Quotes By Bela Lugosi

My close-up was magnificent!

It took me years to live down Dracula and convince the film producers that I would play almost any other type of role.

I studied at the Budapest Academy of Theatrical Arts for four years and emerged with a degree.

Actors were exploited no less by the capitalist managers than they were by the state.

Women have a predestination to suffering.

When a film company is in the red they come to me. Always it is the same.

The role seemed to demand that I keep myself worked up to fever pitch, so I took on the actual attributes of the horrible vampire, Dracula.

Martyrdom was the price of enthusiasm for acting.

The former ruling class kept the community of actors in ignorance by means of various lies.

In the studio the director controls the actor's every move, every inflection, every expression.

Of all the roles I've done on the stage, I'm partial to Cyrano de Bergerac.

The vampire was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing, but it was a success.

In making theories, always keep a window open so that you can throw one out if necessary.

I enjoy my work. I haven't been an actor for 30 years without getting pleasure out of the profession.

People, chained by monotony, afraid to think, clinging to certainties... they live like ants.

I've been using narcotics for 20 years.

The screen magnifies everything, even the way you are thinking.

Without movie parts I was reduced to freak status. I just couldn't stand it.

If you are not serious, people will sense it.

Death, the final, triumphant lover.

I'll be truthful. The weekly paycheck is the most important thing to me.

It took several years of hard work in small roles before I attained stardom.

The love-bite, it is the beginning. You will be irresistible.

I'd like to quit the supernatural roles and play just an interesting, down-to-earth person.

The stage is near and dear to me.

It is women who bear the race in bloody agony. Suffering is a kind of horror. Blood is a kind of horror. Women are born with horror in their very bloodstream. It is a biological thing.

I guess I'm pretty much of a lone wolf. I don't say I don't like people at all, but, to tell you the truth, I only like it then if I have a chance to look deep into their hearts and their minds.

In Hungary acting is a profession. In America it is a decision.

I never play without my cape.

There was no male vampire type in existence. Someone suggested an actor of the Continental School who could play any type, and mentioned me.