Since the inception of vampiric cinema, dozens of actors and actresses have taken on the challenge of playing the most famous bloodsuckers in history. Some, like Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman, to name a few, have left a permanent bite on the genre. Others failed to achieve the same critical acclaim. But it's fair to say that playing a character so embedded in lore, literature, and film is no easy stroll through the cemetary.

For most of us, selecting your favorite Dracula is akin to choosing your favorite James Bond. Some folks prefer the almost balletic and traditional performance of the legendary Bela Lugosi, while others lean toward Christopher Lee's seductive but utterly ruthless Dracula. In the modern era, with the growing sophistication of computer graphics, makeup techniques, and creative camera work, horror fans have the benefit of being treated to more upscale bloodsuckers such as Gary Oldman's seamless vampiric changling from young man to old and then into rats and wolves. Still others would prefer Frank Langella, Willem Dafoe, Stuart Townsend, Jonathan Frid, John Carradine, Kate Beckinsale, Barbara Steele, George Hamilton, or any number of thespians who grabbed a set of sharp canines and took their best shot at proclaiming: “I never drink … wine.” Or in the case of Gerard Butler in Dracula 2000, the very modernized: “I never drink … coffee.”

For sheer artistry and panache, it must be said that every actor and actress who's portrayed a vampire has brought some measure of charm and idiosyncrasy to his or her undead alter ego, and all of their portrayals — the good, the bad, and the ugly — have offered up another crystal to the kaleidoscope of silver screen vampirism. With Max Schreck in his 1922 turn as Count Orlock in Nosferatu, a precedent was set for the vampire as both ugly and predatory — a distinct homage to the vampires of folklore. Few would argue that as the film progressed, Orlock, by whatever magic of lighting, makeup, or our own imaginations, became more grotesque and repugnant. For Lugosi, coming at the crossroad of silent film to talkie gave him the added advantage of having been more in tune to his physical movement. What is often termed his intentional almost balletic motion, which with his menacing and arguably exaggerated facial contortions, made him quite an intense Dracula.

For many horror aficionados, Christopher Lee is the quintessential Count Dracula; his statuesque appearance coupled with impeccable British mannerisms and lithe good looks make him the perfect immortal. With a smoldering and undeniable sexuality, and well-portrayed bloodlust, Lee, unlike any other Dracula, showed the world time and time again that his depiction was a force to be reckoned with. Let us focus, then, on some of the most famous of the silver screen players, beginning with Bela Lugosi.

Bela Lugosi

In 1931, in what many consider to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest vampire film of all time, Bela Lugosi introduced the public to Count Dracula in the first official version based on Bram Stoker's novel. For Lugosi, it is arguably the role of a lifetime, one that secured his legacy in the kingdom of silver screen horror and one that was a long time in the making. Given the ferocity with which Stoker's widow, Florence Stoker, fought to have the 1922 “unauthorized” film Nosferatu literally destroyed, the rights to Stoker's novel were finally secured when Florence sold them to Universal Pictures.

What resulted was director Tod Browning's interpretation, which was actually based more on the stage production of Dracula written by Hamilton Deane and later reworked by John Balderston for the American version (see Chapter 14). While it did draw elements from Stoker's novel, it also took creative license with its characters and progression. For example, in Browning's depiction, it's Renfield who takes center stage rather than the relatively downplayed “John” Harker. Despite it being a low-budget production, Dracula went on to become Universal Pictures' highest-grossing film of 1931.

Taking on the first feature-length portrayal of Dracula was for Lugosi a natural progression, as he had in 1927 already performed the part on Broadway in the Deane/Balderston American adaptation of Deane's original hit stage play (see Chapter 14). What many consider to be a crucial point in the evolution of Stoker's original vampire are the changes Deane and Balderston made, taking Stoker's somewhat ghoulish figure to a well-spoken, impeccably dressed, parlor vampire. Ultimately, it was their transformation of the Count and Lugosi's portrayal that set the tone for all Draculas that would follow, that of a preternatural being who could roam among us with few distinctions that would undermine his humanity. Lugosi, with his Hungarian accent and the constant light beaming across his eyes, would set in stone the menace, obsession, charm, and depravity we've come to expect of the most wicked denizen of the night. Many of Dracula's famous lines and powers appeared in the 1931 version and were readily mimicked or slightly altered in many future vampire films.

Christopher Lee

For many vampire aficionados, the bloodsucking buck stops with legendary actor Christopher Lee. With over 260 films to his credit since 1948, Lee is one of this generation's most talented and prolific actors and one of the greatest stars in the history of horror. During his epic career, which shows no signs of slowing, Lee has played Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu, and scores of villainous performances from Rasputin to Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun. Most recently, he played Saruman in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Count Dooku in the Star Wars episodes Revenge of the Sith and Attack of the Clones.

Lee ended up playing Dracula over seventeen times in his career, with seven of those portrayals done for Hammer Films including Horror of Dracula, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Scars of Dracula, Dracula A.D. 1972, and Satanic Rites of Dracula. What ultimately makes Lee one of the most — if not the most — popular cinematic bloodsucker in history is the amalgam of traits he brought to the character.

