Bela George Lugosi (born January 5, 1938 in Los Angeles, California), also known as Bela Lugosi Jr., is an American attorney and the son of actor Béla Lugosi. His legal actions in Lugosi v. Universal Pictures led to the creation of the California Celebrities Rights Act.

The Celebrities Rights Act or Celebrity Rights Act was passed in California in 1985, which enabled a celebrity's personality rights to survive his or her death. Previously, the 1979 Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs, as a copyright would have. The court ruled that any rights of publicity, and rights to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death.

 

About Bela Lugosi...

Synopsis

Bela Lugosi was born in Lugos, Hungary on October 20, 1882. He ran away at age 11 and worked odd jobs including stage acting. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1921 and was cast as the lead in a Broadway production of Dracula. He became nationally known when a film version of the play was released in 1931.

Early Life

Actor. Bela Lugosi was born as Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko on October 20, 1882 in Lugos, Hungary, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His birthplace was only some fifty miles away from the western border of Transylvania and the Poenari Castle, the legendary home of Vlad the Impaler, the historical Dracula, whom Lugosi would portray to great acclaim on both stage and screen. Although descended from a long line of Hungarian farmers, Lugosi's father, Istvan Blasko, broke with family tradition to become a baker and banker. Bela Lugosi was a temperamental and rebellious child. "I was very unruly as a boy, very out of control," he later admitted. "Like Jekyll and Hyde, except that I changed according to sex. I mean, with boys I was tough and brutal. But the minute I came into company with girls and women, I kissed their hands… With boys, I say, I was a brute. With girls, I was a lamb."

Lugosi attended the local grammar school in Lugos and then continued on to the Hungarian State Gymnasium at the age of 11, in 1893. However, Lugosi hated the strict discipline and formality of the State Gymnnasium, and one year later, he dropped out of school and ran away from home. Traveling on foot and relying on the occasional odd job and the charity of strangers for food and lodging, Lugosi finally settled in a small mining town named Resita, approximately 300 miles south of Lugos. He worked in the mines and also as a machinist's assistant. However, Lugosi was captivated by the touring theatrical troupes that came through Resita and set his heart on becoming an actor. "They tried to give me little parts in their plays, but I was so uneducated, so stupid, people just laughed at me," he recalled. "But I got the taste of the stage. I got, also, the rancid taste of humiliation."

In 1897, Lugosi left Resita to join his mother and his sister Vilma in Szabadka. In 1898, he returned to school but dropped out after only four months and took a job as a railroad laborer. Soon after, Vilma's husband managed to land Lugosi a place in the chorus of a traveling theater company. Displaying remarkable raw talent despite his lack of education or training, Lugosi quickly ascended from the back of the chorus into leading roles as he traveled across Hungary performing with the troupe. By the early 1900s, he had been accepted into Hungary's Academy of Performing Arts with a specialty in Shakespearean acting. Adopting the name "Lugosi" as a reference to his birthplace of Lugos, throughout the first decade of the 20th century he toured the Austro-Hungarian Empire performing male lead roles in such Shakespearean classics as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew. In 1913, he joined the Hungarian National Theater in Budapest and starred in more Shakespearean plays, as well as Cyrano de Bergerac and Faust.

Although members of the National Theater were exempt from military service, in June 1914 the highly patriotic Lugosi put his acting career on hold to fight for Hungary against Russia in World War I. After being discharged from the army due to health problems in 1916, Lugosi returned to the National Theater and delivered a celebrated performance as Jesus Christ in The Passion. Over the next few years, Lugosi gradually transitioned from stage acting into Hungary's rapidly growing silent film industry. In addition to acting in many silent Hungarian films, Lugosi organized Hungary's National Trade Union of Actors, the world's first film actors' union. He was a staunch supporter of the 1919 Hungarian Revolution that briefly brought Bela Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic into power, and as a result when the revolution collapsed Lugosi found himself a wanted enemy of the new government. "After the war, I participated in the revolution," he said. "Later, I found myself on the wrong side."

