10 of the Most Famous Male Vampires in Movies and Literatures

Vampires - We all know them as the viscous, blood-sucking demon whom usually from ancient times as well the major villain of an action-pack horror movies, well including the new transition from the first description to a sparkling and brooding model (twilight) pale stuff (from Twilight Movies, *which makes me irritated). I recently read a book entitled "Vampires", found this list and decided to add this stuff on my collection.

This is the list of the top 10 most well-known male vampires in movies and literatures:

1 - Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula. It was first published as a hardcover in 1897 by Archibald Constable and Co.
Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of letters, diary entries, ships' logs, etc. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism, postcolonialism and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical, film and television interpretations since its publication.

2 - Count of St. Germain

The Count of St. Germain has been variously described as a courtier, adventurer, charlatan, inventor, alchemist, pianist, violinist and amateur composer, but is best known as a recurring figure in the stories of several strands of occultism – particularly those connected to Theosophy and the White Eagle Lodge, where he is also referred to as the Master Rakoczi or the Master R and as one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, is credited with near god-like powers and longevity. Some sources write that his name is not familial, but was invented by him as a French version of the Latin Sanctus Germanus, meaning "Holy Brother."

3 - Henry Fitzroy

Henry Fitzroy is a character in the Blood novels: (Blood Price, Blood Trail, Blood Lines, Blood Pact, and Blood Debt) and the Smoke novels: (Smoke and Shadows, Smoke and Mirrors, and Smoke and Ashes) by Tanya Huff.
He is also a TV character in the 2007 television series Blood Ties, based on the Blood novels, that aired on Lifetime in the United States. On television, Henry is portrayed by Kyle Schmid.

4 - Mitchell

Mitchell, the tortured soul trying desperately to be human.

5 - Don Simon Christian Xavier Morado-de la Cadena Ysidro

Don Simon Christian Xavier Morado-de la Cadena Ysidro (Those Who Hunt the Night, Traveling with the Dead), old, world-weary and ruthless.

6 - Lestat de Lioncourt

Lestat de Lioncourt is a fictional character appearing in several novels by Anne Rice, including The Vampire Lestat. He is a vampire and the main character in the majority of The Vampire Chronicles, narrated in first person.

7 - Viktor

Who the Bloody-hell is Viktor? Viktor (Underworld) is one of the fictional Vampire Elders in the gothic horror-action Underworld mythos, portrayed by Bill Nighy. Viktor was a Hungarian general and warlord. As he was nearing the end of his life, Markus Corvinus, the first true Vampire, came with an offer: Immortality in exchange for Viktor's military expertise and army in dealing against the werewolf Lycans, spawns of Markus' own twin brother, William. When Markus converted Viktor, the general became a Vampire Elder. The Death Dealers were created from Viktor's army.

8 - Edward Cullen

Edward Cullen (né Edward Anthony Masen) is a fictional character in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. He is featured in the books Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, as well as the Twilight film, and the as yet unfinished novel Midnight Sun - a re-telling of the events of Twilight from Edward's perspective. Edward is a vampire who, over the course of the series, falls in love with, marries, and has a child with Bella Swan, a human teenager who later chooses to become a vampire also. In the Twilight film series, Edward is played by actor Robert Pattinson.

9 - Angel

Angel (also known as Angelus, previously Liam) is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt for the television programs Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. He is played by actor David Boreanaz in the TV series and by Zach Hanks in the motion comic series. Angel is a vampire who is cursed with a soul, a punishment designed to make him suffer for his past crimes committed under the name Angelus. Like many characters in the Buffyverse, Angel goes through drastic changes. He starts out as a reluctant hero who stayed in the shadows, and ended up a dark, flawed, yet altruistic champion of mankind, seeking to voluntarily atone for his sins. In addition to the two television series, the character appears in the comic book continuations of both series.

