who is the best Dracula? [NEED YOUR INPUT]

Props to Oldman bc he helped design the character:

Because Dracula's scenes did not start filming until very late into the production, Oldman had plenty of downtime to come up with additional ideas for his character. According to Coppola, "He'd [Oldman] get together with the makeup designer Greg Cannom and, before I knew it, we were going to have not just one monster but five monsters in the film."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker%27s_Dracula_(1992_film)

ya, when I was making this I realized:

• I hadn't seen most of these movies
• I had no interest in seeing most of these movies
• the only one I really enjoyed, had seen multiple times, and wanted to see again was "Van Helsing", and that was kindofa jokey/parody movie anyway

On the other hand.... Gerard Butler! Rutger Hauer! Nicolas Cage! (oops I spelled his name wrong up there) Those are some first-tier actors there. And it's kinda fun to see how widely the movies vary.

Gary Oldman is Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow as Count Dracula.

I need a new set of glasses, that pair he's wearing looks like it'd work!

That's a great idea! We only need one more to get 16, so we just need to pick another from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_actors_who_have_played_Dracula#Theatrical_films

I think I'll stick to making memes tho. You interested in doing it? Anyone else?

lel I had to look that up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decker_(TV_series)

Ralph Lucas as Dracula (credited as James Dean as part of an On Cinema storyline about Gregg finding James Dean alive who, in-universe, faked his own death, later voiced by Ruben Gomez in the animated series pilot).

omg at first I was like wat, but you're right...

His face was a strong—a very strong—aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. ...

https://gutenberg.org/files/345/345-h/345-h.htm

quoting the whole paragraph to point out that Count D also has a unibrow and elf/vulcan ears. Plus, "hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere" almost sounds like a mullet! The paragraph that follows also says he has hairy palms and bad breath. If I ever learn to draw, I'ma draw a pic emphasizing this info.

I’d drop the Draculas from Dracula III and Blade III. Neither of those are exactly beloved films. Then you have room to slip in the new 2025 Dracula and Van Helsing’s

oh yeah thanks for the suggestion, I think I'll do that.

the 1979 Nosferatu

yeah I've been meaning to watch that, bc I'm a big fan of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God." I noticed that about them using the Dracula name in a Nosferatu movie, but thought it'd be confusing.

tbh I didn't have any principled reason for excluding Nosferatus, it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision to reduce the number of possibilities which is quite large. But it sounds like I've excluded two of the best candidates. I'm thinking of re-doing this with the 2024, 1979, and 1922 Nosferatus, whatdayathink? Prolly removing Javier Botet and Leslie Nielsen and Udo Kier to the "alternate candidates" list, text-only.