Bela Lugosi’s history as a union organizer and anti-fascist activist

• Lugosi took part in the Hungarian Communist Revolution in the March of 1919, leading a demonstration of the country’s actors and had a key role in the organization and creation of the Free Organization of Theatrical Employees, which was later expanded to include film actors, becoming the National Trade Union of Actors. He was forced to flee when the Hungarian Soviet Republic was overthrown in August 1919 and the brutal white terror swept through the country.
• Was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild of America, and served on the union’s advisory board during it’s early years.
• He unionized the sets of a number of his films, most famously the production of The Black Cat alongside SAG founder Boris Karloff.
• When the Hungarian dictator Miklos Horthy allied with the Nazis, Lugosi founded the Hungarian-American Council for Democracy, an organization of Hungarian Americans dedicated to establishing democracy in their home country.
• Was a life-long anti-Nazi and anti-fascist. In his keynote speech at a rally in 1944, he demanded Washington ease immigration restrictions in order to take in Jewish-Hungarian refugees and put increased pressure the Nazi puppet regime in Hungary.
• Even at the end of his career, when he was struggling to find work, he would frequently use his name-recognition in print and on the radio to speak out against fascism.