Nickolas Muray

Nickolas Muray (born Miklós Mandl 15 February 1892, Szeged – 2 November 1965, New York City) was a Hungarian-born American photographer and Olympic fencer.

Muray attended a graphic arts school in Budapest, where he studied lithography, photoengraving, and photography. After earning an International Engraver's Certificate, Muray took a three-year course in color photoengraving in Berlin, where, among other things, he learned to make color filters. At the end of his course he went to work for the publishing company Ullstein. In 1913, with the threat of war in Europe, Muray sailed to New York City, and was able to find work as a color printer in Brooklyn.

By 1920, Muray had opened a portrait studio at his home in Greenwich Village, while still working at his union job as an engraver. In 1921 he received a commission from Harper's Bazaar to do a portrait of the Broadway actress Florence Reed; soon after he was having photographs published each month in Harper's Bazaar, and was able to give up his engraving job. In 1922 he also made a portrait of the dancer Desha Delteil. Muray quickly became recognized as an important portrait photographer, and his subjects included most of the celebrities of New York City. In 1926, Vanity Fair sent Muray to London, Paris, and Berlin to photograph celebrities, and in 1929 hired him to photograph movie stars in Hollywood. He also did fashion and advertising work. Muray's images were published in many other publications, including Vogue, Ladies' Home Journal, and The New York Times.

Muray competed for the United States at the 1928 and 1932 Summer Olympics in the sabre fencing events. Muray represented the New York Athletic Club and was a lifelong fencer for the club. He suffered a heart attack four years prior to his death while fencing at the club and was saved through the efforts of a fellow fencer and physician who performed open heart massage. On the second occasion in the very same fencing room Muray was struck again in a final and fatal attack. There is a plaque in his honor on display at the fencing room dedicated to his memory.

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