Editing Bela Lugosi (section)

== Death ==
[[File:Bela Lugosi's grave.JPG|thumb|right|Lugosi's grave at [[Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City]], California]]
Lugosi died of a [[heart attack]] on August 16, 1956, in the bedroom of his [[Los Angeles]] apartment while taking a nap. His wife, Hope, discovered him when she came home from work that evening, apparently having died peacefully in his sleep around 6:45&nbsp;p.m. according to the medical examiner<ref name="Bela Lugosi 2007"/> at the age of 73.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=From the Archives: Actor Bela Lugosi, Dracula of Screen, Succumbs After Heart Attack at 73 |url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-bela-lugosi-19560817-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=August 17, 1956 |access-date=December 31, 2016}}</ref> The rumor that Lugosi was clutching the script for ''[[Final Curtain (film)|The Final Curtain]]'', a planned [[Ed Wood]] project, at the time of his death is not true.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Gary Don |title=Lugosi: His Life in Films, on Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers |publisher=McFarland |year=1997 |page=36 |isbn=0786402571}}</ref>

Lugosi was buried wearing one of the "Dracula" capes and his full costume as well as his Dracula ring in the [[Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City|Holy Cross Cemetery]] in [[Culver City, California]]. Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his cloak; [[Bela G. Lugosi]] confirmed on numerous occasions that he and his mother, Lillian, made the decision but believed that it is what his father would have wanted.<ref>[[Bela G. Lugosi]] states this in "The Road to Dracula", a documentary supplement in the DVD "Dracula -(1931)" [Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection, Universal DVD #903 249 9.11]</ref>

The funeral was held on Saturday, August 18 at the Utter-McKinley funeral home in Hollywood. Attendees in addition to immediate family included former wife of 20 years Lillian, [[Forrest J. Ackerman]], [[Ed Wood]] (pall bearer), [[Tor Johnson]], [[Conrad Brooks]], Richard Sheffield,  Norma McCarty, Loretta King, [[Paul Marco]] and actor George Becwar. Bela's fourth wife Lillian paid for the cemetery plot and stone (which was inscribed "Beloved Father"), while Hope Lugosi paid for the coffin and the funeral service. Lugosi's will left several inexpensive pieces of real estate in Elsinore and only $1,000 cash to his son, but since the will had been written on Jan. 12, 1954 (before Lugosi's fifth marriage), Bela Jr. had to share the thousand dollars evenly with Hope Lugosi.

Hope later gave most of Lugosi's personal belongings and memorabilia to Bela's young neighborhood friend Richard Sheffield, who gave Lugosi's duplicate Dracula cape to Bela Jr. and sold some of the other items to Forrest J. Ackerman. Hope told Sheffield she had searched the apartment for several days looking for $3,000 she suspected Lugosi had hidden there, but she never found it. Sheffield said years later "Lugosi had probably spent it all on alcohol." Hope later moved to Hawaii, where she worked for many years as a caregiver in a leper colony.<ref>Bela Lugosi: Dreams and Nightmares by Gary D. Rhodes, with Richard Sheffield, (2007) Collectables/Alpha Video Publishers, {{ISBN|0977379817}} pp. 258–264.</ref><ref>Arthur Lennig, The Immortal Count, University Press of Kentucky, 2003 {{ISBN|978-0813122731}}.</ref> Hope died in Hawaii in 1997, at age 78, having never remarried. Before her death, she gave several interviews to the fan press.<ref>Arthur Lennig, ''The Immortal Count'', University Press of Kentucky, 2003 {{ISBN|978-0813122731}}.</ref>