Answer: Dracula

The concept of a creature that lives forever by feasting on human blood is a trope that permeates many cultures across the globe. Given the number of cultures that had stories of such creatures, it should come as no surprise that Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula was popular when it was published, remains popular, and has been adapted, remixed, and reinvented in nearly countless ways.

In fact Count Dracula has made more film and television appearances than any other literary figure around. From the early silent film adaptation Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror in 1922 to the iconic rendering of Dracula by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film Dracula to the torrent of Dracula adaptations that packed the 1970s with night-terror-filled movie fun, we find Dracula in hundreds upon hundreds of appearances over the last century. The character has so thoroughly captured the public’s imagination that each new decade sees dozens of appearances of the character in television and film with no indication of our love of a good vampire story waning any time soon.