In 1919, Lugosi fled to Vienna, as legend has it buried beneath a pile of straw in wheelbarrow. From there he traveled to Berlin where he quickly found work in the German cinema. Lugosi appeared in several German films in 1920, most notably The Head of Janus, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Despite this quick success in Germany, Lugosi decided to immigrate to the United States; after a brief stop in Italy, he set sail for New Orleans, arriving on December 4, 1920. From there he immediately made his way to New York City, where an already sizeable Hungarian theatrical community welcomed him with open arms. Lugosi plunged himself into New York's Hungarian theater as an actor and director of many Hungarian productions over the next several years. Despite not yet having a firm grasp of the language, he made his English-language stage debut in a 1922 production of The Red Poppy, for which Lugosi memorized his lines phonetically. Since silent films still predominated, Lugosi's language skills were not a barrier to his acting in American movies. He made his American film debut in The Silent Command (1923) and then appeared in The Midnight Girl (1925).

Dracula

In 1927, Lugosi accepted the titular role in the American theatrical run of Dracula, a play based on Bram Stoker's gothic novel of the same name. Lugosi's Dracula was unlike any previous portrayals of the role. Handsome, mysterious and alluring, Lugosi's Dracula was at once so sexy and so haunting that audiences gasped when he first opened his mouth to speak. After a half-year run on Broadway, Dracula toured the United States to much fanfare and critical acclaim throughout 1928 and 1929. "It is a marvelous play," Lugosi said. "We keep nurses and physicians in the theatre every night… for the people in the audience who faint." With the popularization of "talking pictures" – movies with sound – Universal decided to make a film version of Dracula starring Lugosi. The 1931 film, entitled The Strangest Passion the World Has Ever Known, was a smash hit and forever immortalized Lugosi's chilling portrayal of Dracula. Although countless actors have played Dracula since, to this date vampire enthusiasts idolize Lugosi as synonymous with the character.

Throughout the 1930s, Lugosi was typecast as a Hollywood horror villain – playing monsters, murderers and mad scientists – in dozens of B-list films. His most notable performances were Murderers in the Rue Morgue (1932), White Zombie (1932), International House (1933), The Raven (1934), Dracula's Daughter (1936) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). While none of these roles were especially noteworthy in isolation, Lugosi's cumulative body of work during the 1930s established him as one of the first great stars of the horror genre. Nevertheless, throughout his entire career Lugosi was frustrated by his inability to break through into other types of films. "I am definitely typed, doomed to be an exponent of evil," he said. "But I want sympathetic roles. Then parents would tell their offspring, 'Eat your spinach and you'll grow up to be a nice man like Bela Lugosi.' As it is, they threaten their children with me instead of the bogey-man."

After a few lean years in the late 1930s, when horror movies fell out of vogue in Hollywood, in the 1940s Lugosi once again began appearing in countless horror films as well as sequels and spoofs such as The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Despite his prolific acting career and high profile, due to Universal's ruthless compensation system and his own careless spending, Lugosi lived the majority of his adult life deeply mired in debt. He spent the last few years of his career in the early 1950s back on the stage in revival productions of Dracula as well as Arsenic and Old Lace.

Later Years and Legacy

In 1956, Lugosi began work on a sci-fi thriller called Plan 9 From Outer Space. However, he passed away in the middle of filming on August 16, 1956, aged 73. Lugosi was fittingly buried in his Dracula cape.

Despite Lugosi's death, Plan 9 from Outer Space was completed with director Ed Wood's wife's chiropractor taking over his part. The final version of the film bizarrely mixes footage of Lugosi as well as footage of his replacement (who looks nothing at all like him), one of many oddities that make Plan 9 From Outer Space both a cult classic and a film many critics have called the worst of all time.

Bela Lugosi married five times. In 1917, while still in Hungary, he married Ilona Szmik. They divorced two years later, when Lugosi fled for Germany and Szmik refused to leave her native land. In 1921, shortly after arriving in New York, he married Illona von Montagh, but they too divorced after three years in 1924. Lugosi married his third wife, Woodruff Weeks, in 1929; their marriage lasted all of three days. In 1933, he married his fourth wife, Lillian Arch, and they remained married for twenty years before finally separating in 1953. He married Hope Lininger in 1955 and they stayed together until his death a year later.

