I bet you didn't know...

[HorseArcher]

Well, since i'm a hungarian, and you might beleive that it's a small ethnic family stuck in the middle of europe; and most of you don't really know or care, trust me, you are all surrounded by hungarians! Here some of the most well known people and less known for being a hungarian or hungarian origin:

Adolph Zukor - (b. 1873, Ricse, Hungary, d. 1976, Century City, CA)
"Mr. Motion Pictures" and Oscar Winner

Joseph Pulitzer -
Publisher: Responsible for building of the Statue of Liberty

Andrew Vajna -
Producer, Hollywood Legend: President of Cinergi Productions, co-Founder of Carolco Pictures


George Cukor - (b. 7/7/1899, New York, d. 1/23/1983, Los Angeles)
Double Oscar Winning Director (seen on left with Audrey Hepburn)

William Fox - (born Vilmos Fried, 1/1/1879, Tulchva, Hungary, d. 5/8/1952, New York)
Producer and Hollywood Mogul - Founder of Fox Studios!

Miklós Rózsa - (b. 1907, Budapest)
Triple Oscar Winning Film Composer

Béla Lugósi -
Actor - The Original Dracula!

Franz Liszt - (b. Oct. 22, 1811 - Doborján, Hungary (AKA, Raiding after Austrian annexation); d. July 31, 1886 - Bayreuth, Germany)
Classical Composer, "Greatest Pianist of All Time"

Tony Curtis
Oscar-Nominated Actor, Artist, and Hollywood Legend!


Gene Simmons of KISS
Legendary Rock-n-Roller!

Brent Spiner - (b. 2/2/1949, Houston, TX)
Actor and Trekkies' favorite android, Lieutenant Commander Data!


Paul Newman - (b. 1/26/25, Cleveland)
Oscar Winning Actor - Eight Oscar Nominations!


Michael Curtiz - (b. Manó Kertész Kaminer, 12/24,1898 Budapest, d. 4/10/1962, Hollywood, California)
Oscar Winning Director of "Casablanca"

Frida Kahlo (b. 1907, in Coyoacán, Mexico City; died 13th. July, 1954)
Acclaimed Artist and Mexican Icon: One of the most influential artists of the middle twentieth century


Mariska Hargitay - (b. 1/23/64, Los Angeles)
Actress
The beautiful and talented daughter of Jayne Mansfeild and Mickey (Miklós) Hargitay, and a wonderful actor in her own right. Now starring in "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit." Hargitay is also known to millions of viewers from her recurring role on ER as Dr. Greene's (Anthony Edwards) girlfriend Cynthia Hooper in the 1997-98 season of the top-rated show.


Charles A. Csuri -
"Father of Digital Art!"

"...The goal is to achieve a balance between technology and an aesthetic domain to make a meaningful artistic statement."



Albrecht Durer (b. 5/21/1471, Nürnberg, d. 4/6/1528)
Reniassance Master - perhaps the Greatest "German" artist of the Renaissance era. Also the most important of the Renaissance Mathematicians - Father of Descriptive Geometry

Gerard Schurmann
World-renowned Double Oscar Winning Composer: Orchestrated "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Exodus"

Gyorgy Kepes (b. Selyp, Hungary in 1906, d. 1/16/2002)
Painter, designer, author and educator who founded and directed the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT

Uri Geller - (b. 1946, Israel)
Psychic/Entertainer

Stefan Hatos (b. Aurora, Illinois, on 8/ 20/1920, d. Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake, California 1999)
Television producer of "Let's Make a Deal" fame

Iván Tôrs - (b. 6/12/1916 d. 6/4/1983)
Producer/Director, Underwater Film Pioneer

Peter Lorre - (born Lászlo Loewenstein, 6/26/1904 Rozsahegy [Rosenberg], Hungary, d. 3/23/1964)
Actor: Chaplin called him "the greatest actor alive"

Harry Houdini (b. 3/24/1874, Budapest, d. 10/31/1926, Detroit)
The "Greatest Magician on Earth," Actor, Pioneer Pilot

Mark (b. 8/12/1949, Glasgow) and David Knopfler (b. 12/27/1951)
Legendary, Grammy Award-winning Rock Musicians of Dire Straits: "The Sultans of Rock" and "the finest British band of all time."

Lehár, Franz (b. 4/30/1870 Komárom (now called Komarno in Slovakia after annexation at Trianon) - d. 10/24/1948, Bad Ischl, Austria)
Foremost composer of 20th century operettas.

