The startling true story behind these photos of JESUS – it's BELA (DRACULA) LUGOSI.
Years before Lugosi immigrated to the United States from his native Hungray to worldwide acclaim playing Dracula first on Broadway and then immortalizing the blood thirsty count on film Dracula (1931) Lugosi was a well known theatrical actor in his native Hungary.
Among the many plays, Lugosi enacted in was the medieval version of the Passion Play depicting the life, death (and resurrection) of Jesus Christ.
Like stars of today, Lugosi produced a comp card, an 8X10 of memorable images of the actor in makeup and enacting The Passion, in order to show off his versatility as an actor.
While Lugosi struggled to learn English in America performing the dialog in Dracula by pronouncing the words phonetically he also made some unfortunate decisions involving his career.
Despite turning down the role of the Frankenstein monster making Boris Karloff a star, Lugosi's unique charisma burned through celluloid – no matter the crummy B-film — unlike any other star before or since.
Bravely battling a morphine addiction in the twilight of his career, Bela Lugosi was the first star to publicly acknowledge his drug problems by entering rehab (SEE VIDEO below).
Finally clean and able to speak English fluently, Lugosi was in fine fettle for his last films with infamous director Edward D Wood, Jr. in such B-classics as Bride of the Atom and Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Dying in 1956, unable to separate his real life tragedies from his most famous characterization, Bela was buried in his Dracula cape.
Yet, like the man of peace he once portrayed, Lugosi's star burns eternal — thanks to the generations of new fans who discover his unique and powerful personality each and every Halloween when the lights dim and his mesmerizing voice commands you to believe that he is indeed the immortal "Draac-u-la".
