Max Schreck never technically played Dracula, Bela Lugosi was too cheesy, and while Klaus Kinski kicked ass as Dracula in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu re-imagining, having grown up in the 1960s an 1970s, Dracula was always Christopher Lee, first and foremost, just as Roger Moore was always James Bond.
No, he wasn't as scary as Schreck, campy as Lugosi, nor 'realistic' as Kinski, but, damn, he had SOMETHING, and the Hammer films, along with Toho, Ray Harryhausen, and AIP, made filmgoing enjoyable for poor kids like me, who had to sneak in to the cheapest theaters.
Here's to you, Chris!:
