 Before he was cast as Count Dracula, actor Bela Lugosi (qv) acted  as an unpaid intermediary for Universal Pictures in negotiating with  the widow of author Bram Stoker (qv) in an attempt to persuade her  to lower her asking price for the filming rights to the Dracula  property. After two months of negotiations, Mrs. Stoker reportedly  lowered her price from $200,000 to $60,000. This, however, further  demonstrated to Universal how desperate Lugosi was to repeat his  stage success as Count Dracula and secure the film role for himself.