Carroll Borland (February 25, 1914 – February 3, 1994) better known by the stage-spelling Carol Borland, was an American professor, writer, and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

. She is best known for having portrayed Luna, the daughter of Bela Lugosi's character, Count Mora, in ''

Mark of the Vampire ''Mark of the Vampire'' (also known as ''Vampires of Prague'') is a 1935 American horror film, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan (British actress), Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt, and directed by Tod Br ...

'', and for creating the iconic look of the female vampire with her waist-length dark hair and

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin language, Latin given name Adrianus (given name), Adrianus or Hadrianus (disambiguation), Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria (river), Adria from the Venetic language, Venetic and ...

-designed shroud in this film.

Biography

Borland was born February 25, 1914, in

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

. She was raised in Alameda, California, where she studied ballet in her early childhood. Borland was a drama student at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

at the time she took the role of Luna in ''

'' (1935). She had previously appeared in a stage production of ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

'' with Lugosi, in the role of Lucy. Borland got the attention of Lugosi—and a part in the play—by writing to him and suggesting that Dracula did not die at the end of the novel, but rather turned to dust just as the sun was setting. However, she was known to exaggerate the closeness of Lugosi's paternal relationship to her; in Richard Bojarski's ''The Films of Bela Lugosi'', she describes his funeral as if she had been there, and claims to have been, though she was not actually in attendance. Borland retired from acting in 1953, though her other screen appearances were limited to a short film in 1933 and an unbilled appearance in the 1936 serial ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

'', until

Fred Olen Ray Fred Olen Ray (born September 10, 1954) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter of more than 200 low-to-medium-budget feature films in many genres, including Horror film, horror, science fiction, action film, action/adventure f ...

cast her in his films '' Scalps'' (1983) and ''

Biohazard A biological hazard, or biohazard, is a biological substance that poses a threat to the health of living organisms, primarily humans. This could include a sample of a microorganism, virus or toxin that can adversely affect human health. A bioh ...

'' (1985). Her novel, ''Countess Dracula'', was published by Magicimage Filmbooks in March 1994, one month after her death.

Death

Borland, suffering from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

and other health issues in her later life, relocated from her home in the Napa Valley to

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...

, to be closer to her daughter. Borland resided in a retirement community there, where she died on February 3, 1994, of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

by her daughter.

Filmography

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

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The Devil Doll
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borland, Carroll 1914 births 1994 deaths Actresses from San Francisco American film actresses Deaths from pneumonia in Virginia 20th-century American actresses