Romanians at Hollywood (part 4)

Today we'll talk about other great actors with romanian origins.

Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (born September 16, 1924) is an American film and stage actress and model. Known for her husky voice and sultry looks, she became a fashion icon in the 1940s and has continued acting to the present day.

Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske in New York City, the only child of Natalie (née Bacal or Weinstein), and William Perske. Her parents were Jewish immigrants, their families having come from France, Poland, Romania and Germany. She was married with Humprey Bogart and Jason RoBards.


Her acting career began in 194 with To Have and Have Not, continuing with other cult movies as Confidential Agent, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, How to Marry a Millionaire, Murder on the Orient Express, The Shootist, Misery, Prêt-à-Porter, Dogville. Bacall was ranked as one of the 25 greatest female stars of all time by the American Film Institute and chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#6).

Fran Drescher
Francine Joy Drescher was born on September 30th, 1957 in Flushing, Queens, New York, in a family of Jewishs with romanian origins.


Fran's first break was in the unforgettable movie, Saturday Night Fever (1977) with John Travolta. She continued to play small roles in movies, until she came up with the idea for The Nanny (1993). She was visiting a friend in England and came up with the plot line. "The Nanny" (1993) became an instant success, and so did Fran. Since then, she has been in films such as The Beautician and the Beast (1997) (which she also produced) and Picking Up the Pieces (2000) co-starring Woody Allen. Fran has since divorced her husband Jacobson. She is a cancer survivor and an inspiration to women everywhere. She was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world (1996).

Bela Lugosi
Not really a romanian (he was hungarian ethnic), but born in today Romania, at Lugoj, Timiş County, Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó was shooting to fame when he played Count Dracula in the legendary 1927 Broadway stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. It ran for three years, and was subsequently, and memorably, filmed by Tod Browning in 1931, establishing Lugosi as one of the screen's greatest personifications of pure evil.


Sadly, his reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he was only too happy to accept any part (and script) handed to him, and ended up playing pathetic parodies of his greatest role, in low-grade poverty row shockers. He ended his career working for the legendary Worst Director of All Time, Edward D. Wood Jr. He was buried in his Dracula cape.