Per Factinate, Lugosi married his first wife, Ilona Szmik, in 1917 when he was 35; they divorced three years later, supposedly because neither of their parents approved of the match. He married his second wife, Ilona von Montagh, in 1921, but they divorced in 1924. At that point, Lugosi at least had the sense to stop marrying women named Ilona. He married his third wife, widowed socialite Beatrice Weeks, in 1929, but Weeks filed for divorce just four months later due to Lugosi’s affair with the original It Girl, actress Clara Bow. According to Nitrateville, Lugosi even had a nude painting of Bow that he commissioned from his friend, artist Geza Kende. He loved the portrait so much that he reportedly displayed it proudly in his homes for the rest of his life.

Apparently the Bow portrait wasn’t a deal breaker for his fourth wife, Lillian Arch. She and Lugosi (pictured above) married in 1933 and had a child together, Bela Lugosi, Jr. This marriage lasted until 1953; as reported by Factinate, the couple split because Lugosi was jealous of Lillian’s relationship with her boss, actor Brian Donlevy. The fourth Mrs. Lugosi and Donlevy did go on to marry in 1966.

Lugosi’s fifth wife, Hope Lininger, was a fan who wrote Lugosi letters when he was in the hospital being treated for an addiction to Demerol. Per Classic Monsters, Lininger always signed her letters with the phrase “A dash of Hope.” They married in 1955; Hope was left a widow when Lugosi died of a heart attack just one year later.