I have to go along with this.
Although Christopher Lee was pretty damned good.
Max Schreck in Nosferatu
Lugosi has owned the role for over 70 years, and he always will. Everybody else is just swimming in his wake.
Svimming is hiz vake, surely 
Well, not really. Can’t cross running water and all…
You know it, baby. Ohhhh, yeah…
Not actually Dracula, but going with vampires in general I liked Danny John Jules in Blade 2: not just because he was a ninja vampire, but because he played Cat in Red Dwarf. All through his fight scene I kept wanting him to scream “Oowwhh!”, eat goldfish, and excuse himself to go and change into a gold lame suit.
I gotta go with Oldman.
Bela Lugosi is our “image” of Dracula, but Gary Oldman is who scared the shit out of me when I was 12.
I’ve not seen many of the movies you good folks are speaking of, but I will say this: Langella is the only Dracula I’ve ever seen who made me think “Wow. I’d let him bite my neck. . .” So I guess my vote’s for Frankie.
Langella, hands down. Suave, confident, unapologetic…
Louis Jourdan is Stoker’s Dracula, tho he doesn’t look it. Christopher Lee is Stoker’s Dracula in appearance, tho neither the Hammer films nor the Spanish “Count Dracula” allow him to act up to the role.
Master Wang-Ka’s assessment of Lee’s Dracula is right on! While the scripts crippled Lee by not allowing him to verbalize the role, they did allow him to focus on being this malevolent presence. That’s really what Lee doing Dracula is, not acting, but being a Presence.
Langella- pretty darn good. Lugosi also- for his day. Both Schreck & Kinski- excellent as Orlock, who is not exactly Stoker’s Dracula. Oldman wasn’t terrible- especially as Vlad the Impaler and ancient Dracula (modern foppy Prince Vlad of Szeklys was too maudlin).
I’d have to look at Palance again. I enjoyed him in 1973 (then again I was 11), but was really disappointed when I watched it a few years ago. I just didn’t think the Curtis production held up (tho oddly the Curtis production of FRANKENSTEIN, also from 1973. starring Bo Svenson holds up quite nicely. And I wanna see the Curtis-Palance JEKYLL & HYDE as I have fond memories of that.)
I totally agree with this one. I remember watching it with my husband(back when I still had one!) and I about squeezed his hand into a pulp. I hadn’t realized the sexual themes there could be in the tale, until one scene in which the Count is putting the bite on Lucy, The way she writhed and moaned was decidely erotic.
I caught the last few minutes of “Dracula: Dead And Loving It” this afternoon. It was wretched. And Leslie Nielsen’s definitely not getting anyone’s vote.
Phil Fondecaro
As I’ve said before, his Dracula is nobal, primal, menacing and erotic. However, he will never get the recognition his acting deserves because he is a dwarf. He only gets to play Dracula in the horror comedy Creeps. A mad scientist summons Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and Frankenstein from the realm of legend to reality. However, due to a malfunction they all materialize as dwarves. The rest of the acting in the film is about what you’d expect. But, Fondecaro is magnificent.
I love bad films. I watched Creeps expecting a bad film. I got a bad film. But, Fondecaro gives an Oscar worthy performance.
For the dark and imposing Dracula, forbidding and aristocratic, I choose Christopher Lee, followed by Jack Palance (who was actually very good). Palance came across as being more sympathetic in the end, while Lee was the definitive Beast.
For a more seductive Dracula, I choose Frank Langella.
As I’ve mentioned before on this Board, one Halloween I got together a copy of every version of Dracula I could and watched 'em, back to back.
Without a doubt, my choice for best Count Dracula was Bela Lugosi. I have issues with Tod Browning’s film, but Bela was the only one to convince me that he really was what he was supposed to be --an ancient (far older than his appearance) Eastern European Nobleman and Vampire, filled with the proper arrogance and pride and inhumanity, along with truly convincing mannerisms and accent.
As for the best film version, again I’ve noted that some (like horror expert David Skal) choose Louis Jordan’s PBS version. That’s one of the ones I have on tape and watched that night. My verdict: too boring. There’s too much time dspent on solarized dream sequences and not enough of Stoker’s story or of horror. Leonard Wolf (editor of The Annotated Dracula and The Essential Dracula) thinks the Coppola version is the best. But he was technical advisor for th film, so he might be biased. I have to admit that I like this flick more than mos folks at the Board seem to. It sure as heck isn’t boring, and it’s the nly version to throw so much of Stoker’s odd little book on the screen. Whether or not that’s a good idea is open to debate.
But my favorite version is the 1970 Count Dracula, starring Christopher Lee in the only non-Hammer version I know. I ran across this on TV after the opening titles, but I was blown away – it’s faithfcul to the book, with a great performance by Lee. It’s only near the end of the film that it starts to drag down and look cheap. Maybe they were running out of money. This film has been condemned, largely because of the direction by Jesu “Jess” Franco, who is apparently something of a hack. But it doesn’t show, in the first art of this film. They also ave Herbert Lom as Van Helsing (!) and Klaus Kinski (who would later play the vampire in the 1979 Nosferatu) as Renield. Worth racking down and seeing.
Snooooopy brings up *Dracula: Dead and Loving It * (1995) with Leslie Nielsen. This is actually a very interesting film, not because it is good (it isn’t), but because of what it might have been. When I watched it I got the very distinct impression that I was watching a dress rehearsal for a “straight” production of Dracula. The actors were just breezing through their lines and yukking it up and ad-libbing jokes for their own amusement. Once the camera started rolling, they would get serious.
Ironically, *Dracula: Dead and Loving It * is surprisingly faithful to its source - more so than most Dracula films. If they had just given up the comedic premise and played it straight, they would have had a fairly decent Dracula movie - instead of a lame spoof.
Still, the scene where they “stake out” the vampire is pretty funny, though over-the-top.
If you want to see Bela lugosi do it and you have Turner Classic Movies channel, it started 2 minutes ago.
Lugosi may have created the role, but he wasn’t very good in it. I prefer Kinski or Louis Jordain.
Not to be confused with Louis Jordan, though he would have been a hoot in the role.
The French actor is Louis Jourdan. The swing bandleader was Louis Jordan.