At six-foot-five, his tall, dark, and exotically handsome physique, coupled with his trademark intensity, gave Lee the freedom to build his Dracula into not only an animalistic predator, but a shrewd, sexually charged icon. Having played the fiend more than any other actor, Lee, whether he was fighting Van Helsing or securing his latest female conquest, proved to the world that his calculating creature bore the intellect, cunning, and sensual appeal to which all future Draculas could only hope to aspire.

Peter Cushing

Though he typically played superlative vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, it would be woefully inappropriate to exclude Peter Cushing from a discussion of legendary vampire performers, especially given his longstanding screen partnership and lifelong friendship with Christopher Lee. Few acting partnerships are the stuff legends are made of. There's Laurel and Hardy, Bogie and Bacall, Astaire and Rogers, and even Mickey and Minnie. But in the horror realm there is but one duo — Cushing and Lee. They made nineteen films together but are perhaps best known for their vampire cinema.

An impeccably mannered British gent with piercing blue eyes, Cushing — no matter his role — made you feel safe and protected, and in the vampire realm that's a tall order. In truth, more often than not, it was Cushing's Van Helsing who carried the Dracula films, with Lee concentrating his efforts on his bloodthirsty physical intimidation rather than words. Part of what sets Cushing apart from the previous incarnations of Van Helsing, Edward Van Sloan in particular (who played the doctor in both the 1931 Dracula and the 1936 sequel Dracula's Daughter), is that not only was he the perfect combination of gentle but obsessed intellect, he brought to the character a physical presence. Agile and athletic, Cushing was typically the only voice of reason in the Dracula films, and as such, he was usually the one person who could lay waste to the bloodsucker du jour. In doing so, he would go to great lengths to tussle with the black devil, on many an occasion even being bitten himself. Throughout his distinguished career from 1939 to 1986, Cushing was a consummate pro who played everything from Dr. Frankenstein to Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Who and Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. His passing in 1994 is something Christopher Lee still mourns, saying he never felt more open or closer to any of his friends as he did Cushing.

Gary Oldman

In the annals of Dracula legend, Gary Oldman is arguably one of the all-time best portrayers of the Count, if for no other reason that his portrayal of the ancient bloodsucker is a tour de force of emotions one would expect — but are not always entirely shown — from a predator eternally consumed by anger, revenge, lust, love, and power. His brilliant performance in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 version of Bram Stoker's Dracula shows us in no uncertain terms the extent to which the immutable black devil will go to remedy what is at best a tragic tale of love gone horribly wrong. As far as vampire films are concerned, Coppola's version is without question one of the best ever made, from its stylish aura to its stellar cast.

Unfortunately for this film's Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), Dracula has recognized the reincarnation of his wife as Harker's fiancé Mina Murray (Winona Ryder) and is determined to get her back. What makes Oldman's performance so extraordinary in this gothic romantic horrorfest is how seamlessly he shifts from deranged old vampire to handsome young Prince Vlad to various incarnations of wolf and bat and grotesque fanged monster of folklore. Opting to forego CGI technology, Coppola insisted that the cinematography be accomplished using camera trickery, with clever use of camera angles and old-school techniques that proved admirably successful. At its core, the script attempts to retain the best parts of Stoker's original work and greatly benefits not only from Oldman but Sir Anthony Hopkins, who must be duly noted as being one of the best actors to ever take on the daunting role of Abraham Van Helsing.

As did his accomplished vampiric predecessors, Oldman does well to show the core existence of the ultimate nightcrawler, with an accelerated sense of intense charm and intelligence that tautly belies his extreme depravity — the trait of an undeniable predator. Playing off the tale of Transylvania's Vlad the Impaler, Oldman's constant shift from man to animal and killer to lover is absolutely mesmerizing, and his ability to convey the intense loneliness of immortality elicits an empathy rarely captured in vampire cinema. In equal measure, and with wonderful contrast, Hopkins, like Cushing, forgoes the role of the traditional, somewhat boring, scholar of early cinematic Van Helsing's, instead opting for eccentricity and a display of obsession that in its culmination rivals that of Dracula himself. As the hunter, Hopkins's Van Helsing shows a certain respect and empathy for the unholy prince. When Mina mentions to Van Helsing that he admires the vampire, he replies yes, that “he was in life a most remarkable man.”

Another aspect of Oldman's performance worth mentioning is the sexuality he brings to the role. A scene that can be cited as unexpectedly erotic takes place when the young Prince Vlad first meets Mina in London at a viewing of the Cinematograph. After a chaotic crowd dispersal, Mina's confronted by a white wolf, whose attack is quickly halted by the Prince. As she nears the animal, both she and Vlad run their gloved hands over the wolf in intimate strokes, and the stage is immediately set as Vlad states that “there is much to be learned from beasts.” Again, those hints of wisdom and compassion interlaced with the Prince's seething ferocity add depth to Oldman's Dracula, and, in the end, it is that very compassion that makes his demise at the hand of his beloved reincarnated Princess an appropriate conclusion to a long and tumultuous vampiric career.