Before Dracula ever hit the big screen, Bela Lugosi treaded the boards onstage as the title Count. It was an inauspicious beginning to a character that would define his career. The show's director was tasked with taking the already-existing stage show from London and importing it to New York, Americanizing some of the dialogue. Producer Horace Liveright saw the British play and knew it would be a hit in the US, but first, he needed his cast.

First, there was Bernard Jukes, who would disquiet thousands in his role as Renfield. Then, Edward Van Sloan was selected to play Professor Van Helsing. The actor in the show's most important role, however, was still undecided. That is, until Liveright saw The Devil in the Cheese, and was mesmerized by a certain tall, imposing figure with a Hungarian accent. 

Lugosi would be so successful in Broadway's Dracula that he'd keep the role when Universal Pictures adapted the play for the cinema. However, while it was still on stage, Lugosi fascinated one young theater-goer who would go on to change horror history.

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William Schloss returned to the Fulton Theater nearly every night for two weeks because of how enraptured he felt by Lugosi's performance. According to the book The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi by Arthur Lennig, the young Schloss eventually bid up the nerve to sneak backstage to greet Lugosi in his dressing room. Lugosi was kind enough to share his time with the kid, who said he found Lugosi to be a "humble, gentle man" when he recalled the incident years later.

The encounter changed Schloss's life: 

"I knew then what I wanted to do with my life— I wanted to scare the pants off audiences."

And, he did, but not before changing his name. Anyone with a background in German might have determined the secret identity. William Schloss would grow up and change his name to...

William Castle!