Help us find next and improve next week's Connection Finder profiles: Dracula

Question

Next week, the featured example profiles in the Connection Finder will be all Dracula, including with the real Count Dracula, to mark the upcoming Halloween holiday.

We're looking for profiles of people who have portrayed Dracula in movies, theater, on TV, and on radio. Here are a few ideas of what we're looking for and some we're getting started on:

• Christopher Lee
• Bela Lugosi
• Gloria Holden (Dracula's Daughter), needs connected and a biography

Can you help with these profiles, or expand their families? Adding relatives in any direction helps with connections. Every missing relative you add will make our connections to them closer.

Who else should we feature? Do they need a profile?

All profiles we feature need a good biography and a connection to the big tree. We also want each one to have an image, and the image needs to have proper source attribution explaining why it's in the public domain or why we have the right to display it.

We can't feature everyone mentioned (we only have room for eight per week), but if we don't feature a profile you work on, we may use it sometime in the future. And, of course, all contributions help improve our shared tree.

We'll make a final decision on which ones to feature early next week.

Please reply here with what you're working on so that we don't duplicate our efforts. Thank you!

Comments

John Carradine - has picture, is connected, in desperate need of a biography.  (American)

Louis Jourdan - has picture, has good biography, is NOT CONNECTED.  (French)

Lon Chaney Jr - has picture, has biography, is connected.  (American)

Atif Kaptan IMDB Vikipedi -  no wt profile (would be great for internationalism, as was Turkish).

David Niven - has picture, has biography, is connected.  (English)

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I would have loved to get Jourdan connected, but it's not feasible this week. There is no easy connection path - and that's an understatement.

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Jack Palance - has picture, has biography, is connected.  (American of Ukrainian-Polish extraction)

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I would have loved to get Jourdan connected, but it's not feasible this week. There is no easy connection path - and that's an understatement.

commented by Isabelle Martin

I wondered about that, but had to list him anyway! 

There's always next May!  (World Dracula Day is the 26th.)

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Leslie Nielsen starred in the 1995 Mel Brook movie Dracula: Dead and Loving It - has a picture and is connected. Bio is sparse

Denholm Elliott played Dracula in a TV episode of Mystery & Imagination - is connected, currently orphaned, needs a picture and bio - England

Charles Callias played Dracula in a movie titled Hysterical - not connected, has sources, needs a bio and picture. His father was born in Greece

Rutger Oelsen Hauer played the title role in Dracula III: Legacy - is connected and has a picture & bio but could use some sources - Nederlands

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Rutger Oelsen Hauer . . .  could use some sources - Nederlands

commented by Debi Hoag

I added a Find a Grave citation, and a couple of residence sources.  (Didn't do as inline, because I couldn't figure out where to put them.) 

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Rutger's profile looks pretty good, and has a very good branch connected.

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I hope Rutger is featured !

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I adored Rutger Hauer. I forgot that he had died. I think I'm older than he was. Related or not, he was hot!

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I added a few to Rutger's profile. As he is born in 1944 there is not much to find (yet) at archives because of privacy laws. I added his (four!!! not three) sisters. Three are hidden because of privacy laws here in Europe. Ruth who died very young is open.

I checked out the family that is added to Rutger and completed/added two great-grandparents and a few great-great-grandparents. Rudgers parents were very active at acting. I will add images of his father acting at early telly serries and images of his mum in newspapers here as she acted at stage. They both were acting teachers for a long time too in Amsterdam.

What bothers me - and tried to reach Steven Mix, the profile manager - as he made such a wonderful profile and I do not want to mix the profile up without his permission - is that the early (Dutch) history of Rutgers career is missing. 

His cooperation with Paul Verhoeven, who had not a profile yet at WT and I will change that in a little.

Rutger started at The Netherlands as a young man at a television series named "Floris". I think I was around 9 years old as the series started but fell in love with the blond, blue eye hero. He was my prince!

Rutger's big breakthrough in The Netherlands started with the film "Turks Fruit" (Turkish Delight), a film after the book of the Dutch writer Jan Wolkers,a very progressive writer, writing without any censorship about  sex in the 60's and 70's.But his attribution as main character at the film Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange) 1976 made him loved by all of the Dutch.

His cooperation with Paul Verhoeven made Rutger big but I think Rudger made Paul big too.

After that film Rudger was asked for acting abroad.

Now we get to the USA part.

Night all. Need bed. :) Thank you all for your commitment here!

A.

