Pál Fejös
| Paul Fejos | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Pál Fejős January 27, 1897 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died | April 23, 1963 (aged 66) New York City |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Film Director, anthropologist, screenwriter, medical orderly and researcher |
| Years active | 1919–1963 |
| Spouse(s) | Mara Jankowsky (1914–1921) Mimosa Pfalz (1925) Inga Arvad (1936–?) Lita Binns (1958–1963) |
Paul Fejos (January 27, 1897 – April 23, 1963) was a Hungarian-born director of feature films and documentaries who worked in a number of countries including the United States. He also studied medicine in his youth and became a prominent anthropologist later in life. During World War I, Fejos worked as a medical orderly for the Imperial Austrian Army on the Italian front lines and also managed a theatre that performed for troops. After the war, he returned to Budapest and eventually worked for the Orient-Film production company. He began to direct films in 1919 or 1920 for Mobil Studios in Hungary until he escaped in 1923 to flee the White Terror and the Horthy regime. He made his way to New York City and then eventually to Hollywood where he started production on his first American feature film, The Last Moment, in October 1927. As a major hit, the film allowed him to sign with Universal Studios. After a number of other successful films, Fejos left America in 1931 to direct sound films in France. In 1941 he stopped making films all together and became the Director of Research and the acting head of the Viking Fund.
Fejos was born in Budapest, Hungary, as Pál Fejős to parents Desiré Fejős and his wife Aurora, née Novelly. He had one older sister, Olga Fejős. Like many film directors, Fejos exaggerated or invented myths for large portions of his life story and according to him his father was a captain with the Hussars and his mother was a Lady-in-waiting for the Austrian-Hungarian Empress, and that as a youth Fejos himself was an official of the Imperial Court. The truth was that his mother's family originated from Italy but did have an background and his father was a pharmacist in Dunaföldvár. Shortly before Fejos was born his father sold his business and moved the family to Budapest in order to buy a shop there, but died of a heart attack before the new shop was purchased. He was then raised by his mother in his grandparents' home. As a boy he was said to be a smart student and to have loved films from an early age. He was sent to a school run by Piarist Fathers in Veszprém and later to a school in Kecskemét. He eventually studied medicine and in 1921 he received an M.D. from the Royal Hungarian Medical University of Budapest. In 1914 he married his first wife Mara Jankowsky. World War I started soon afterwards and Fejos worked as a medical orderly for the Imperial Austrian Army on the Italian front lines. During the war he also managed a theatre that performed for the troops. Some additional myths about Fejos' life that surfaced year later include that he was an officer in the Hussars, was wounded three times and that he was the first person to pilot a combat airplane in the entire war. After the war Fejos returned to Budapest and began working as a set painter for an opera company and eventually for the Orient-Film production company. He was divorced from his first wife in 1921, allegedly because of his irrational jealousy.
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