Gabriel Pascal
| Gabriel Pascal | |
|---|---|
Film Producer
|
|
| Born |
4 June 1894 Arad, Austria-Hungary (now Romania) |
| Died | 6 July 1954 (aged 60) New York City |
| Occupation | Film producer |
| Known for |
Pygmailion Major Barbara Caesar and Cleopatra |
| Spouse(s) | Valerie Pascal [born: Hídvéghy Valéria, Hungarian] |
| Children | Peter |
Gabriel Pascal (4 June 1894 – 6 July 1954) was a Hungarian film producer and director.
A follower of Meher Baba, Pascal was the first film producer to successfully bring the plays of George Bernard Shaw to the screen. His most successful production was Pygmalion, for which Pascal received an Academy Award nomination as its producer. Later adaptations of Shaw plays included Major Barbara (1941) and Caesar and Cleopatra (1945).
Pascal was born during June 1894 in Arad, Austria-Hungary (now Romania). Pascal coined his own name and his real name remains unknown. Pascal's early life is shrouded in mystery. He claimed to have been an orphan taken from a burning building as a child and raised first by Gypsies before being taken away to an orphanage. He also claimed that the Gypsies taught him to beg, steal, and do acrobatic tricks. It is unclear what parts of his fabulous account of his childhood are true as there are no formal records of him prior to the age of 17 when he was enlisted in military school in Holíč, Hungary, by a mysterious Jesuit priest. Pascal, who was decidedly unfit for military life, became interested in theatre and studied at the Academy of the Hofburgtheater in Vienna. Later his interest expanded into the newly burgeoning cinema and he made films in Germany and Italy with sporadic success. Becoming teetotal at an early age, he smoked cigars prodigiously, later provoking admonishments from George Bernard Shaw that he would ruin his voice.
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Wikipedia