George Pal was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe. He was nominated for Academy Awards for seven consecutive years and received an honorary award in 1944. This makes him the second-most nominated Hungarian exile after Miklós Rózsa.
Early life and career
Pal was born in Cegléd, Hungary, the son of György Pál Marczincsak, Sr. and his wife Maria. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts in 1928. 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 after 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 the Pal-Doll technique. 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. 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. He himself directed Tom Thumb, The Time Machine, and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.
The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of George Pal's films, including Jasper and the Beanstalk, John Henry and the Inky Poo, and Radio Röhren Revolution.
Live-action feature films
Unreleased, unfinished, or projected films
After Worlds Collide
Odd John
Logan's Run
When the Sleeper Wakes
War of the Worlds Unfinished TV pilot
The Time Traveller aka Time Machine II. A novelization with Joe Morhaim was published posthumously in 1981.
