Michael Curtiz

• Birth name:

  Manó Kertész Kaminer

• Date of Birth:

  10 April 1886 Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)

• Height:

  5' 9" (1.75 m)

American director of Hungarian origin, Oscar-winner. He got his diploma at the School for Dramatic Arts in 1906. First he went to Pécs, then Szeged. He made his first film in 1912. The next year he went for stud tour to Denmark to study the newest achievements of the new art in the studios of the then flourishing Nordisk company. Here he worked as assistant and director, acting as the main character in Atlantis (1913). Having returned in 1914, he went to the Jenö Janovics film factory in Kolozsvár (Cl... more

American director of Hungarian origin, Oscar-winner. He got his diploma at the School for Dramatic Arts in 1906. First he went to Pécs, then Szeged. He made his first film in 1912. The next year he went for stud tour to Denmark to study the newest achievements of the new art in the studios of the then flourishing Nordisk company. Here he worked as assistant and director, acting as the main character in Atlantis (1913). Having returned in 1914, he went to the Jenö Janovics film factory in Kolozsvár (Cluj). In 1915, he moved back to the capital. In 1916 he worked for the Kinoriport, then he became a director for Phönix until Fall 1918. He shot 38 production in Hungary altogether. In 1919, he filmed the popular poem of Antal Farkas with the title Jön az öcsém (1919). During the Commune, he settled down in Vienna. He was one of the most productive and most educated artist in Hungary at the beginning of the era of the silent film.