The actor who became synonymous with Dracula, Bela Lugosi paved the way for the incredible proliferation of vampire movies in Hollywood. His depiction of Dracula as at once dangerous and mysteriously sexy continues to shape the way vampires are portrayed in such pop culture phenomena as Twilight and True Blood. However, Lugosi was much more than a one-hit wonder who played out the rest of his career in B-grade slasher movies. He was a multitalented and immensely gifted performer who mastered Shakespearean acting in Hungary before coming to define the American horror film genre. Nevertheless, despite his dozens of films and stage performances, Lugosi lives on for posterity not so much as an actor but as the personification of his greatest character. When he performed as Dracula, Lugosi spoke for his own personal legacy as much as for his character when he pronounced the immortal line, "I am Dracula."

Gale Glassner Twersky, A.C.H. is a HypnoCounselor/hypnotherapist, Motivational Speaker and President of Glassner Associates Hypnosis for Personal Growth and Wellness since 1999. Gale's HypnoCounseling practice was in Montclair, NJ from 1999-2009 before being relocated to Los Angeles, CA area in 2010. Also in 2010, Gale was the honored recipient of the International Hypnosis Federation Award for Excellence in Communication. Besides being an experienced certified teacher of English and Oral Communications, Gale is certified in Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapy and has several specialty certifications including Past Life hypnosis, Hypno-anesthesia and Spiritual counseling. Additionally, Gale is a certified instructor/trainer of hypnosis. She heads the Glassner Associates Hypnosis certification training program.



In 1993 Gale founded Soul Sisters, a personal growth and spiritual development group that still is active in NJ. For seven years Gale served as a columnist writing articles about hypnosis for the Montclair Life and Leisure newspaper. In 2005 she authored and recorded in partnership with Nightingale-Conant, Corp., her 9 CD program, Reprogram Your Subconscious: How to Use Hypnosis to Get What You Really Want that quickly became and still is a Top Seller for seven years. In 2006 Gale published her single CD, Relax, Release and Dream On that has been #1 mp3 Spoken Word Download on Amazon.com. In 2010 she completed the updated and greatly expanded paperback/eBook edition of the 9-CD Series: Reprogram Your Subconscious: How to Use Hypnosis to Get What You Really Want that is a culmination of over thirty years of her dedicated life's work in the personal growth and spiritual development field.



In 2012, Gale created the Reprogramming Hypnosis Specialist certification program that prepares and also certifies hypnosis professionals as Reprogram Your Subconscious Practitioners. In 2014, Gale began offering a One or Two Day Intensive Care Retreat. The Retreat is a unique and highly effective, one-on-one, individualized approach. This format is especially conducive to activating comprehensive Reprogramming Hypnosis goals of self-improvement.

My name is Lucille Trice. I am a Licensed Practical Nurse, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Lymphatic Therapist, and Full Service Esthetician in the state of Florida. I have enjoyed my career in nursing for over 24 years.  I began my career as a field medic for the United States Army and earned my nursing license while serving. After my honorable discharge, I continued nursing up and down the east coast finally settling in Florida and working for the Lee Health system.  My primary background is in Cardiac medicine and Pediatrics.  I walked away from the hospital setting a few years ago in search of a way to continue to help people within a less stressful environment. I now look forward to applying my knowledge of the human body and my medical experience to help people improve the quality of their skin, general health, and relieve their pain through the application of holistic/vegan skincare and therapeutic massage therapies.

Kathryn is a Women’s Spiritual Empowerment Coach, Yoga, Meditation Professional, Women’s Retreat facilitator and Higher Self expert.

A native of NY, Kathryn learned meditation and yoga as a small child, and continued her spiritual quest as she traveled the world obtaining her formal and informal education. Always an entreprenuar and dedicated ambassador for non profits

Her Entrepreneurial and passionate spirit lead to starting her first company while in college at Bond University in Australia. After many successful years in the marketing in non profit segments, Kathryn took the leap into her true purpose as a coach.

