Is Christopher Lee the Ultimate Dracula?

Bela Lugosi played the most famous vampire in cinema history and arguably is the most famous Dracula. He first played the bloodsucking count on Broadway during the 1927-28 season, in a play by Hamilton Dean & John L. Balderston based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. He then recreated the role in Tod Browning's classic 1931 film.

Tod Browning's 1931Dracula, of course, is a must see for any cineaste, let alone horror movie fan. It is a classic, both as an example of the early sound cinema and as an example of the horror genre. The movie originally was intended as a silent film, and the first scenes lensed were shot as a silent, so it tells its story mainly in visuals. It is still creepy and preternatural more than three-quarters of a century after its release.

After the 1977 revival of the Dean/Balderston stage Dracula on Broadway became a huge hit that ran for three years, the old war horse was once again commited to film. Frank Langella, who was nominated for a Tony as Dracula (the production itself won a Tony for best revival), reprised his role as the Transylvania tresspasser in the disappointing 1979 Dracula. (Laurence Olivier, the year he copped his then record-10th (and last) Oscar nomination, embarrassed himself as Professor Van Helsing in the '79 revival.)

Frank Langella is a fine actor capable of excellence, but his blow-dried hair, 1970s' disco-look Dracula just doesn't cut it as a menacing presence, though his odd stare is ideal for the legendary vampire. Honestly, there is only one contender, other than Bela Lugosi, in the "Best Count Dracula Contest," and that is Christopher Lee, the man who -- along with fellow Dracula John Carradine -- competes for the title of the actor who has been in the most movies ever.

Most Prolific Movie Actor

John Carradine played the count in House of Dracula (1945) after his first appearance as the blood-sucking aristocrat in a cameo in House of Frankenstein (1944), one of Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Wolfman pictures.

Towards the end of his life, John Carradine claimed that he had surpassed Oscar-winner Donald Crisp (who started in the earliest days of silent films, when an entire movie could consist of one or two reels lasting 10 minutes) as the most prolific screen actor of all time. Carradine said that he had appeared in over 500 movies.

The Internet Movie Database has John Carradine as appearing in 300 films, while Donald Crisp is only listed in 170 known films, though his real count was likely higher, many early movies having been lost. Christopher Lee, one of the all-time great character actors/B-movie leads is still going strong, and has appeared in over 200 films.

Like John Carradine, Christopher Lee also has claimed the title for being in the most films. (Interestingly, Lee's mother's maiden name was Carandini; she was descended from Italian nobility.) Of his 200 plus films, Lee played Dracula ten times.

The Ultimate Dracula

The 6'5" Christopher Lee is the tallest actor to portray Count Dracula, but it is that aristocratic face, haughty and arrogant, and those killer eyes that portray the menace and convey the horror of the undead that makes him an ideal Dracula. To create a frightening look in Bela Lugosi's eyes, pen-lights were used to illuminate them. Christopher Lee needed no artificial illumination to fully realize his menacing Count Dracula.

Neither Bela Lugosi (or Frank Langella) wore fangs while portraying Dracula: Christopher Lee, on the other hand, displayed the count's fangs proudly, dripping with blood. Lee's Dracula conveys all the sexual innuendo inherent in the role of the screen's greatest blood-sucker, but he -- more than Lugosi or any other actor aside from Max Schreck's Count Orlock in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu(the first vampire movie in cinema history) -- conveys the physical menace, the violence of this minister of hell.

The Christopher Lee Dracula films he made for the English horror movie studio Hammer films in the 1950s, '60s and '70s established him as a towring presence in the genre. As good an actor as Gary Oldman is (and he is the best thing, in the title role, in Francis Ford Coppola's overblown, high-budget 1992 potboiler Bram Stoker's Dracula), Lee is better, even though the Hammer Draculas are B-movies.

The best Christopher Lee Dracula films are the 1958 Dracula, where he first assays the role, Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), and Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970). Peter Cushing, the great character actor/B-movie lead who portrayed Professor Van Helsing in the original '58 Hammer Dracula, teamed up with Lee for two other fine entries in Hammer Films' Dracula oeuvre, Dracula A.D. 1972 (which features a lucious Stephanie Beacham, fresh off her co-starring turn with Marlon Brando in the Turn of the Screw prequel The Nightcomers, as Jennifer Van Helsing), and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973).\\

The Best Van Helsing

Just as Christopher Lee is the best Dracula, Peter Cushing (1913-94) ranks as the best Van Helsing in what essentially is a thankless role when played by other actors. Cushing beats out even the legendary Laurence Olivier for top honors in the Van Helsing sweepstakes. Interestingly, both Cushing and Christopher Lee appeared with in Olivier's Oscar-winning Hamlet in 1948), their first appearance together in a film.

The two horror movie legends, who became fast friends, appeared in 25 films together from 1948 to 1983. Interestingly, Christopher Lee turned down the role of the Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars (1977), a role played by Peter Cushing. Lee later became part of the Star Wars series as Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, establishing him as a cinema legend to a new generation of film-goers.