Horror History: Happy Birthday, Dracula & Skeletor Actor FRANK LANGELLA!
Mike Sprague
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On this day in horror history, Frank Langella was born in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1938. Langella is best known here for playing Dracula in John Badam’s film and Skeletor Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren. His other kick-ass flicks include Brainscan, Cutthroat Island, The Ninth Gate, Superman Returns.
And he was, by far, the best thing about Richard Kelly’s The Box.
Frank Langella has won four Tony Awards for The Father, Seascape, Fortune’s Fool, and as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon. His reprisal of the role in Ron Howard’s big-screen adaptation earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
RELATED: Scream Factory Presents DRACULA with Frank Langella on Blu-Ray this November
Frank Langella leads Masters of the Universe as the evil Skeletor. He finds a mysterious power called the Cosmic Key and he becomes nearly invincible. However, He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) locates inventor Gwildor, who created the Key and has another version of it. One of the Keys transports to Earth during a battle. There two teenagers (Courteney Cox and Robert Duncan McNeill) find it. Now both He-Man and Skeletor’s forces arrive on Earth searching for the potent weapon.
The film sports a 17% approval rating over on Rotten Tomatoes. The Critics Consensus reads: Masters of the Universe is a slapdash adaptation of the He-Man mythos that can’t overcome its cynical lack of raison d’etre. No matter how admirably Frank Langella throws himself into the role of Skeletor.
What’s your favorite Frank Langella movie?
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