10 - Barnabas Collins

Barnabas Collins is a fictional character, one of the feature characters in the ABC soap opera serial Dark Shadows, which aired from 1966 to 1971. Originally played by Canadian actor Jonathan Frid, Barnabas Collins is a 175-year-old vampire who is in search of fresh blood and his lost love, Josette. The character of Barnabas Collins was introduced to the serial in a last-effort attempt to resurrect the flagging ratings. The role of Barnabas Collins was originally intended to be a brief one, to run but a mere 13 weeks, but the popularity of the character and the quick spike in ratings resulted in his continuing on and becoming virtually the star of the show.
In the 1991 NBC revival series of Dark Shadows, British actor Ben Cross played the role of Barnabas Collins and in the recent series of audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions he was portrayed by Andrew Collins. He will be played by Johnny Depp in the 2011 film by director Tim Burton.

• Reference/Source: wikipedia
• Reference/Source: Vampires by Joules Taylor

Top Ten Female Authors of Vampire Books

This is the list of top women who writes about vampires:

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro was born in Berkeley, California. She attended Berkeley schools through high school followed by three years at San Francisco State College (now University). In November 1969 she married Donald Simpson and divorced in February 1982. She has no children.
Writing for over 35 years, Yarbro has worked in a wide variety of genres, from science fiction to westerns, from young adult adventure to historical horror. She is the author of over 70 novels and numerous short stories. She is probably best known for her series of historical horror novels about the vampire Count Saint-Germain. She also has published numerous volumes in a popular series of channeled wisdom from the entity Michael in the Messages from Michael series.
Yarbro's contribution to the horror genre has been recognised in a variety of ways: she was named a Grand Master at the World Horror Convention in 2003, and in 2005 the International Horror Guild named her a "Living Legend". She has also received the Knightly Order of the Brasov Citadel from the Transylvanian Society of Dracula. In 2009 the Horror Writers' Association presented Yarbro with the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award.[3] Additionally, two of her novels, The Palace (1979) and Ariosto (1980) were nominated for the World Fantasy Award, neither winning.
On average, Yarbro writes three to four books a year, and one or two short stories and/or essays. She writes six hours per day, six days per week except when traveling. Five days a week she spends three to four hours doing research.
Aside from writing, she has worked as a cartographer, has read tarot cards and palms, and has composed music, all of which she continues to do. Over the years she has studied seven different instruments, voice, and musical theory: composition, voice, and piano have continued to be active interests for her. The newsletter, Yclept Yarbro, about her and her writings has been published since 1995 by Lindig Hall Harris.

Freda Warrington is a British author, known for her epic fantasy, vampire and supernatural novels.
Her earliest novels, the Blackbird series, were written and published when she was just finishing her teen years; in the intervening years she has seen numerous stand-alone novels and a trilogy published. (The original Blackbird series has recently been put back into print by Immanion Press.) Four of her novels (Dark Cathedral, Pagan Moon, Dracula the Undead, and The Amber Citadel) have been nominated for the British Fantasy Society's Best Novel award. Dracula the Undead won the Dracula Society's 1997 Children of the Night Award.[1] Her novel, Elfland, won the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award in the Fantasy Novel category for 2009.[2] Warrington has also seen numerous short stories published in anthologies and magazines.
Born in Leicester, Warrington grew up in Leicestershire. After completing high school, she trained at the Loughborough College of Art and Design and afterward held a job at the Medical Illustration Department of Leicester Royal Infirmary. She eventually moved to full-time writing, pursuing a love she had had since childhood. In addition to her writing, Warrington works part-time in the Charnwood Forest.

Tanya Sue Huff (born 1957) is a Canadian fantasy author. Her stories have been published since the late 1980s, including five fantasy series and one science-fiction series. One of these, her Blood Books series, featuring detective Vicki Nelson, was adapted for television under the title Blood Ties.

Anne Rice (born Howard Allen O'Brien; October 4, 1941) is a best-selling American author of gothic, erotic, and religious-themed books from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death from cancer in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.

Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite on May 25, 1967 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American author. Brite initially achieved notoriety in the gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s after publishing a string of successful novels. Brite's recent work has moved into the related genre of dark comedy, of which many are set in the New Orleans restaurant world. Brite's novels are typically standalone books but may feature recurring characters from previous novels and short stories. Much of Brite's work features openly bisexual and gay characters.

