Ranking the 10 Best Cinematic Draculas
5. Bela Lugosi, Dracula (1931)
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I would obviously be remiss if I didn’t give Bela Lugosi a spot on this list. He is the quintessential Dracula for many people, and the prototypical vampire costume is really just a variation of his. He had fantastically expressive eyes and a magician’s hands.
I think he was the best at portraying Dracula’s hypnotizing power, which is all the more impressive once you realize he was doing it almost entirely with his face and body (the aforementioned eyes and hands). There was no CGI effect on his eyes (though they did always shine a bar of light across his face to emphasize them), and no sound effect on his voice.
But he’s pretty much a ham bone in terms of the rest of his performance. Shoot me.
4. Frank Langella, Dracula (1979)
I wonder what’s going on under that cape, pre-teen Sara thought. Insert your own “weaking” joke here.
True story: Back in my ten-year-old Dracula-obsessed phase, I used to pretend he was my dad. When I re-read the book as a teenager and at once recognized all the sexual innuendo, Freud himself actually rose from the dead and personally shook my hand for figuring out a way to play out an Electra complex in spite of being raised by a single mother.
Frank Langella’s Dracula is just pure sex appeal. Well, seventies sex appeal, which is admittedly a little dated. And involves a lot of pirate shirts, for some reason.
This version marked one of the earliest attempts to make the Count a romantic hero; the artistic staff was well aware that most of the time the audience was rooting for Drac and not that old wet blanket Van Helsing. Especially as we moved further and further away from Victorian norms as a society: the book is very much about how dangerous it is for women to be open about or even aware of their sexuality, whereas the seventies saw huge strides in women’s lib and the advent of the birth control pill.
So we sleep with ageless demons every now and again! Our bodies, ourselves!
3. Gary Oldman, Bram Stoker’s Dracula
L to R: John Lennon, Albert Einstein on a really good hair day
I love me some Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Not only does Anthony Hopkins deliver the most spot-on interpretation of Van Helsing (His accent really does go in and out like that—IN THE BOOK. Stoker was WRITING an accent and couldn’t keep it together.), but Gary Oldman delivers the most nuanced portrait of Dracula’s intellect I’ve seen on film. Yes he’s supernatural, but he’s also been alive for half a millennium. One would guess he’s gained some superior insight and wisdom over the years.
Upon further reflection, he should really sit down and write the great Romanian novel.
2. Klaus Kinski, Nosferatu the Vampyre
He’s barely human, but still he goes straight for the boob.
I had a super tough time choosing between Kinski and Max Schreck for this spot. They both exemplify the Count’s creepy animal side, slithering around the sets like the lizards they were channeling. All bat-morphing aside, one of the scariest parts of the novel is when Jonathan Harker looks outside the window of his (locked from the outside) room in Dracula’s castle, only to see the Count himself scaling a sheer cliff face like an iguana.
Both Schreck and Kinski embraced this side of the vampire king, but in the end I went with Klaus Kinski. It’s sort of like choosing between Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly: Gene Kelly was man who was a dancer. Fred Astaire was a dancer who was also a man. Max Schreck was a lunatic who was an “actor.” Klaus Kinski was an actor who was also a lunatic. He was cray-cray, but he had the skills to pay the bills.
1. Christopher Lee, Horror of Dracula
Oh sure. She looks like she’s having a real rough time of it.
Christopher Lee is the mack daddy of all Draculas. He’s clever, brutal, charismatic, wolfish, an impeccable dresser, and also a real tall drink of water. Seriously, Lee was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the tallest leading man. He’s the perfect combination of every quality I’ve praised in the other actors on this list. His Dracula is always two steps ahead of Van Helsing and Arthur, the “heroes,” and Arthur’s wife frankly seems pleased as punch with his nocturnal visitations. And his voice is ridiculous. Who needs a bar of light across your face when you can hypnotize me through time and space and television screens?
When Van Helsing finally defeats him at the end of Horror of Dracula, we can’t believe it. Turns out we were right to be skeptical, since Lee’s Dracula went on to be resurrected eight more times.
Honorable Mention: William Marshall, Blacula
Blacula was an African prince who was turned by Dracula, so I couldn’t in good conscience put him on the list, but William Marshall deserves a shout out for that facial hair alone. Dracula was noted to have all kinds of weird hair, including patches in both palms (oh, Victorians), so it’s nice to see an interpretation that lets that tradition live a little.
For the record, John Carradine would be #11, if any of you readers are Dracula afficionados. I know he played Dracula multiple times like Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi, and I recognize he’s important in terms of the character’s history, but he never really grew on me, what can I say? It was like Doctor Who was going around pretending to be a vampire.
Richard Roxburgh’s ears are tingling today….
I really hate to point this out, but in (#3 – Gary Oldman Bram Stoker’s Dracula) was he meant to be 50 years old, or 500? Half a century is not the longest of times…
I would’ve gone with Schreck. The silent film aspect to the original Nosferatu makes it, in my opinion, more disorienting and therefore creepier. Having Christopher Lee as number one totally makes sense. Lugosi should be higher up if only for the fact that HE WAS FUCKING BURIED WITH THE CAPE HE WORE IN THE MOVIE
Holy crap, Dana. Thank you. Fixed.
Just so you know, Dracophilia IS a real thing. I also suffer from that affliction.
“I think of him the same way I think of my first after-school YMCA counselor. I didn’t know why I liked hugging him, but I really liked hugging him.”
