Bela Lugosi's widow and son sued Universal over Dracula merchandise and lost in 1979

Bela Lugosi played Count Dracula on Broadway in 1927 and in Universal's 1931 film. His September 1930 contract granted Universal certain rights. He died in 1956. His will left his son $1,000 in cash and some land in Elsinore^†. Beginning in 1960, Universal licensed the Dracula character to merchandise makers using Lugosi's likeness. On February 3, 1966, his widow, Hope Lugosi, and his son, Bela George Lugosi, sued Universal, claiming they had inherited that likeness. The trial court agreed, awarded them Universal's licensing profits and barred further licensing without their consent. On December 3, 1979, the California Supreme Court reversed. It held that the right of publicity is not descendible and ends at death. Two days later it applied the same rule to Rudolph Valentino's nephew. In 1985 California passed the Celebrities Rights Act, which lets publicity rights pass to heirs by will. In 2008 the Legislature made those rights retroactive to people who died before 1985. Lugosi's son, a USC-trained lawyer, later served as lead counsel for the Three Stooges' heirs in Comedy III v. Saderup, in which the California Supreme Court upheld post-mortem publicity rights. In 2002 he said he had started Lugosi Enterprises to license his father's name.