While he had been a huge star in his native country, Bela Lugosi was practically unknown in the United States when he went to Hollywood in search of a film career. Hollywood didn’t really know what to do with him, so he found himself playing “foreign” types in B films.
He would eventually get his big break at Universal Studios. The studio had decided to return to its horror roots by producing a live action version of Dracula. Despite portraying the character on stage, Béla Lugosi wasn’t even being considered for the role. Instead, Lon Chaney had been cast as the titular vampire. After Lon’s death, however, Universal had to try casting the role again. This time, Bela’s name did get bounced around as a possibility but it was way down at the bottom of Universal’s list. Luckily for Béla, however, Carl Laemmle, Jr, the son of Universal’s founder would catch his performance in the stage play and immediately offer the role to Béla.
Dracula became a huge hit and Universal sought to take advantage of Bela’s success by casting him in Frankenstein as the monster. Béla, however, wanted nothing to do with the character. In Universal’s script, Frankenstein’s monster just lumbers around making guttural sounds. Béla felt the role was beneath his talent. He still had to do a screen test, however. His Universal contract required him to do whatever Carl Laemmle wished, so Béla went ahead and did the screen test, though he purposely did a bad job. The role would go to Boris Karloff who would become an instant star. Béla insisted that he never regretted his decision to throw the audition, but his career never quite took off the way he had hoped afterwards.
His behavior soured his relationship with Universal, who ended his contract. Béla found himself taking any and every role he could scrounge up. He eventually crawled back to Universal Pictures, ironically starring as Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. Even stranger, his co-star was Lon Cheney, Jr. whose father’s death gave Béla Lugosi his first big break.