Answer 1

I've been doing a little work on Gloria Holden. However, I have no intention of being "territorial"... help needed!

Her biography does not cover her career at all (it's only information from the sources made into sentences), and connecting her doesn't look easy.

No reliable sources to identify two of her husbands (and the one I have entered is a second-generation Russian Jew so unlikely to bring a connection).

Her father was English but I have been completely unable to find a birth registration that could possibly match him. Mother was German. Could not find anything on her sister's husband(s) either.

There might be a possibility of expanding through her son's spouses? But it looks like a long shot at this stage, especially for me.

Perhaps someone with an access to subscription sites could find clues? Much appreciated.

Comments

Yay! S Stevenson has found a connection through Gloria's brother-in-law! So she will show as connected tomorrow.

Answer 2

Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian "Blood Countess"

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bathory-7

Connected and has picture.

Comments

I second this one. :)

Answer 3

Both needing profiles:

Klaus Kinski - Nosferatu 1979  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Kinski

Max Schreck - Nosferatu 1922: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schreck

Comments

Klaus Kinski is a good one, Joe! And thanks for mentioning a woman!

Answer 4

how about Count von Count from Sesame Street https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Nelson

Comments

I did try but could not find out who his parents were.

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I think Count von Count inherited his title from his father, but don’t know what his first name was, unless Count was Count, Jr. 

I’ll look into Jerry Nelson.

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S, does Nelson have a profile? I found a birth location and might be able to go from there. Tulsa Oklahoma.

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Yes, but all trees at ancestry are hidden. And there appears to be two other Jerry Nelson born about the same time. Could not determine who was who. No worries.

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Sorry, no profile (that I could determine), yes to Tulsa.

Answer 5

Just an FYI that I had Adopted the profile for Actor "Denholm Elliott" (that Debi had pointed out. Thanks!) and will do what I can to improve upon this neglected profile. :-)

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Elliott-8546

~Brian Kerr

Comments

Thanks, Brian. I had a quick look at his Wikipedia article and thought his profile might be a good one.

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Exactly what I thought when I looked into him as well. It's a work in progress, but it wasn't hard to locate, at least, the basics.

~Brian Kerr

Answer 6

Not sure if we're open to "other" vampires, but Barnabas Collins was always one of my favorites. Jonathan Frid has a nice profile, although it's not yet connected.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Frid-30

Comments

Peter Fonda also played Dracula, although I believe it was a little known role. I don't even remember the movie "Nadja".

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fonda-37

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One more: Charlie Callas (the comedian) played Dracula in a comedy called "Hysterical".

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Callias-1

Answer 7

Bram Stoker, author of the original 1897 Dracula novel.

Comments

Good choice, John! Wouldn't be a Dracula without Bram Stoker!

Answer 8

I am working on Blacula, William Marshall, if anyone wants to see if they can work out a connection. I've added quite a bit this evening to branch out from, so please jump in!

Answer 9

I am working on a profile for the actor Stephen Boyd (birth name William Millar) 1931 - 1977.

He played Graf Dracula in the 1977 Movie - Lady Dracula.

He is best known as Messala in the movie - Ben Hur playing opposite Charlton Heston.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Millar-2592

Comments

Parents listed as Martha Boyd from Northern Ireland and James Alexander Millar from Canada. I cannot even find their marriage.

Stephen was the youngest of 9 children. No listing for any of his siblings!!

Maybe you guys can help?

Answer 10

Did anyone mention Christoper Lee? He played Dracula 10 times. I think his Dracula was even better than Lugosi. He's on WikiTree and he's connected (also well connected)

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lee-10622

Lee, PLEASE!

Comments

To add to the "PLEASE!" list :

While he did not actually play Dracula — and only played a vampire once that I can find — Vincent Price did host a documentary titled "Vincent Price's Dracula".  (He has a picture, a bio, and is connected.)

Answer 11

Related profiles

John William Polidori MD -  authored The Vampyre, considered the first modern vampire story.

Frederick George Loring RN, OBE - author of classic vampire story "The Tomb Of Sarah" 

John Frid, Ben Cross - both played Barnabas Collins, the vampire

Answer 12

George Hamilton, played Dracula in spoof, "Love at First Bite"  great scene of him as Dracula dancing to" I love the Night Life".  Didn't see a profile.

Born	August 12, 1939 (age 81) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1952–present
Parent(s)	George Hamilton Ann Stevens

Comments

Unfortunately he doesn't qualify, as he is still living.