Claim: Bela Lugosi played Count Dracula.

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó -LRB- -LSB- ˈbeːlɒ ˈfɛrɛnt͡s ˈdɛʒøː ˈblɒʃkoː -RSB- ; 20 October 1882 -- 16 August 1956 -RRB- , better known as Bela Lugosi -LRB- -LSB- ləˈgoʊsi -RSB- -LSB- ˈlugoʃi -RSB- -RRB- , was a Hungarian-American actor , famous for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 film and for his roles in various other horror films .   He had been playing small parts on the stage in his native Hungary before making his first film in 1917 , but had to leave the country after the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919 . He had roles in several films in Weimar Germany before arriving in the United States as a seaman on a merchant ship .   In 1927 , he appeared as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker 's novel . He later appeared in the classic 1931 film Dracula by Universal Pictures . Through the 1930s , he occupied an important niche in popular horror films , with their East European setting , but his Hungarian accent limited his repertoire , and he tried unsuccessfully to avoid typecasting .   Meanwhile , he was often paired with Boris Karloff , who was able to demand top billing . To his frustration , Lugosi was increasingly restricted to minor parts , kept employed by the studio principally for the sake of his name on the posters . Among his pairings with Karloff , only in The Black Cat -LRB- 1934 -RRB- , The Raven -LRB- 1935 -RRB- , and Son of Frankenstein -LRB- 1939 -RRB- did he perform major roles again , and , even in The Raven , Karloff received top billing despite Lugosi performing the lead role . By this time , Lugosi had been receiving regular medication for sciatic neuritis , and he became addicted to morphine and methadone . This drug dependence was noted by producers , and the offers eventually dwindled down to a few parts in Ed Wood 's low-budget movies , most notably Plan 9 from Outer Space .