George Pal

George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; February 1, 1908 â€" May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe.

He was nominated for Academy Awards (in the category Best short subjects, Cartoon) no less than seven consecutive years (1942â€"1948) and received an honorary award in 1944. This makes him the second most nominated Hungarian exile (together with William S. Darling and Ernest Laszlo) after Miklós Rózsa.

Early life and career

He was born in Cegléd, Austriaâ€"Hungary, the son of György Pál Marczincsak Sr. and his wife Maria. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts in 1928 (aged 20). From 1928 to 1931, he made films for Hunnia Films of Budapest, Hungary.

At the age of 23 in 1931 he married Elisabeth "Zsoka" Grandjean, and moving to Berlin, founded Trickfilm-Studio Gmbh Pal und Wittke, with UFA Studios as its main customer from 1931 to 1933. During this time, he patented Pal-Doll (known as Puppetoons in the USA).

In 1933 he worked in Prague; in 1934, he made a film advertisement in his hotel room in Paris, and was invited by Philips to make two more ad shorts. He started to use Pal-Doll techniques in Eindhoven, in a former butchery, then at villa-studio Suny Home. He left Germany as the Nazis came to power.

He made five films before 1939 for the British company Horlicks Malted Milk. In December of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from Europe to the United States, and began work for Paramount Pictures. At this time, his friend Walter Lantz helped him obtain American citizenship.

As an animator, he made the Puppetoons series in the 1940s, which led to him being awarded an honorary Oscar in 1943 for "the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons". Pal then switched to live action film making with The Great Rupert (1950).

He is best remembered as the producer of several science fiction and fantasy films in the 1950s such as When Worlds Collide and 1960s, four of which were collaborations with director Byron Haskin including The War of the Worlds (1953). He himself directed tom thumb (1958), The Time Machine (1960) and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962).

Death

In May 1980, he died in Beverly Hills, California of a heart attack at the age of 72, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. The Voyage of the Berg, on which he was working at the time, was never completed.

Awards and honours

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine St. In 1980 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founded the "George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film" series in his memory. George Pal (along with the film When Worlds Collide) is among the many references to classic science fiction and horror films in the opening theme ("Science Fiction/Double Feature") of both the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show and its cinematic counterpart, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

Live action feature films

• The Great Rupert (1950) (producer)
• Destination Moon (1950) (producer) (Oscar: Special Effects 1950)
• When Worlds Collide (1951) (producer) (Oscar: Special Effects 1951)
• The War of the Worlds (1953) (producer; directed by Haskin) (Oscar: Best Special Effects 1953)
• Houdini (Tony Curtis version) (1953) (producer)
• The Naked Jungle (with Charlton Heston) (1954) (producer; directed by Haskin)
• Conquest of Space (1955) (producer; directed by Haskin)
• Tom Thumb (1958) (producerâ€"director) (Oscar: Best Special Effects 1958)
• The Time Machine (1960) (producerâ€"director & "Morlock" designer) (Oscar: Best Special Effects 1960)
• Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961) (producerâ€"director)
• The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) (producerâ€"director)(Cinerama Production) (Oscar: Best Costume Design 1962)
• 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) (producerâ€"director) (Oscar: Makeup Honorary Award 1964 - first film to receive this award)
• The Power (with Michael Rennie) (1968) (producer; directed by Haskin)
• Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975) (producer).

Unreleased, unfinished, or projected films

• After Worlds Collide (1955)
• Odd John (1967) (rights acquired only)
• Logan's Run (1968)
• When the Sleeper Wakes (1972)
• War of the Worlds (1974â€"75) Unfinished TV pilot
• Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil (1976)
• The Time Traveller (1977â€"78) aka Time Machine II. A novelization with Joe Morhaim was published posthumously in 1981.
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1979)
• The Disappearance (1980) (only in preproduction)
• Voyage of the Berg (1980) (only in preproduction)

Posthumous collection

• The Puppetoon Movie

Bibliography

• Gail Morgan Hickman. The Films of George Pal (South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1977) ISBN 0-498-01960-8

References

External links

• George Pal at the Internet Movie Database
• NNDB entry
• George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film
• A Cinema of Miracles: Remembering George Pal
• George Pal: A Career in Perspective
• George Pal
• War Of The Worlds review plus info on proposed WOTW TV series