Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó was born in Lugos, Hungary in 1882. As a teenager, he began acting in plays and operettas. He moved to Budapest where he performed in dozens of roles with the National Theatre of Hungary. He always claimed that he was “the leading actor of Hungary’s Royal National Theatre,” but there is …
After his discharge from the Royal Air Force, Christopher Lee could see returning to his job as a switchboard operator at Beecham Pharmaceutical. Instead, he thought about the few stage roles he had in school productions and decided to pursue a career as an actor. After discouraging meetings with several producers, including one who told …
According to his son David, John Carradine saw a production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice when he was 11 years-old and decided that acting was the career for him. He went on to become one of the most prolific and indispensable character actors in movie history. In addition to Westerns and Shakespearean drama, John …
Creighton Chaney changed his name to the more familiar “Lon Jr.” to, no doubt, cash in on his father‘s popularity. Actually, Lon Jr. was discouraged by his father from entering the field of acting and didn’t do so until after his father’s death. He was best remembered for his role in the 1941 Universal horror …
Here we are again! October! And Inktober is once again upon us. That means it’s time for hundreds of talented artists worldwide… and me…. to create special works daily just for October, based on a set of suggestions from the official Inktober website. And once again, I’ll be making up my own rules of participation. …
Inktober 2019 comes to an end and the final week’s illustration is Curt Siodmak. He was a novelist and screenwriter, best known for writing the screenplay for the 1941 Universal Studios horror classic The Wolf Man. Curt’s work created a lot of the legends associated with werewolf ethos, including the sign of the pentagram and …
Week Four of Inktober 2019 brings demure Mary Shelley, the unlikely author of arguably the most famous horror novel of all time, Frankenstein (or The Modern Prometheus). On a summer vacation with family and friends in 1816, 19-year old Shelley conceived the story of a doctor experimenting with dead tissue. The completed novel was published …
Wow! Is it Week Three of Inktober 2019 already? Then here’s the modern Master of Horror Stephen King. One of the most prolific and consistently popular authors of all time, King has published 58 novels and over two hundred short stories. And it all started when his wife fished his first manuscript — Carrie — …
It’s Week Two of Inktober 2019 and here’s Bram Stoker, the British author who brought the world the classic vampire tale Dracula in 1897. Stoker was the manager of the 2100-seat Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End, a position he held for 27 years. Inspired by a trip to the Northern English town of Whitby, …
As the weather grows cooler, Inktober is once again upon us. That means it’s time for hundreds of talented artists worldwide… and me…. to create special works daily just for October, based on a set of suggestions from the official Inktober website. Always one to buck the system, I follow my own set of rules for Inktober. …
