There is no more famous vampire, nor more emblematic movie role than that. So much so that around a hundred actors have played the role of the count throughout history. Today we want to pay tribute to them and, therefore, We show you the best actors who have played Dracula, the most charismatic or the most curious. And for that, we start the list with the oldest Count Dracula who, interestingly enough, was not Count Dracula.
Max SchreckNosferatu
The first Count Dracula in the cinema was not called that, but Count Orlok, in the movie Nosferatu, by FW Murnau and premiered in 1922. Performed by Max Schrek, and giving a very sinister image of Dracula, the film changed details and names from the original book to avoid accusations of violating the copyright of history.
Even so, Bram Stoker's family sued, won, and all copies of the film were ordered destroyed.
A few survived and made history, being one of the films most influential in the history of cinema.
Bela Lugosi, the first Dracula
Bela Lugosi is possibly the most emblematic actor to have played Dracula on film.
He was the first to do so in 1931 (I already had experience having starred in the theater), in the legendary film Dracula by Todd Browning.
His portrayal of the count has been copied time and time again by other actors who have portrayed him on screen, setting the tone for an aristocratic Dracula, with style and cruel background.
Interestingly, he played a vampire four times in the movies, but Dracula only twice. The second time, in Abbott and Costello vs. Frankenstein. Oh really.
Christopher Lee, the actor who has played him the most times
What can we say about Christopher Lee that hasn't already been said? He is the one who has worn Dracula's cape the most times and he performed it up to 10 times, from 1958 to 1976.
It was the days of classic Hammer horror movies, and Lee fascinated and frightened multiple generations.
On many of those adventures, he was in tandem with one of his best friends, Peter Cushing (Moff Tarking of Star Wars), who played his archenemy, the vampire slayer Abraham Van Helsing.
As a curiosity, his last interpretation of the count was in Dracula: father and son, a 1976 French horror comedy. In it, he plays Dracula with a useless son whom he has to convince to follow in his footsteps. The son refuses, they both fall in love with the same woman and you can easily skip it.
Morgan Freeman was also a vampire
In 1971, an unknown Morgan Freeman played a curious character called Count Dracula in a television series that was on the air until 1977. His name was The Electric Company and it was a children's format focused on children from 5 to 9 years old that had different sections where they were taught from scientific experiments to how to dance certain types of music. Even sketch comedians with artists as famous (at that time) as Rita Moreno (the mythical María de West Side Story) or Bill Cosby.
Blacula, the black Dracula
El blaxploitation was a film movement of the 70s in which the African-American population of the United States experienced a tree of movies starring actors of color.
Among them stands out Blacula (1972) (black dracula in Spain) and its sequel, Scream, Blacula, Scream (from 1973, with the legendary Pam Grier). Performed by William Marshall, they were box office hits and somewhat better than it seems, especially if you love the black culture of the seventies and its incredible cultural and musical legacy.
Frank Langella, the correct Dracula
Shortly after Lee left the role for good, he was picked up by Frank Langella in Dracula (1979), with the legendary Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing.
The film was somewhat successful, won a few awards and opened doors for Langella for many other roles.
George Hamilton, a seductive vampire
A very peculiar vampire was played by the actor George Hamilton who, in 1979, starred in the film Love at first bite, a romantic comedy with a little bit of terror in which Count Dracula is evicted from his castle so he decides to travel to New York, the place where the woman he has loved throughout the centuries supposedly lives. Undoubtedly, she is an incarnation of the most famous vampire in cinema, something special... and seductive.
Klaus Kinski, the second incarnation of the Nosferatu
Klaus Kisnki starred in the role of Dracula in the 1979 film Nosferatu, the Vampire of the nightby Werner Herzog.
Un Disturbing Dracula, faithful representation of the original Nosferatu in terms of physical appearance, they no longer had to go around with name changes for reasons of copyright. Here, the vampire is also called Dracula and focuses on a cursed character, condemned to loneliness forever due to his nature and his immortality.
Gary Oldman, the most seductive Dracula
Since Lugosi set the tone, many of the actors who have played Dracula have shown that elegant and seductive side. However, the one who developed this part the most was, without a doubt, Gary Oldman in the Dracula Coppola's 1992.
Centered on an eternal love story with Mina Harker, which has nothing to do with the original novel, some of its effects and shots are very ingenious and give an incomparable atmosphere.
This film, a critical and public success, brought the character back into fashion after a long period of lethargy without anything to stand out. Oldman's interpretation is unforgettable and, above all, give a hundred laps to his co-stars, some stiff Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder.
Highly, highly recommend.
Luke Evans, the most recent Dracula in the cinema
Luke Evans has been the last one who has put on the Dracula cape in the cinema en dracula untold (2014). Or rather, he put on the armor of Vlad Tepes (aka the impaler), Prince of Wallachia and historical figure with whom the vampire has always been associated.
Actually, they never had anything to do with each other and this film, which tries to tell the origins and how Vlad became bloodsucker, it stays halfway of everything. So much so that it seems that she has put Dracula in the cinematographic coffin for a while.
Bracula, the Dracula of Chiquito
It is an obligation to leave room for a very special Dracula for us. The fact that played Chiquito de la Calzada in 1997 in which was the continuation of Here comes Condemor. With Bracula: Condemor II, the comedian born in Malaga did not hesitate to put on some good fangs and hide in the shadows to bite all the necks he could. It is evident that at a cinematographic level he is not up to some of the productions that you have above, but as an anecdote to take into account it is more than interesting. Prairie sinner!
dracula on tv
Dracula has also had his share of glory on the small screen. From the young dracula, a British series of 5 seasons, until Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who clashed with actor Rudolf Martin in the episode buffy vs dracula.
To highlight two recent incarnations. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, in the series Dracula 2013, produced by NBC. Despite the fact that she had at the helm the same person in charge of the much more fascinating Carnivale, it comes to nothing.
As well Claes Kasper Bang, the Danish actor who plays Dracula in the miniseries of the same name, a 2020 BBC/Netflix co-production. Not bad and certainly updates the character with new stories, showing a raw and seductive side to the count.
As you can see, it is impossible to cover those hundred actors without writing an encyclopedia, especially in those cases in which the vampire is not the protagonist, but rather a secondary or background character. Rutger Hauer, Lon Chaney, John Carradine (5 times Dracula in titles like Billy the Kid vs. Dracula), Gerald Butler in a horrible dracula 2000… Even the one and only Leslie Nielsen of Grab it however you can.
Stand out among them Tricia Helfer (The Cylon number six in the remake de Battlestar Galactica). are the first and, to our knowledge, only woman to play Dracula in the role of Olivia von Dracula, specifically in the fourth season of the series Van Helsing.