Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (better known by his stage name Bela Lugosi) was a Hungarian–American actor, born on October 20, 1882, in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania). He was the youngest of four children, raised in a Catholic family, to István Blaskó, a baker and later a banker, and Paula de Vojnić. He dropped out of school at 12 and began his stage acting career in 1902, adopting the surname "Lugosi" in 1903 to honor his birthplace. He performed in over 170 productions on the Hungarian stage, including Shakespearean plays and roles with the National Theatre of Hungary. During World War I, he served as an infantry officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916, sustaining wounds on the Russian front. Due to his socialist party activities and involvement in the Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919, he was forced to immigrate to Germany, where he acted in several silent films under the stage name "Arisztid Olt." He later arrived in New Orleans as a seaman in December 1920, making his way to New York City and eventually Ellis Island, where he was inspected in March 1921. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen on June 26, 1931. Lugosi is best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic *Dracula* (1931), a role he first took on Broadway in 1927. His thick Hungarian accent and association with Dracula led to him being typecast as a horror villain, despite his efforts to break away from such roles. He co-starred in a number of films with fellow horror icon Boris Karloff. Later in his career, he suffered from severe chronic sciatica, exacerbated by his military service injuries, leading to an addiction to doctor-prescribed morphine and methadone, and gradually worsening alcoholism. This drug dependence contributed to a decline in his career, leading him to appear mostly in low-budget films, some directed by Ed Wood, including *Plan 9 from Outer Space*, released posthumously. He was married five times: to Ilona Szmik (1917–1920), Ilona von Montagh (1921–1925), Beatrice Woodruff Weeks (1929), Lillian Arch (1933–1953), and Hope Lininger (1955–1956). With his fourth wife, Lillian Arch, he had one son, Bela G. Lugosi, in 1938. He also had four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, though he did not live to meet any of them. Late in his life, Ed Wood offered him roles, and Lugosi sought treatment for his drug addiction in 1955. His final film appearance was in *The Black Sleep* (1955), where he played a mute butler.