent so much money on the rest of the cast, little was left for the lead actor, and Lugosi was willing to work for what in today’s world would be considered ridiculously low wages, especially for a lead actor.

The movie was a smashing success, and it made Universal Studios a ton of money.  Lugosi didn’t see much of it.

After the success of Dracula, it was Universal’s intention that he play the role of Frankenstein.  Lugosi refused. It was not a speaking part, required far too much makeup, and that he was FAR too talented (in his opinion).  This single moment, his choice to refuse that role, sealed his fate for the rest of his life.  Universal gave the role to Boris Karloff,  the movie was another brilliant success, and Karloff was now at the top of the popularity hierarchy.

In the upcoming years, Karloff’s career took off.  Lugosi’s didn’t.  Part of this was an attitude that Lugosi had that the movie companies should come to HIM rather than the other way around.  He was, after all, the Sir Lawrence Olivier of the Hungarian theater back in the day.  When this didn’t happen, he got stuck doing random B movies for a pittance of what he could have been earning, acquired an opiate habit, and remained typecast as the world’s most popular vampire.

However, I believe this man deserved and deserves far more credit than he has received.  This is the first Hollywood celebrity who publicly admitted he had a drug problem and willingly checked himself into rehab (which was going to the sanitarium at the time, I believe).  There may be a stigma against drug use now, but think about how bad it was in the 50′s.

Bela Lugosi was a star who was ultimately suffocated by his paramount role.  One cannot help but question what would have happened had he accepted the role of Frankenstein.  Every day, we are all faced with choices, some as trivial as what to have to lunch, some as large as what movie roles to accept.  And you never know, sometimes the most seemingly meaningless decisions can have the greatest lifelong impacts…