Hollywood star and Dracula actor Bela Lugosi is one of the world’s most famous horror actors – but did you know that he once owned a mirror believed to be haunted?
Bela played Dracula in the iconic 1931 Universal film, but in real life, it is reported that the actor also had an interest in the supernatural.
It is reported that he was obsessed with practicing a form of clairvoyance, which would involve him staring into inanimate objects to try conjure messages from spirits.
READ MORE: ‘Haunted’ Hollywood sets – eery 666 message, tragic deaths and ghostly phone calls
One such object reportedly used by the actor for such a practice was a mirror, which hung in Bela’s Hollywood Hills home, and is now part of the collection at Zak Bagans’ haunted museum in Las Vegas.
(Image: Getty Images)
Ghost Adventures star and paranormal investigator Zak was given the mirror by the niece of lawyer and B-Movie producer Frank Saletri, who formerly lived in the home once owned by Bela Lugosi.
However, Frank was tragically killed at the home in 1982, and following his murder, the producer’s family inherited the mirror.
Soon after bringing the mirror home though, the family began to notice that paranormal activity began to occur in their own home.
Believing Bela’s own practices and her uncle’s murder to have affected the mirror, she later took the object to paranormal investigator Zak, who owns a number of haunted objects at his museum, including the famous Peggy doll and objects belonging to serial killers including Charles Manson.
(Image: Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum)
Speaking about the supposedly haunted object, Zak told Mental Floss: “Cindy believed that the mirror absorbed part of the bad energy from witnessing that murder.”
He added: “When it went into her house, her daughter immediately began being severely affected.
“She says that she began feeling bites on her neck when she would look into it, and would see a dark entity inside of the mirror.”
Zak continued: “She brought it to my museum, she was desperate to get rid of it.”
Speaking about Bela’s reported supernatural practices, he also added: “A lot of people talk about how he may have been involved in the occult.”
(Image: Bettmann Archive)
After taking the mirror from Frank’s niece, the star also encountered his own paranormal experiences around the mirror when he investigated his own museum for a 2017 episode of Ghost Adventures.
This included seeing a ball of light that appeared on the opposite wall of the mirror, which Zak said travelled across the room, and went inside of the mirror.
The story of Bela’s mirror was later recounted in Zak and Eli Roth’s series, The Haunted Museum, which tells the stories behind some of the objects at the venue.
Other items to be housed at the museum include parts of the boat that Hollywood star Natalie Wood was travelling on when she died, to “the devil’s rocking chair,” a carved wooden statue owned by actor Steve McQueen and the famous haunted Westerfeld dollhouse.
(Image: WireImage)
Speaking about the items to Deadline, horror film director Eli Roth said: “He has amassed a collection unlike any in the world, and we are thrilled to tell the stories behind these truly terrifying objects.
“What I love most is that the objects are all real and that people can go and see them if they dare.”
Reflecting on the stories featured in the Haunted Museum series, Eli added: “The show will not be for the faint of heart.
“Some people have nightmares simply looking at photos of the objects, and now we will be able to tell the stories of how these objects came to be possessed by something truly terrifying.”
Zak added: “These are no ordinary objects, they impart fear and terror on those who come into contact with them.”
THE HAUNTED MUSEUM IS AVAILABLE TO STREAM NOW ON DISCOVERY+
For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
READ NEXT:
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
