Charmed, I’m sure, I put it to you that we’re both right to a certain extent: despite the fact that, in the book, Van Helsing does indeed make the association between the fictional character and the historical figure - “[He] must have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk”, according to this essay by Elizabeth Miller, Professor of English at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Stoker had already conceived of the character before he appropriated the surname of Vlad the Impaler:
However, Vlad the Impaler was never known as “Count Dracula”, and was a warlike Romanian folk hero, not a bloodsucking undead creature.
No one ever called Benjamin Siegel “Bugsy” to his face during his lifetime, but the name refers to him unmistakably. Ditto Al Capone and “Scarface,” Alexander Selkirk and “Robinson Crusoe,” Marcella Gruelle and “Raggedy Ann,” Vlad Tepes and “Dracula.” Go to Romania and ask around about Dracula; no one will think you mean Ceaucescu.
I thought I knew what a “biopic” was, a film that is a biography of its central figure, but this thread is making me question that. How is, for instance, Cleopatra not a biopic? It’s about the historical Cleopatra, and while it may play fast and loose with the facts as we know them (though I haven’t seen it), so do all non-documentry movies, more or less.
Well, there was an historical D’Artagnan (Charles de Batz-Castlemore, Comte d’Artagnan [1618-1673]), but the historical person and the fictional character share little more than a name and a position in the King’s Musketeers. Even the time period of their service is a little bit off, as the historical D’Artagnan would only have been about 8 years old when Dumas has his character coming to Paris as a young man.
Do TV movies count?
“The Woman Who Loved Elvis” - It stared Roseanne and Tom Arnold. Actually, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. She was a woman obsessed with Elvis. Even named her kids Lisa and Priscilla. Her husband had taken off with another woman, the kids thought she was nuts, but it all worked out in the end.
“Anna and the King of Siam”
Was "Gunga Din’ a real person? Anyone know?
How about all the “Benji” and Lassie" films? Dogs are people too! If you don’t believe that, come on over and tell mine to his face. (I think he’s the biggest Rottie in Surrey, but I may be wrong…)
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