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HUNGARIANS IN HOLLYWOOD
MICHAEL CURTIS Oscar Winning Director of - "CASABLANCA"
His films during the 30's and 40's encompassed nearly every genre imaginable and some,
including Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945), are considered to be film classics. Other
credits include: 1935's Captain Blood, 1936's The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1938's Angels With
Dirty Faces (Oscar nomination), 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938's Four Daughters
(Oscar nomination), 1940's The Sea Hawk, 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy (Oscar nomination),
1943's This Is the Army, 1946's Night and Day and 1954's White Christmas. He even directed one
of Elvis Presley's most credible films, King Creole in 1958.
ADOLF ZUKOR- Producer and Founder of the Paramount Pictures Empire and Loew's Theatres.
WILLIAM FOX -Producer and Hollywood Mogul - Founder of Fox Studios. Fox invented the global
media newsgathering organization emulated today by CNN, BBC, ITN, DW and others. Fox
secured his place in history by commercializing talking pictures and then introducing a larger
movie screen.
ANDY VAJNA - Producer, Hollywood Legend: President of Cinergi Productions, co-Founder of
Carolco Pictures. Carolco made motion picture history when it introduced a new cinematic hero,
Rambo. Other Carolco projects include Music Box, Total Recall, Air America and Jacob's Ladder.
Other films include Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Terminator, Color of Night, Judge Dredd, The
Scarlett Letter, Oliver Stone's Nixon, Evita etc.
GEORGE CUKOR - Oscar Winning Director Cukor's career flourished at RKO and later MGM
where he directed a string of impressive films including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of
Divorcement (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935),
Romeo and Juliet (1936), and Camille (1937). He helped several actors win Academy Awards.
James Stewart won a Best Actor Oscar for The Philadelphia Story, Ronald Colman won a Best
Actor Oscar for A Double Life (1947) and Judy Holliday won for Best Actress for Born Yesterday
(1950 ). Cukor won an Academy Award himself, for Best Director, for My Fair Lady (1964)
MIKLÓS RÓZSA -Triple Oscar Winning Film Composer The Thief of Bagdad (1940)., The Jungle
Book (1942) Spellbound (1945) Julius Caesar (1953), Ben-Hur (1959) and El Cid (1961)
Rózsa's best known concert work is the orchestral Theme, Variations and Finale, op. 13, which
was on the program when Leonard Bernstein made his conducting debut.
RCA Victor honored Rózsa in 1975 with a special album of his classic film scores, recorded in
quadraphonic sound by Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Spellbound:
The Classic Scores of Miklos Rózsa.
GABOR CSUPO -Co-founder of Klasky-Csupo, one of the world's leading independent animation
studios, Founder of Tone Casualties, Musician. 5 EMMYS and 2 CABLE ACE Awards - produced
Rugrats and the Simpsons
BELA LUGOSI- Actor - The Original Dracula!
TONY CURTIS -Oscar-Nominated Actor, Artist, and Hollywood Legend!
PETER LORRE - Actor, Chaplin called him "the greatest actor alive", M (1931), Maltese Falcon
(1941), Casablanca (1942), The Raven (1963)
CHARLES A. CSURI - "Father of Digital Art!"
FRANK DARABONT
His parents fled Hungary after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. When he was still an infant his
family moved to the United States. He is a three-time Academy Award nominated American film
director, screenwriter and producer. He has directed two Academy Award-nominated films, The
Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.
ANDRE De TOTH
He was known for his tough, hard edged pictures. He was best known for his film House of Wax
shot in 3-D which put De Toth in a somewhat odd position since he had one eye. Other films
included 1954 Bounty Hunter, he was assistant Director on 1942 Jungle Book, 1962 Lawrence of
Aribia and 1978 Superman. Oscar Nomination, "The Gunfighter"
PETER MEDAK
Fled his native country in 1956 due to the Hungarian Revolution. In 1967 he signed with
Paramount Pictures to make feature films. His first feature was Negatives followed by The Ruling
Class; The Changeling; and the Krays
MEMYHERT LENGYEL
Oscar nominated Ninotshka in which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
He lost to Gone with the Wind.
LASZLO BENEDEK
He gained wide recognition for his direction of 1951's Death of a Salesman for which he won the
Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and a Best director nomination from the Directors Guild of
America. He is best remembered for his directorial efforts on the 1953 film The Wild One.