Nancy A. Collins (born 10 September 1959) is a United States horror fiction writer best known for her series of vampire novels featuring her character Sonja Blue. Collins has also written for comic books, including the Swamp Thing series, Jason Vs. Leatherface, Predator: Hell Come A Walkin and her own one-shot Dhampire: Stillborn.
Collins was born in McGehee, Arkansas, United States. She lived in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 1980s; after time in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia she settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in the late 2000s.

Patricia N. Elrod is an American novelist specializing in urban fantasy. She's written in the mystery, romance, paranormal, and historical genres with at least one foray into comedic fantasy. Elrod is also an editor, having worked on several collections for Ace Science Fiction, DAW, Benbella Books, and St. Martin's Griffin. She self-published a signed, limited edition novel under her own imprint, Vampwriter Books.
In 2010, she was nominated for the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award in Urban Fantasy.

Charlaine Harris (born November 25, 1951) is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing mysteries for over twenty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area of the United States. She now lives in southern Arkansas with her husband and three children. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and, later, teenage angst, she began writing plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She began to write books a few years later. Her later books have been in the urban fantasy genre.

Stephenie Meyer (born December 24, 1973), née Morgan, is an American author known for her vampire romance series Twilight. The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition and sold over 100 million copies globally, with translations into 37 different languages. Meyer is also the author of the adult science-fiction novel The Host.
Meyer was the biggest selling author of both 2008 and 2009, having sold over 29 million books in 2008 alone, with Twilight being the best-selling book of the year. She sold an additional 26.5 million books in 2009, making her the first author to achieve this feat in that year. Meyer was ranked #49 on Time magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People in 2008", and was also included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities in 2009, entering at #26. Her annual earnings exceeded $50 million. Also in 2010, Forbes ranked her as the #59 most powerful celebrity with annual earnings of $40 million.

Laurell Kaye Hamilton (born February 19, 1963) is an American fantasy and romance writer. She is the author of two series of stories. Hamilton is known for her New York Times-bestselling Anita Blake series, featuring a professional zombie raiser/supernatural consultant for the police as the protagonist in a world where vampires and werecreatures not only exist, but are citizens with recently protected, if nervously granted, civil rights in the US. The series has 19 novels, several short story collections, and other media tie-ins such as comic books. 6 million copies of Anita Blake novels are printed.[1] Also notable is her Merry Gentry series, an urban fantasy in which the world of fairy interacts with the "real world".

• Reference/Source: wikipedia
• Reference/Source: Vampires by Joules Taylor

10 of the Best Vampire Movies (1980 - 2010)

From the Twilight phenomenon in print and at the multiplex to the ever-growing True Blood and The Vampire Diaries viewership on TV, the Undead have never been hotter. But Dracula and his ilk have fascinated and repulsed movie audiences ever since Max Schreck’s spider-fingered Count Orlock first crept from his crypt in 1922’s Nosferatu.

Currently, advance ticket sales are high for the moody teenage vamps, werewolves, and the women who love them in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which opens Wednesday. The latest Twilight film builds on the tortured love triangle between sparkling vampire Edward, impossibly cut werewolf Jacob, and brooding high school senior Bella as they cope with recent murders in nearby Seattle as well as their hormones.
Vampirism has often served as an easy metaphor for issues as diverse as desire, identity, isolation, and excess: In the ’80s, fear of deadly STDs such as AIDS (not to mention single moms) informed Fright Night and The Lost Boys, while Nicolas Cage’s masterfully unhinged performance in Vampire’s Kiss skewered yuppiedom. These days, the rights of the disenfranchised are just under the surface on True Blood, while institutional corruption and gunplay reign in films like the shallow but kinetic Underworld series and the recent Daybreakers. And in a twist on race, characters like Blade popularize half-human, half-vampire creatures sometimes known as dhampirs who have been forced to choose between the human and vampire worlds.

While the sharp-fanged types have always compelled moviegoers to some extent, we are currently in the midst of a longer-than-usual period in pop culture where bloodsuckers — mostly attractive ones — reign supreme. The classic vampiric qualities of immortality, power, and sex are appealingly escapist during this post-millennial era of deep recession, amoral business and political practices, and skyrocketing health care costs. But other bloodsuckers are purely monstrous, with recent film vampires like those in the underrated 30 Days of Night or I Am Legend crossing over into the sci-fi zombie apocalypse territory of 28 Days Later.

