Who is more popular, Bela Lugosi as Dracula or Boris Karloff as Frankenstein?
I’d have to go with Karloff, thanks to Hammer studios. Karloff is more directly identified with his respective role. Ask most people who they associacte with Frankenstein, and you’ll most likely hear Karloff worldwide. Sure, other actors have played the role, but Karloff was definitive. Lugosi, on the other hand has more competition. Many people, most in the UK, identify Christopher Lee with the part. You see, when Hammer started their gothic Horror cycle in 1958, Dr. Frankenstein became the consistent force in their Frankestein films, building an new creature each outing. This caused Peter Cushing to become indelibly identified with that role, and left Karloff’s monster untouched. This was the opposite of the Universal approach that had different “Drs.” resuscitating the same creature in film after film. Combined with the consistency of the makeup, this actually served to bolster identification with Karloff, even though he stopped playing the role after only 3 films. Karloff has no co
