When Werner Herzog brought his remake of NOSFERATU to un-life in 1979, enough time had passed that Bram Stoker’s novel and titular character, Dracula, had entered the public domain, and thus the main character in Herzog’s movie could again be called Dracula. In the original NOSFERATU in 1922, trying to avoid a lawsuit from Florence Stoker (it didn’t work, as she sued them anyway), they changed their villain’s name to “Graf Orlock”. (It’s strange for me, as I tend to think of Dracula and Graf Orlock as two separate characters now.) We don’t know if Graf Orlock was bald naturally or deliberately, if he shaved his head. We *do* know that being bald was a grooming choice for the Dracula/Nosferatu character in Herzog’s film—because when the character returned a decade later in NOSFERATU IN VENICE, he had hair!
Okay, so NOSFERATU IN VENICE is only an “unofficial” sequel to Herzog’s NOSFERATU THE VAMPIRE and the real reason the character has hair is because Klaus Kinski refused to shave his head again. (I guess he musta refused to wear a skullcap, too.) But I prefer to think of the Count shaving his head—although without being able to see his reflection in a mirror it probably wasn’t an easy feat for him.
NOSFERATU IN VENICE is getting a spiffy Blu-ray release, by the way.