Gábor Csupó - (b. 1952, Budapest)
Co-founder of Klasky-Csupo, one of the world's leading independent animation studios, Founder of Tone Casualties, Musician. 5 EMMYS and 2 CABLE ACE Awards - produced Rugrats and the Simpsons

Tommy Ramone (b. 1/29/1952, Budapest, Hungary)
Drummer and Producer of the Legendary, Pioneering Punk Rockers, the Ramones!Born Thomas Erdelyi, he emigrated from Hungary at the age of four.

George Pál (b. 1/2/1908, Cegléd, Hungary, d. 5/2/1980, Beverly Hills, California) -
Cartoonist - Winner of SIX Oscars, and pioneer of stop-action animation!

Kristof (Christoph) von Dohnányi - (b. 9/28/1929, Berlin)
Conductor (Cleveland) of the "Country's Greatest Orchestra" Time Magazine, 1994

Erno (Ernst) von Dohnányi - (b. 1877, Pozsony, Hungary (now Bratislava after Czech and Slovak annexation) d. -1960)
Pianist, composer, conductor, and pedagogue.

Joe (Joszef) Eszterhás - (b. 11/23/1944, Csákánydoroszló, Hungary)
Prolific Screenwriter (Basic Instinct, Sliver, Flashdance) "Highest-paid writer in Hollywood"

Claude-Michel Schönberg (b. 7/6/1944, Vannes, France)
Acclaimed Grammy and Tony Award-winning Writer, Composer, and Producer of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon

Ilona Staller aka Cicciolina (Cuddles) (b. 11/26/1951, Budapest)
Actress, Politician - Queen of Euro Porn through the 80's and 90's - Member of Parliament! Co-founder of Italy's Green Party


Stefan Lorant (b. 2/22/1901, Budapest, d. 11/14/1997, USA)
Photographer / Editor / Filmmaker / Pioneering Journalist - Widely regarded as the first major editor of modern photojournalism and "the Godfather of Photojournalism"

Mitzi Gaynor (9/4/1931, Chicago)
Legendary Actress / Singer / Dancer: Star of "South Pacific"

Don Adams (b. 4/13/1926, New York City)
Record setting Triple Emmy and Clio Award Winning Actor, Director, Screenwriter - Get Smart!

Robert Halmi, Sr. - (b. 1924, Budapest)
Producer, "Tele-Visionary," Chairman of Hallmark Entertainment, the most prolific producer in TV history: multiple Emmy Award winner and 1999 Peabody Award winner

Adrien Brody - (b. 4/13/1973, New York City)
Actor - Oscar Nominated for "The Pianist"

Menyhert Lengyel ( b. Lebovics Menyhért, Jan 12, 1880 Balmazújváros, Hungary - d. Oct 23, 1974 Budapest, Hungary )
Oscar Nominated Writer, Producer, and Broadway and Film Director

Dezo (Dezso) Hoffmann / Hofmann / Hoffman (b. 1912, Selmecbánya (today Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia) d. 1986)
Acclaimed Photographer - the Beatles' photographer! "One of the Greatest Photographers in Entertainment"

Col. Michael de Kováts (1724 - 1779)
US Military Hero!- Founding Father of the US Cavalry!

Major Charles Zágonyi - (Szatmár, Hungary, 1826 [annexed by Rumania in 1920])
US Military Hero! "The Union Forever!" Led the famous Civil War "Zágonyi Death Ride"

Major-General Julius H. Stahel Számwald (b. 11/5/1825, Szeged, Hungary d. 12/4/1912, New York City)
US Military Hero! Congressional Medal of Honor

Huba Wass de Czege (b.Kolozsvár (now Cluj after Rumanian annexation), Transylvania, in 1941)
Brigadier General, US Army Founding Director of the US Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies and Architect of AirLand Battle Doctrine

Count Lászlo Bercsényi (b. 1689)
Huszár, Founder of the modern French Cavalry! Marshal of France

General Alexander Asbóth, (b. 12/18/1811, Keszthely, Hungary, d. 1/21/1868, Argentina)
US Chief-of-Staff, US Minister to Argentina

Major Gyula Vári, Hungarian Air Force
Acclaimed Fighter Pilot - First pilot to win consecutive titles at Fairford's Royal International Air Tattoo


Col. Géza Mihalóczy
Civil War Hero: Organized the famed "Lincoln Riflemen."


