Bela Lugosi is an actor.
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó ( [ ˈbeːlɒ ˈfɛrɛnt͡s ˈdɛʒøː ˈblɒʃkoː ] ; 20 October 1882 -- 16 August 1956 ) , better known as Bela Lugosi ( [ ləˈgoʊsi ] [ ˈlugoʃi ] ) , 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 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 .