Most of my information on Lugosi came from Richard Bojarski's book, "The Films of Bela Lugosi." Actually there's more. Lugosi appeared in German silent movies where they noticed that he now seemed to have a pronounced glare in his eyes. He played a hypnotist in, "Sklaven Fremdes Willems." Lugosi even played Conrad Veidt's butler in, "Der Januskopf," a version of Dr Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Veidt of course is mostly known for, "Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari," and "Casablanca." Veidt was also in the run to play Count Dracula after Lon Chaney died, probably on the virtue of a movie he made for Universal studios entitled, "The Man Who Laughs," where he played a character with a hideous smile carved into his face. This was the basis of Robert Kahn's charecter the Joker, in his Batman comic books.
Lugosi tired of Germany and jumped a freighter bound for New York, and when the people working on the boat found him, he then worked his way across, only to be nearly thrown overboard by a mob, when they discovered his political leanings.
Here's a site with a picture from one of Lugosi's earliest Hungarian stage plays.
http://reality.sgiwe...ves/000594.html I realize of course this has minimal connections to the James Bond series, but in some ways Lugosi lived the life of a Bond thriller. Of course one of his favorite things to do, even after he became an American citizen, was to drink Hungarian brandy, listen to Hungarian folk songs, and have a good cry.
To me it looks like Michael Youn is having a worst hair day than Timothy Dalton ever did.
Edited by Stephen Spotswood, 27 January 2006 - 03:15 PM.