Brigadier General Frederick Knefler (b. Arad, Hungary 1833 (annexed by Rumania in 1920), d. 1901)
Civil War Hero: "Hungarian Patriot and American General" - highest rank attained in the Union army by a member of the Jewish faith.


* Drew Barrymore, American actress (mother is Hungarian)
* Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress
* Tibor Fischer, British novelist (parents fled Hungary in 1956)
* Alanis Morrisette, Canadian singer
* Paul Newman, American actor
* Freddie Prinze, Jr. American Actor
* Freddie Prinze, Sr. American Actor and comedian
* Tommy Ramone Drummer of punk band The Ramones
* Gene Simmons American, Guitarist of Kiss
* Paul Simon American, singer
* Jerry Seinfeld Comedian
* Brent Spiner American, Actor, was Lt. Data on Star Trek

[edit]

Sports

* Tim Howard (1979 - ), American football (soccer) goalkeeper for Manchester United and US national team (Hungarian mother)
* Karch Kiraly (born Charles Kiraly, 1960 - ), American volleyball legend; father fled Hungary after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
* Bernie Kosar, American, NFL quarterback for various teams
* Charles Nagy, American, baseball pitcher for Cleveland Indians
* Joe Namath, American, NFL football quarterback for New York Jets
* Monica Seles (1973 - ), tennis (ethnic Hungarian born in former Yugoslavia, now United States citizen)
* Don Shula, American, NFL football coach of Miami Dolphins
* Joe Theismann, American, NFL football quarterback of Washington Redskins

[edit]

Business and Finance

* Calvin Klein, American, fashion designer

[hormiga]

You forgot the best hungarian actress:

Nikki Blond

She is *ahem* in movies that are not for kids, if you know what I mean.

[Cahir]

(b. 1877, Pozsony, Hungary (now Bratislava after Czech and Slovak annexation) d. -1960)

Common, you don't believe this. This is far from truth.
Also don't forget the founder of modern Satanism, Sandor Lavey.

[Lord Tomyris]

Since I'm British, and you might beleive that it's a small ethnic family stuck in a wet little island off Europe; and most of you don't really know or care, trust me, you are all surrounded by the British! Or at least, you were. At some point. Here some of the most well known people for being British or of British origin:

Charles Babbage
Sir Francis Bacon
Roger Bacon
Sir Douglas Bader
Sir Roger Bannister
Trevor Baylis
John Betjeman
Sir Francis Beaufort
William Blake
James Brindley
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
John Bunyan
Lord Byron
Sir Malcolm Campbell
Lewis Carroll
William Caxton
Sir Charlie Chaplin
Geoffrey Chaucer
Sir Winston Churchill
John Cobb
Sir Christopher Cockerell
John Constable
Captain James Cook
John Couch Adams
Oliver Cromwell
Charles Darwin
Sir Humphry Davy
Sir Geoffrey de Havilland
Charles Dickens
Benjamin Disraeli
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Francis Drake
Daphne Du Maurier
Sir Edward Elgar
Sir George Everest
Michael Faraday
Ranulph Fiennes
Sir Norman Foster
Sir Alexander Fleming
Sir Martin Frobisher
Thomas Gainsborough
Elizabeth Gaskell
Timothy Hackworth
John Harrison
Stephen Hawking
Sir John Hawkins
Sir Richard Hawkins
Henry VIII
Octavia Hill
Wally Hammond
John Howard
William Jessop
Amy Johnson
Samuel Johnson
John Keynes
Rudyard Kipling
William Laud
David Livingstone
John Locke
Ellen MacArthur
Sir Alexander Mackenzie
George Mallory
Sir James Martin
Sir Stanley Matthews
John Milton
Reginald Mitchell Horatio Nelson
Sir Isaac Newton
Florence Nightingale
Sir Joseph Paxton
Samuel Pepys
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Stephen Redgrave
John Rennie
Charles Stewart Rolls
Sir (Frederick) Henry Royce
Captain Scott
Gilbert Scott
William Shakespeare
George Bernard Shaw
Jim Shekhdar
George Stephenson
Thomas Telford
Richard Trevithick
Joseph Turner
James Watt
Josiah Wedgwood
Duke of Wellington
H G Wells
Sir Frank Whittle
Joseph Whitworth
Oscar Wilde
William Wordsworth
Sir Christopher Wren

[Erik]

Well, since i'm a hungarian, and you might beleive that it's a small ethnic family stuck in the middle of europe; and most of you don't really know or care

You are right, we don't care.