Kathryn believes that we are all here to live into our unique purpose, to do so we must align with natural law, listen to our inner guidance, honor our desires and become fearless in the pursuit of what sets us free. This belief comes from direct experience, she was her own first client and now shares the teachings and practices that have brought her a life of purpose, freedom and infinite possibilities.

Her style weaves together esoteric and modern teachings, intuition and somatic experiences. She has trained with powerful teachers all over the world, studying in depth the various forms of meditation and yoga, yogic and tantric philosophy, leadership development, psychology and alternative healing therapies. Her purpose is to awaken and explore the power of the divine feminine.

Angel Ribo, known as The CEO Confidant, is an International Speaker and the Preeminent Advisor to CEOs. Corporate and entrepreneurial CEOs hire Angel to bridge the gap globally for expansion and exposure because they have limited themselves to their immediate market: their own backyard. So Angel helps them understand, discover, and design a plan to go into international markets. There is a science and a secret to taking things globally, and that is his mastery.

In a nutshell, this is what Angel helps CEOs do:

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2. Find the right local partners to go in this journey together.

3. Learn the most important local business development strategies and tactics they have to use to generate revenue in that country.

In the last 19 years, Angel has helped more than 1,500 CEOs in 33 different countries. He was born near Barcelona, has lived in 8 countries, and speaks 5 languages fluently. Angel is now based in Texas, where he cares for his family and runs his Business. Early in 2017, he launched his international foundation, Wisdom for Kids, and he has helped hundreds of underprivileged kids in Latin America become entrepreneurs using their local resources.

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After failing to find any medical help for her symptoms of exhaustion, weight gain and hormone issues herself in her early 40’s, she discovered that she could turn things around using diet, lifestyle and natural supplements.

She went on to qualify as a nutritional therapist and hormone expert, and now helps women all over the world with her online programmes, hormone testing, workshops and individual and group coaching.

She has recently published her first book;

It’s not you, it’s your hormones; The essential guide for women over 40 to fight fat, fatigue and hormone havoc.

Daniel Gutierrez is a bestselling author, international master business/life coach, renowned motivational speaker and spiritual teacher.  His search for deeper truth and human excellence has taken him around the world to study with Sanskrit priest and Buddhist monks in the Himalayas and deep in the Andes and Amazonian jungle to work with Peruvian shamans.

Based in Los Angeles, Daniel has been the cover story in Latin Business Magazine and listed in its “Top 100 Hispanics in America, Cypen Magazine and most recently Color Magazine.

Daniel has served as President of PRIMER, a prestigious national leadership organization based in New York City. Mr. Gutierrez has also served as an advisor to the Department of White House Personnel for the Obama Administration and currently serves as the President of the Holistic Chamber of Commerce in Long Beach, California.

Once a high-powered executive and in-demand consultant who graced the covers of Latin Business, Cypen and Color Magazines, Daniel Gutierrez realized that there was more to success than a 7-figure earning potential. As President of PRIMER, a prestigious national leadership organization and an advisor to the Department of White House Personnel for the Obama Administration, Daniel was a highly regarded and deeply revered leader. Though Daniel was listed as one of the “Top 100 Hispanics in America” along Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, actor Edward James Olmos, and CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, something was still missing.

To find fulfillment, Daniel decided to dedicate the next chapter of his life to becoming a Master of Mindfulness. During the past 10 years he has led quests to the heights of the Machu Picchu, the depths of the Amazon and the top of the Himalayas. After the boardroom, now Daniel has been guiding entrepreneurs and experts in deep dive mindfulness immersions. Though mindfulness is a lifelong practice, Daniel has become known for giving life-altering strategies in as little as 60 seconds. When facing extreme pressure, executives go from high-strung to highly productive. Daniel has even turned Wall Street cubicles from a place of stress to pads of serenity. 

A beloved mentor and sought-after motivational speaker, Daniel was featured in the documentary Luminous World Views as one of eighteen world-renowned transformational thought-leaders. He is a bestselling author, who is excited to release his fifth book, Radical Mindfulness.