The most memorable portrayals of Dracula

To this day, the quintessential Dracula. Lugosi played him in 1931’s Dracula, the first significant portrayal of the character. Much to his frustration, he would play the character a few times and end up in other horror films. When Lugosi died, he was buried in his Dracula cape.

In Britain, the Hammer Horror productions are iconic, if maybe a bit more of the cult variety. Hammer wasn’t afraid of some gore and blood. Lee, also known for playing Saruman in the Lord of the Rings movies, played Dracula in seven Hammer films. It made him a British horror legend.

Voiceover work counts, especially when your franchise is so successful. Sandler voiced Count Dracula in Hotel Transylvania and its first two sequels. He did not return for the fourth film, replaced by a soundalike in Brian Hull.

Before he rose to fame in generic action movies and lackluster romantic comedies, Butler played Dracula. In fact, he played him before he was even in 300. The actor was in Dracula 2000 in the year, um, 2000. Unfortunately, the movie was a flop. The fact that Butler technically played Dracula/Judas Iscariot didn’t help.

“Mad Monster Party?” is not the best-known of the Rankin-Bass stop-motion films, but it has a cult following. They set aside Christmas for a horror story, but you can’t call it a Halloween story, given that it came out in March. We want to shout out Swift not just because he voiced Dracula but because he also voiced Frankenstein’s monster, the Wolfman, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and many more. He was practically a one-man show!

Carradine was from the day when actors worked…and worked. He passed away with 351 credits to his name and three acting sons, including David and Keith. Among John’s many roles were a few turns as Dracula, including in Billy the Kid Versus Dracula, a wild swing if there ever was one.

There are a lot of comedic takes on Dracula. Hey, take the scary character and turn it on its head. In 1979, Love at First Bite came out. It’s a fish-out-of-water story of Dracula being kicked out of Romania and heading to New York City. Hamilton starred in the film, which turned quite a profit off of its budget of a mere $3 million.

Macaulay? An unremarkable but steadily working character actor. He’s not the star of the film where he plays Count Dracula. Why do we include him? Well, because when Macaulay played Dracula, his Dracula bites Prince Mamuwalde. In turn, the prince becomes…Blacula. So yeah, Macaulay is worth shouting out. He created Blacula!

Niven often played a certain type of role, which is how he played James Bond in a comedic, non-canonical take. If you wanted to have a dapper British guy who could deliver some witticisms, you hired Niven. He starred in Vampira, which was what it was called in England. In America, it was released as Old Dracula to build on the success of Young Frankenstein. Yes, really.

In modern times, and in serious takes on Dracula, Oldman stands out. He plays Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula . The 1992 film was directed by none other than Francis Ford Coppola. It won three Oscars, though all in technical categories, but Oldman’s take on the Count was distinct and memorable.

1987’s The Monster Squad is kind of a cult classic, a silly film that has its fun moments. Some kids do battle the Universal Monsters, including Dracula (and, famously, the Wolfman). Regehr plays Dracula in The Monster Squad, surely his most famous role.

Mel Brooks? A comedy legend. Leslie Nielsen? Also a comedy legend. Now, imagine them joining forces to do a spoof of Dracula. That happened. It was called Dracula: Dead and Loving It. It’s terrible.

Van Helsing, the character, comes from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. He’s in many Dracula films, but he is the star of Van Helsing . A Universal picture, Hugh Jackman’s take on the character fights more than just Dracula. He does take on Dracula, though, played by Roxburgh.

Hey, at least they waited until the third Blade movie until they said, “Screw it, let’s have Dracula show up!” This was a troubled production that ended the series, but at least Blade got to battle the iconic vampire in Blade: Trinity. Purcell plays Dracula, aka Drake, in a movie with a truly wild cast.

Remember the “Dark Universe?” It technically started with The Mummy because they tried to write off Dracula Untold as if it didn’t exist. Oh, it exists. Dracula Untold tried to revamp and provide, yes, an origin story for Count Dracula. It could have been big for Evans, but it didn’t pan out.

Hirsch is now an Oscar nominee. He was on Taxi. He’s a beloved actor. Back in 1979, though, he was on the TV special The Halloween that Almost Wasn’t, a comedic tale about Dracula saving Halloween from a witch. It’s bad, but in a “so bad, it’s good” kind of way. Give it a watch. You may feel bad for Hirsch, but you’ll probably get some laughs.

Camargo is in the Twilight movies, which are full of vampires, but there is no Dracula to be found. No, for that, you have to go to the TV show Penny Dreadful. Dracula wasn’t part of the macabre series from the beginning, but he showed up with a lot of fanfare eventually. This time, Camargo got to play the big-time vampire.

Do you enjoy a BBC-style series? You know, a few episodes, and that’s that? No padding necessary! That was Dracula, which consisted of three episodes and aired in 2020. Bang, a Danish actor who has been in acclaimed films like The Square and The Northman, starred as Dracula.

McTavish has done some live-action acting, but he’s also done a ton of voiceover work. When Netflix decided to adapt the popular video game series Castlevania into a TV show, somebody had to voice Dracula. That somebody was McTavish, who was also in Lucifer, which feels kind of adjacent.

Cage playing Dracula feels like something that should have happened years ago. He was in Vampire’s Kiss, to be fair, a bonkers movie that has to be seen to be believed. Finally, Cage did indeed play Count Dracula. The film just happens to be focused on Renfield, his assistant. In Renfield , Nicholas Hoult plays the titular character, but Cage can’t help but steal the show as Dracula.