# Who was the best Dracula? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266 "2015-06-11T17:03:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/1 "2015-06-11T17:03:36Z")
See [Pre-Poll Nominations: Best Dracula](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=759257) for origin of this list. Who was the best? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/2 "2015-06-11T17:05:31Z")
No love for George Hamilton in Love at First Bite? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/3 "2015-06-11T17:14:49Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > No love for George Hamilton in Love at First Bite? Still time to vote for him. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/4 "2015-06-11T17:42:50Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > No love for George Hamilton in Love at First Bite? A very funny movie, but not your normal Dracula stuff. 🙂 “What was that maniac drinking?!” ---
**Author:** ![Wallace\_The\_Lad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/43a26b/32.png) [@Wallace\_The\_Lad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallace_The_Lad)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/5 "2015-06-11T17:45:37Z")
Of course the majority will ride for Lee. Lugosi & Lee had the peircing EYES. Palance had the face for the role and the air of menace. I thought the gentlemanly/elegant approach of Dracula -alla Langella - was completely off-subject. And the mad Kinski also. Dracula was pure (not calculated ) Evil - not mere decadence - and should be played so. ---
**Author:** ![Wallace\_The\_Lad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/43a26b/32.png) [@Wallace\_The\_Lad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallace_The_Lad)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/6 "2015-06-11T17:47:38Z")
Who was it played the rather camp Dracula-type in the wonderful Polanski movie ,“Fearless Vampire Killers”? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/7 "2015-06-11T17:52:26Z")
> [@Wallace\_The\_Lad](#): > > Who was it played the rather camp Dracula-type in the wonderful Polanski movie ,“Fearless Vampire Killers”? You decide at [The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061655/?ref_=nv_sr_3) – I never saw it and likely won’t. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/8 "2015-06-11T17:53:08Z")
> [@Wallace\_The\_Lad](#): > > Who was it played the rather camp Dracula-type in the wonderful Polanski movie ,“Fearless Vampire Killers”? That was a good movie and Sharon Tate was so hot. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/9 "2015-06-11T17:54:55Z")
Bela Lugosi, for reasons I gave in the other thread. This is for his performance in the 1931 _Dracula_ film (and, I suppose, his innumerable stage performances of the Deane/Balderston play). Not for his portrayal in _Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein_, nor for his many vampire portrayals as all-but-the-name-Dracula in a host of films. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/10 "2015-06-11T17:55:10Z")
> [@Wallace\_The\_Lad](#): > > Who was it played the rather camp Dracula-type in the wonderful Polanski movie ,“Fearless Vampire Killers”? > **[The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) ⭐ 7.0 | Comedy, Horror](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061655/)** > > 1h 31m | Approved Ferdy Mayne played Count von Krolock ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/11 "2015-06-11T17:55:22Z")
John Carradine was a terrible, no good very bad Dracula. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/12 "2015-06-11T18:15:16Z")
Willem Dafoe, playing Max Schreck, playing Dracula. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/13 "2015-06-11T18:28:56Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Willem Dafoe, playing Max Schreck, playing Dracula. That _was_ good! ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/14 "2015-06-11T18:47:33Z")
How bout Martin Landau playing Bela Lugosi? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZZ10wLxSYUs/hqdefault.jpg "Ed Wood: Bela Lugosi's "I Have No Home" Speech") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ10wLxSYUs) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/15 "2015-06-11T18:48:56Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Willem Dafoe, playing Max Schreck, playing Dracula. He should have easily walked away with the Best Supporting Actor Award that year instead of Benicio del Toro. He got robbed. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/16 "2015-06-11T18:51:56Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Willem Dafoe, playing Max Schreck, playing Dracula. [quote=“madsircool, post:14, topic:722266”] How bout Martin Landau playing Bela Lugosi? [/QUOTE] Somebody (else) ought to take this idea and run with it! What (if any) movies have such levels to their characters? Three deep is about all I can think of offhand and I can’t even add to this list. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/17 "2015-06-11T18:52:25Z")
Here’s more on Dafoe in _Shadow of the Vampire_: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=725540](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=725540). He was great, but technically he wasn’t playing Dracula; he was playing Orlock. My vote was for Frank Langella, who was both sexy and scary in the role. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/18 "2015-06-11T19:20:03Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Somebody (else) ought to take this idea and run with it! What (if any) movies have such levels to their characters? Three deep is about all I can think of offhand and I can’t even add to this list. 🙂 There’s also James Cagney playing Lon Cheney playing The Phantom of the Opera/Hunchback of Notre Dame/whatever in _Man of a Thousand Faces_. Anything beyond three is just ludicrous, as in the first episode of the TV show _Police Squad_ where Leslie Neilsen keeps pulling wigs off the female villain, revealing a stack of different identities. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/19 "2015-06-11T19:25:10Z")
I kinda liked Rudolf Martin. His movie was different, at least, if it wasn’t great. > **[Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Prince:_The_True_Story_of_Dracula)** > > Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (alternately titled Dracula: The Dark Prince and Dark Prince: Legend of Dracula) is a horror-war television film, which premiered in the United States on the USA Network on Halloween, October 31, 2000. It is about Vlad III Dracula, "the Impaler", the historical figure who gave Bram Stoker's Dracula his name. > Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula tells the story of Vlad Dracula, the historical figure who gave Bram Stoker's Dracula his name. Vlad is a dispos... ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266/20 "2015-06-11T20:30:31Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > He was great, but technically he wasn’t playing Dracula; he was playing Orlock. _Very_ technically. The original Nosferatu was a direct rip-off of Dracula. They couldn’t get the rights to the original story from the Stoker estate who successfully sued them in court and had most prints of the film withdrawn and destroyed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-best-dracula/722266.md?page=2)