10 Times Two Actors Perfectly Executed The Same Character

Count Dracula is the most infamous of all screen Vampires, with his legend dating back to Bram Stoker’s classic gothic horror novel published in 1897. Universal Studios first brought the legend to the screen in 1931, starring vintage actor Bela Lugosi. But it would be 27 years later when Hammer Horror revisited the tale in 1958, with Christopher Lee stepping into the iconic role. The legendary British actor would provide the definitive version of the character, and the version that most film fans think of first when thinking of Drac.

Lee played Dracula with an eerie seductive quality that turned absolutely vicious when needed, and he would reprise the role numerous times for the famed horror studio. It would be some years later that the legacy would be revisited by director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather), with an adaptation which stayed faithful to the original text like no other film had before, in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).

The movie, which won numerous Academy Awards, featured an ensemble cast including Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Anthony Hopkins, but will always be best remembered for Gary Oldman’s unique and sinister take on the Count himself. Oldman played a very human, younger version of the character when visiting Victorian London, as well as an ancient and iconic decaying version of the vampire in his true form at his Transylvanian castle, in what is undoubtedly the performance of Oldman's career.