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George Pal

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Cause of death
  
Heart Attack

Role
  
Animation film producer

Name
  
George Pal

Citizenship
  
United States

Nationality
  
Hungarian


George Pal OffRamp Review Celebrate George Pal and his Puppetoons

Full Name
  
Gyorgy Pal Marczincsak

Born
  
February 1, 1908 (
1908-02-01
)
Cegled, Hungary

Resting place
  
Other names
  
Julius Gyorgy Marczincsak

Alma mater
  
Budapest Academy of Arts

Died
  
May 2, 1980, Los Angeles, California, United States

Spouse
  
Zsoka Grandjean (m. 1930–1980)

Children
  
Peter Marczincsak, David Marczincsak

Parents
  
Maria Marczincsak, Gyorgy Pal Marczincsak Sr.

Movies
  
The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, Destination Moon, 7 Faces of Dr Lao

Similar People
  
H G Wells, Byron Haskin, Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Alan Young

1960 george pal the time machine time travel excerpt


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

Contents

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He was nominated for Academy Awards (in the category Best Short Subjects, Cartoon) for seven consecutive years (1942–1948) 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.

George Pal The Time Machine ProjectGeorge Pal hopes dreams

LTV's Top Props - Producer Arnold Leibovit on the works of George Pal


Early life and career

George Pal Hungarian Roots George Pal The Master Of Puppets And Special Oscar

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 (aged 20). From 1928 to 1931, he made films for Hunnia Films of Budapest, Hungary.

George Pal George Pal Hungarianborn animator director and producer

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 the Pal-Doll technique (known as Puppetoons in the US).

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

Pal 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).

Pal's Puppetoons Tulips Shall Grow and John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946) were added to the Library of Congress 1997 and 2015 National Film Registry. One of the Tubby the Tuba models along with a frog and three string instruments were donated to the Smithsonian Institution for the National Museum of American History.

Preservation

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

  • 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 (1953) (producer)
  • The Naked Jungle (1954) (producer; directed by Haskin)
  • Conquest of Space (1955) (producer; directed by Haskin)
  • Tom Thumb (1958) (producer and director) (Oscar: Best Special Effects 1958)
  • The Time Machine (1960) (producer, director and "Morlock" designer) (Oscar: Best Special Effects 1960)
  • Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961) (producer and director)
  • The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) (producer and director)(Cinerama Production) (Oscar: Best Costume Design 1962)
  • 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) (producer and 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 (1974–75) Unfinished TV pilot
  • Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil (1976)
  • The Time Traveller (1977–78) 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 Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit)
  • The Puppetoon Movie (1987) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit)
  • References

    George Pal Wikipedia