Below, we take a look at 10 of the best vampire movies of the past 30 years.

1 - Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary, 2003

Guy Maddin’s stylized direction enhances the Royal Winnipeg Ballet company’s take on Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula story in this silent, mostly black-and-white film that pays homage to early cinema. This Canadian television production was given a very limited theatrical release after receiving rave reviews and buzz, but like previous Maddin films (including The Saddest Music in the World), it wasn’t for everyone.

2 - Let the Right One In,2008

A lonely, bullied 12-year-old befriends the new mysterious "girl" in his building in this gorgeous, unsettling Swedish film based on the novel of the same name. The film’s unforgettable climax is both horrifying and beautiful. Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) is currently helming an American remake that is said to have toned down some of the more "controversial" themes of the original (pedophilia, homosexuality).

3 - Fright Night, 1985

Teenage horror-movie aficionado Charley (William Ragsdale) seeks the help of a washed-up horror-movie actor (Roddy McDowall) when he’s unable to convince his girlfriend, his mother, his best friend, and the authorities that his new, debonair neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is a dangerous vampire. This horror spoof was a surprise summer hit and spawned a less-successful sequel. Colin Farrell will be taking on the vampire role in the upcoming reboot. You’re so cool, Brewster!

4 - Thirst, 2009

After a sick priest begins to thirst for blood following a transfusion, spiritual angst, gore, and an adulterous love triangle ensue. This critically lauded South Korean film won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2009 and takes themes from Émile Zola’s decidedly unsupernatural naturalist novel Thérèse Raquin.

5 - Shadow of the Vampire, 2000

This fictionalized making-of tale rides on the conceit that Nosferatu’s iconic vampire was played by an actual bloodsucker (a grotesquely made-up Willem Dafoe). The film, which utilizes silent film techniques such as intertitles, engages both filmmaking and horror tropes as director F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) struggles to complete his vision despite the increasingly dire circumstances caused by his all- too-Method lead actor. Dafoe was nominated for an Oscar for his surprisingly tragic portrayal.

6 - Cronos, 1994

An insectlike device injects an antique dealer with a solution that causes him to regain his vitality but also crave blood. An unsavory businessman and his nephew are also after the device. Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) provided both script and direction for his surreal Mexican feature debut.

7 - I Am Legend, 2007

This loose adaptation of Richard Mathison’s post-apocalyptic novella stars Will Smith as a solitary scientist who spends his days zooming around an empty NYC with his dog, trying to discover a cure for a virus that has turned most of humanity into seemingly mindless, UV-intolerant ghouls who resemble zombies more than traditional vamps. With its uneasy mix of action, effects, and character study, the film falls apart towards the end, though the original ending (available on DVD) restores some of the momentum. Dog lovers should beware.

8 - The Lost Boys, 1987

When his family moves to the sleepy California beach town that also happens to be the murder capital of the world, Jason Patric’s new buddies turn out to be more than just hoodlums. Joel Schumacher’s classic ’80s thriller features the two Coreys (Haim and Feldman) as Patric’s brother and one half of a vampire-hunting duo, respectively, as well as a mulleted pre-24 Kiefer Sutherland at his hottest and most menacing and Jami Gertz as a hippie-vampy love interest named "Star."

9 - Near Dark, 1987

Recent Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) directed this gritty cult classic that features a doe-eyed Adrian Pasdar (Heroes) as a young Oklahoman who falls in with white trash vampires played by the likes of Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, and Lance Henrickson. At the time of its release, audiences weren’t sure what to make of this biker-vampire-Western hybrid, though many critics dug the film.

10 - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, 2001

In this stylish anime film, set in a post-apocalyptic future populated by vampires and demons, a half-breed vampire hunter (the be-caped and stallion-riding "D," channeling The Man With No Name) is hired by a wealthy man to find his daughter, who has seemingly been kidnapped by a vampire. Based on the Vampire Hunter D graphic novels of Hideyuki Kikuchi, the movie received a very limited American release.

• Reference/Source: Features.metacritic.com