Count Orlok

Count Orlok, also known colloquially as Nosferatu, is a fictional character who first appeared in the silent film Nosferatu (1922) directed by F. W. Murnau. Based on Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula, he is played by German actor Max Schreck, and is depicted as a repulsive vampire descended from Belial, who leaves his homeland of Transylvania to spread the plague in the idyllic city of Wisborg in Biedermeier-period Germany, only to find death at the hands of a self-sacrificing woman. Count Orlok would reappear in remakes, played by Klaus Kinski, Doug Jones and Bill Skarsgård, as well as in comic book adaptations and sequels. Orlok's distinct appearance, which is closer to that of vampires of Eastern European folklore than to traditional depictions of Dracula, influenced numerous later vampire designs, including those of Salem's Lot, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Blade film franchise, typically in order to distance the creatures from their more conventionally humanized or charming counterparts.