PRESS DEPARTMENT, Universal Studios (undated, presumeably 1979) (this one is so badly written but I swear I transcribed it exacly as written-- Solitaire) --MOTION PICTURE NEWS-- "I've done four films before this and been discovered each time and nothing's come of it!" New Yorker Frank Langella, 38, the Toast of Broadway and beyond for his startling interpretation of Count Dracula. And on Friday 13th of July, 1979, by tradition the most evil night of the year, his accumulated experience of the role over 18 months plus a transfusion of Universal Pictres' currency and a fair amount of life blood from director John Badham, will tell the film world whether another star is born. The current Debonair King of the Undead was not always so self-contained: "My brother was a star athlete and my sister a beauty. There I was stuck in the middle, nearsighted and not sure what I was doing." It soon became apparent. At 11 played an 85-year-old in the Abraham Lincoln pageant at School No. 3 in Bayonne, New Jersey. Still only 16 he would slip out of the house, take a bus to Times Square and comb the record stores for John Gielgud albums to help get rid of his accent. "For a long time I thought New York consisted of those few blocks around the Broadway area." Today Frank Langella holds a secure reputaion as one of America's most gifted classical actors. Not forgetting the films that promised a lot but didn't finally deliver. Mel Brooks "The Twelve Chairs," which became a cult flick with the campus crowd. The sadistic George Prager who caused "Mad Housewife" Carrie Snodgrass such angst. Headlines hinted he was the greatest sex symbol since Tyrone Power. Helen Gurley Brown of Cosmopolitan Magazne suggested spreading his 6'4" body nude across three glossy pages [Solitaire would have suggested satin sheets instead, less crinkly ]. The National Society of Film Critics proffered with their Annual Award -- gratefully accepted. He then said thanks, but no thanks, to Ms. Gurley Brown. The "Diary of a Mad Housewife" reaction did give an early preview of all the "Dracula" brouhaha to come. "I got stopped on the street by women who seemed to think I was some kind of love machine. Letters by the ton. If I had been 20 or so I would have been in lots of trouble." But the reception accorded "Dracula" was worth the long wait. "I always anticipated fame. I don't think one chooses to paint one's face, put on a costume to go on stage and bare one's soul only to sit in your dressing room afterwards and say 'recognition means nothing to me.' Then why the hell are you out there? In my opinion, the audience damn well has the right to an 'experience' and the fact that a show has been well recieved puts an added expectation level on your performance. "I have had some exceptional good luck. Some recognition. I have also had terrible periods of no work and no interest whatsoever. In other words -- pretty much an actor's life. You are in two categories if you are an actor. You want them or they want you. It's that simple and I've seen both sides." The Mirisch Corporation presents Frank Langella with Laurence Olivier in "Dracula," A Walter Mirisch-John Badham Production for Universal, produced by Walter Mirisch and directed by John Badham from a screenplay by W.D. Richter. Marvin Mirisch was Executive Producer. * * *