Delightfully creepy yet charming and innocent at the same time. How do you do that?
“Freud himself actually rose from the dead and personally shook my hand for figuring out a way to play out an Electra complex in spite of being raised by a single mother.”
Well, that’s the single best sentence anyone anywhere has written in about a year. At least.
I’ve really got to take you to task on a few things, though, fellow Dracophile. First, Hopkins was comically over-the-top in Bram Stoker’s Dracula at times. Distractingly so. Like more distracting than Keanu’s terrible English accent distracting.
Second, Roxberg?
[insert “not sure if serious” meme here]
Turning into real bats is way cooler (and scarier) than turning into a Michael Bay movie. As a bat, Drac can spy on you unnoticed, and the idea of swarm of those things is terrifying by itself and changing into one is downright otherworldly. How can a single entity turn into a whole swarm of separate entities? That is some mind-bending shit.
Third, Klinski played Drac as a pathetic rat. Interesting, but not at all iconic compared to Schrecks’ vision of pure pestilential horror. Should have gone with “Schreck technically played Count Orlok, not Dracula” if you were looking for a reason to kick him out in favor of a more pitiful take.
Cool article though, even though putting Lugosi lower than 2 is always an instant DQ. If nothing else, you showed an interesting psychological duplicity for picking either the sexiest Draculas or the very weirdest. Have you seen “Pages From a Virgin’s Diary”? It’s “Dracula” adapted as a silent ballet and it’s actually really excellent as it focuses primarily on the vampire as a foreign (first Asian Dracula!) sexual creature delivering satisfaction to the repressed ladies of Victorian England. I’d also recommend “Old Dracula” (aka “Vampira”) if you want a better comedy than “Dead and Loving It”. It’s actually a 70’s racial comedy. Dracula. Racial comedy. That exists. You’re welcome.
Willem Defoe as Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire!
It was actually really hard writing this article, since the qualities I admire in all of these actors is so varied. If I sat down and wrote out all my favorite Draculas and why I love them, the end result would be more like a tree than a list. There’s a whole group of campy Dracs/vamps that I had trouble fitting into the overall spectrum of this piece. Only two made it in at all, Nielsen and Roxburgh. Categorize it as a guilty pleasure if it helps you keep believing in my street cred, but I love him in Van Helsing! So yes, I am serious about Roxburgh. And don’t call me “Shirley.”
I knew I’d catch a little heat for Lugosi’s positioning (hat tip to Inter Milan Kundera on this note). I think a successful Dracula should be either overtly sexual (or charming, if you’re making a movie in a time when that won’t fly), or terrifyingly otherworldly (hence the psychological duplicity). It’s really difficult to do both as a mere mortal actor. Lugosi is really neither. He has charm, but it’s nothing compared to Villarías, and he ain’t scary. I recognize he’s a prototype, I do. He’s a classic, yes! But he’s metaphorically impotent; a grandpa Dracula. He may still lech after the ladies, but everyone knows he’s harmless. That’s why Grandpa on The Munsters looks and behaves almost exactly like him.
You bring up some great points about the advantages to being a bat, actually. I always had a hard time with the mental image of the scene in the book where he continually flies into Mina’s window as a bat. Really imagine for a second a 500-year-old predator being so stymied by a closed window that he repeatedly flings his body against the glass in consternation. It’s hilarious. I much prefer the wolf/mist transformations, or the idea that he turns into a horrifying man-bat! But now I see some merit to the regular bat form (apart from the obvious parallel that the vampire bat is real and actually subsists off blood).
Love Zhang Wei-Qiang in Pages. He, too, was a hair’s breadth from making the list. It’s been awhile, but I watched and loved Old Dracula while I was prepping my thesis back in college. It’s probably time for a revisit. Maybe I’ll give Dracula 2000 a rest this year. Probably not.
Shocker: my thesis was on various interpretations of Dracula and how media can affect sexuality, seen through the lens of my own experience coupled with analytical ideas from Freud and Jung. *rolls eyes at self* In other words, thanks for liking my Freud line.
Personally, I loved Van Helsing, and I thought that Richard Roxburgh is the best vampire I have ever seen, closely followed by Colin Farrell from Fright Night.
Solo, that is some Inception-level Dracula interpretation. Jack! A man after my own heart. Colin Farrell in the remake and Chris Sarandon in the original are both Grade A vampires, fo’ sho.’
I would have put Schrek instead of Kinski, but either/or. Personal preference, I guess.
Okay, I know people are going to quibble over who’s included and who’s not (and for purposes of this article, I do see sticking with actors who actually played DRACULA, not “a male vampire”). However, I can’t believe they’d include Leslie Nielsen, Duncan Regehr and Carlos Villarias, but neither George Hamilton nor Jack Palance. George Hamilton was the original, classic comic Dracula, and Jack Palance was really the first actor to portray Dracula as a *warlord,* not just some aristocrat-turned-monster.
Udo Kier in Andy Warhols Dracula has to at least rank higher than Leslie Nielsen.
Absolutely loved this list, the Freud bit made me laugh out loud. I’m in engaging in a personal project to attempt to watch all films starring Dracula as a character, also YMCA counsellor Dracophilia fuelled so this is a highly useful article, thanks!
Any “best” list which includes Van Helsing is automatically null and void. That movie had nothing to recommend it.
1. Gary Oldman ( by far ) 2. Bela Lugosi.