GEORGE PAL
Director, Producer and Cinematographer came to America in 1939. He developed methods of
integrating animated special effects with live action. Frank Freeman, the President of Paramount
Studios offered him his own studio with a staff of 25 film makers. From 1941 to 1947 he created
more than 40 Puppetoon films (Oscar), and received a special Academy Award in 1943. He
received Six Oscars and seven Oscar nominations for Best Short Subject. Some of his more
memoriable films are: Destination Moon (Oscar) When Worlds Collide (Oscar), Houdini, The War
of the Worlds (Oscar), The Time Machine (Oscar), Tom Thumb (Oscar) Atlantis, the Lost Continent,
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
JOE PASTERNAK
He emigrated to Universal's Hollywood studio in 1936 where he casted a 14 year-old singer
Deanna Durbin in Three Smart Girls which helped save Universal from bankruptcy. In 1941
Pasternak moved to MGM, where he continued to produce films featuring the rich singing voices of
Kathryn Grayson, Jane Powell, and Mario Lanza giving him his biggest success at MGM with The
Great Caruso. In the 1960's he made musicals with Elvis Presley and Connie Francis. His career
as a film producer spanned 40 years and earned him two Oscar and three Golden Globe Award
nominations. He produced more than ninety feature-length films as well as three Academy Award
shows. Just a few of his films included The Merry Widow, The Student Prince, Where the Boys Are,
Please don't eat the Daisies, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Meet me in Las Vegas, Love me or
Leave Me, and the 37th, 38th and 39th Annual Academy Awards.
IVAN TORS
He produced Namu, the Killer Whale, Around the World Under the Sea and Hello Down There. His
quote was "If we learn to communicate with animals, there is some hope that one day we will
learn to communicate with each other." He created Sea Hunt in 1960 and innovated underwater
cinematography with features like Underwater Warrior.
LAJOS KOLTAI
2001 Malena nominated Oscar; 2004 Being Julia nominated Europan film Award; 2002 Taking
Sides Won ADF Cinematography Award; Kodak Award.
LASZLO KOVACS
He was the ASC board of directors and the ASC Education Committee. 2002 recipent of the ASC
Lifetime Achievement Award. Recipient of two lifetime achievement awards for cinematography
one in Hawaii and one in Poland. Laszlo Kovacs has compiled more than 60 narrative films
credits, including Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Paper Moon, Shampoo, New York, New York,
What’s Up Doc?, The Last Waltz, The Runner Stumbles, Ghostbusters, The Mask, Little Nikita, F.I.
S.T., Blow Out, Legal Eagles, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Return to Me, Copycat, Multiplicity, Sliver,
and Miss Congeniality.
VILMOS ZSIGMOND
Legendary Cinematographer - Oscar Winner and Multiple Oscar Nominations!
First cinematographer to use the Panaflex camera on a movie -- "The Sugarland Express." His
long-overdue Academy Award came in 1977, with his powerful achievements on Steven
Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The following year found Zsigmond's dark and
disturbing work on Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978) receiving an Oscar nomination, and
another nomination appeared for the daring and powerful look he brought to Mark Rydell's The
River (1983)."
ISTVAN SZABO
Director, Writer, Producer - Academy Award in 1981
Though he stayed home in Hungary, he won an Academy Award in 1981 for his acclaimed film
""Mephisto." Other recent credits include "Sunshine," "Meeting Venus," and "Oberst Redl."
ZSA ZSA GABOR
Glamorous Actress with a Hungarian Temper!
Her more prominent films: John Huston's Toulouse-Lautrec biopic, "Moulin Rouge," ; "The Story of
Three Loves," 1953; "The Girl in the Kremlin," 1957; and Orson Welles' classic "Touch of Evil,"
1958.
EVA GARDOS
Acclaimed Screenwriter, Director, and Editor
She began her film career as an editor on 1983’s Valley Girl and later worked on films such as
Mask, Barfly, Valleygirl, Tales from the Crypt, and Time of the Butterflies. An American Rhapsody
marked Eva’s debut as both a screenwriter and director.
ANTAL NIMROD
Best know for writing and directing 2003 Kontroll. His film Vacancy, starring Kate Beckinsale and
Luke Wilson, was released on April 20, 2007
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