Dracula's mustache & beard October 21, 2014 11:23 2 Comments

As a teenager I read Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' novel. Having watched various on screen movie performances of The Count, portrayed by various actors from Bela Lugosi to Christopher Lee, Louis Jordan , Frank Langella and even Leslie Nielsen, I was surprised to learn Dracula has a mustache in the original novel.  Dracula is described this way by Jonathan Harker, an English lawyer in the book; 

"A tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache…His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead…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…For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin…The blue eyes transformed with fury.

A composite image of how Dracula appears when first described in Bram Stoker's novel

Later in the novel (Chapter 11 "The Escaped Wolf")  Dracula is described by a  zookeeper as having a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it.  "A tall, thin chap, with a `ook nose and a pointed beard, with a few white hairs runnin' through it. He had a `ard, cold look and red eyes."

Essentially Count Dracula is an old man with a long white mustache when first described in the book, the novel goes on to vaguely describe Dracula's transformation from an old man to a younger man with a dark beard. The book implies that The Count becomes younger and stronger the more blood he consumes. 

Portrait of Vlad ' the impaler ' Drăculea

Vlad the impaler

The fictional novel was allegedly based on the life of (Vlad) Drăculea  AKA Vlad the Impaler .a Romanian king, and  member of the Order of the Dragon in the mid 1400's 

History tells us The Impaler got his moniker from his practice of impaling his enemies on wooden poles after battle and  for his reputation for excessive cruelty . Vlad the impaler is also depicted in oil paintings with a rather impressive mustache.

Bram Stoker

Dracula's Irish author Abraham or 'Bram Stoker' also had a pretty strong beard game going on around the time he wrote the Dracula novel in the late 19th century

Bram Stoker

Various movie Draculas,  only Gary Oldman has a mustache in his portrayal of The Count