I was told by my father that he was a distant relative, one of the few things he said that might be true. All the men in my family look like him, and my great grandmother was a Blasko from Lugos, Transylvania. As a kid, I loved watching his films late at night, because he sounded like my family.
Needless to say, later in life, he and Boris Karloff were my inspiration to become an actor...both of whom I have portrayed onstage in recent years.