In 1897, author Bram Stoker published the horror novel “Dracula,” about a vampiric count who feeds on his victims’ blood and the hunter named Abraham Van Helsing obliged to stop him. The novel is one of pop culture’s most influential works of literature, codifying many of the tropes, characters, and scenes of the “vampire horror” genre you see today.
As a result, it feels as if hundreds of thousands of actors have played Count Dracula over countless feature films and television episodes. Some are straight adaptations of the novel, while others remix the role into all kinds of situations. We’ve narrowed that list down to eight of the best, analyzing the many options one character can offer actors. Bon appétit…
Max Schreck in “Nosferatu” (1922)
Make no mistake: While the filmmaker changed the names of characters for legal reasons, “Nosferatu” is an adaptation of “Dracula,” and Schreck’s performance is an arresting piece of horror iconography.
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In F. W. Murnau’s silent classic, Schreck is covered in disquieting makeup that allows him to tap into the animalistic nature of the character. This isn’t a simplistic reduction of “animals are mean and drink blood”—Schreck’s work is often cautious and cagey, like a crafty predator stalking prey it knows will escape at the slightest rustle. His Dracu—sorry, “Nosferatu”—is alien yet familiar, existing in the uncanny valley to chilling effect.
Bela Lugosi in “Dracula” (1931)
When you picture Count Dracula, you are probably thinking of Lugosi’s portrayal in various Universal properties, including Tod Browning and Karl Freund’s “Dracula.” The hair, the cape, the seductive terror of wealth and societal formalities—all of the elements we love and skewer about the Count were solidified in this benchmark of horror cinema.
Unlike Schreck, Lugosi plays the monster with dignity and status, a shrewd and even bleakly humorous choice given the character’s predilections for drinking blood and enslaving brides. His performance subtly gaslights the viewer into feeling odd for questioning such a figure of esteem—and that’s before he’s literally controlling your mind.
Christopher Lee in “Dracula” (1958)
Lee, whom you may know best as Saruman in “The Lord of the Rings” or Count Dooku in the “Star Wars” franchise, played Dracula in seven films for the British studio Hammer Film Productions, starting with Terence Fisher’s “Dracula” in 1958.
While Lee gives a certain amount of high-status gravitas and charm, his Dracula is much more menacing—willing to subdue his victims with brute force and visceral terror. He’s animalistic like Schreck’s, yes, but his animal is a great white shark, an apex predator who lurks until it pounces with confidence.
Klaus Kinski in “Nosferatu the Vampyre” (1979)
While Kinski is covered in similar makeup used in the 1922 “Nosferatu,” his Dracula (yes, he’s actually called Dracula here) is a wholly different beast.
Director Werner Herzog’s use of color, dialogue, and an unpredictably languid pace give Kinski more room to explore a genuine, not put-on sense of humanity. Regret and angst power this vampire; his actions are born not from joy or duty but from the existential lack of any other choice. He’s caught between worlds, neither dead nor living, unable to crack meaningful connection and resorting to the worst form of power instead.
Frank Langella in “Dracula” (1979)
There’s no other way to say this: Langella’s Count Dracula is hot as hell.
Langella takes Lugosi’s version of high-status seduction and applies a streamlined sheen of modernization, accessibility, and confidence. There’s no energetic forcefield between the Count and his soon-to-be underlings/victims; he speaks to them plainly, frankly, and with a charming smile you have to get closer to. It’s a keenly contemporary take on this most classic of monsters, feeling more like a sociopath you’d see on a Netflix limited series than an archaic piece of horror.
Gary Oldman in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992)
There’s no other way to say this: Oldman and Francis Ford Coppola’s Count Dracula is busted as hell.
Coppola’s 1992 film was purposefully designed with retro aesthetics and visual effects, and Oldman’s performance follows suit. His Transylvanian accent is unsubtle, his countenance dignified and staid, his makeup grotesque and without ego, and his lapses into abject monstrosity equal parts snarls and weeps. It’s a postmodern mixture of the greatest hits of the Count with a good amount of ham, and it’s an absolute pleasure to watch. Who says you can’t have fun in horror?
Graham McTavish in “Castlevania” (2017–2021)
Based on the long-running video game series, Netflix’s “Castlevania” anime plays the ubiquitous vampire mythology as high fantasy with huge stakes, making the stories feel more primal and old-fashioned than many other Draculas on this list.
McTavish voices Dracula like an increasingly impatient king. His accent communicates authority, disdain, and some real scary consequences if you get in his way. There’s a level of exhaustion and weight in his performance, representing a clever understanding of what eternal life as lord of the vampires must do to someone’s mental health. McTavish’s work is the closest you’ll get to “William Shakespeare’s Count Dracula.”
Bill Skarsgård in “Nosferatu” (2024)
Skarsgård’s Count Orlok (yep, we’re back to the OG “fake” name) may contain the most contradictions of any of the Dracs on this list.
He’s a figure that paralyzes his victims with upsetting, body-shaking levels of horniness—yet he is the most busted-ugly vampire here (sorry, Orlok, the mustache doesn’t work). He lives in a ginormous castle available only to those who jump through all matter of high society hoops—but he is obviously an inhuman figure who goes beyond animalistic straight into the grotesque. He is bound by stillness and waiting, a slave to customs and arcana—until he outstretches his hand into one’s mind or body.
Skarsgård makes all these disparities work in a unified vision of unshakable performance. In this writer’s opinion, it’s the voice that does it all—the deepest committed to recent cinema, the timbre of which hits the corners of all these conflicting stories. It pushes the idea of “playing Dracula” into a new realm of possibility, and it’s inspiring to think about where an actor will take it next.