[HawkeyE]

You are right, we don't care.

Who lent you the use of the royal we?

[HorseArcher]

/ignoring the last few posts/

Lord Tomrys, my list is different because it's mostly not known, but your list of british' famous is well known.

so take this:

(by the way, the people here don't work alone as you know and not to mention, these people don't work "in" hungary, but the USA, Germany, and G Britain.

Madeleine Forró Barnóthy (b. Zsámbok, Hungary 1904, d. Chicago, Illinois 1993)
Astrophysicist, Pioneer in the study of Cosmic Radiation, Bio-Magnetism and Magnetic Therapy, first Woman to earn a doctorate in physics in Hungary.

Count Ede László Almásy (b. Borostyanko, Hungary 1895 [now called Bernstein after Austrian annexation], d. 1951, Salzburg)
Explorer, Double Agent! Immortalized in "The English Patient"

Ányos Jedlik (b. 1800, Szimõ in the county of Komárom [Komarno today after annexation by Slovakia] d. 1895)
Priest, Engineer, Physicist, Inventor - Father of the Dynamo

Antal Bejczy (b. Budapest 1930 -)
Engineer - Developed Mars Rover "Sojourner," and Pathfinder's Remote Control System

János András Segner (b. 1704, Pozsony, Hungary [now Bratislava after Slovak annexation], d. 1777, Halle, Germany )
Father of the Water Turbine: First scientist to use reactive force and made substantial contributions to the theory of Dynamics.

Imre Bródy (b. Gyula, Hungary 1891, d. Mühldorf, Germany 12/20/1944)
Physicist: Father of the Krypton Electric Bulb

Joseph Galamb - (1881 - 1955)
Ford Chief Engineer: Designed the Model T and Model A Ford, the Fordson Tractor, invented the Ignition Plug and the Planetary Gearbox, and prepared the production of Liberty aircraft engines.

Donát Bánki / János Csonka - (1859 - 1922) (1852-1939)
Engineers: Invented the carburetor and dual evaporation


Edward (Ede) Teller - (b. Jan. 15, 1908, Budapest)
Physicist, instrumental in the Manhattan Project, Father of the the H-Bomb: co-developed the Atomic Bomb and Discovered BET equation.

Leo Szilárd - (b. Feb 11, 1898, Budapest, d. May 30, 1964, La Jolla, California)
Physicist - Co-developed the Atomic Bomb, patented the nuclear reactor, catalyst of the Manhattan Project: Conceived the nuclear chain reaction and campaigned for nuclear disarmament, though the first to consider the application of the atom to making bombs. Achieved first sustained nuclear fission reaction with Enrico Fermi. Identified the unit or "bit" of information.

John von Neumann - (b. János Lajos Margittai Neumann on Dec 28, 1903, Budapest - d. Feb 8, 1957, Washington, DC)
Legendary Mathematician, Physicist, Logician, and Computing Pioneer. Father of Binary Code and the Stored Program Computer, the keys to modern computer computer programming. Father of Game Theory. Proposed Implosion and co-developed the Atomic Bomb. Built a solid framework for quantum mechanics. Played a key role in the development of the U.S. ballistic missile program.

Tódor (Theodore) von Kármán - (b.1881 Budapest - d.1963 Aachen, Germany)
Aeronautical Engineer & Mathematician. The Father of the Supersonic Flight, first recipient of National Medal of Science from J.F.K., and a founder of the aeronautical and astronautical sciences. Developed first helicopter tethered to the ground that was able to maintain hovering flight. He was one of the creators of scientific fluid mechanics. Designed the first rocket to reach interstellar space!


John Kemény - (b. 5/31/1926, Budpapest - d. 12/26/1992, Hanover, New Hampshire)
Mathematician, President of Dartmouth, Leader and innovator in mathematics education, and "Father of Microcomputing": Developed BASIC computer language. Manhattan Project Mathematician at 17!


Charles Simonyi (b. 9/10/1948, Budapest)
Billionaire Computer Scientist and Chief Architect, Microsoft Corporation
Father of WYSIWYG and Hungarian Notation

Farkas (Wolfgang) Kempelen de Pázmánd - (b.1734 Pozsony then capital of Hungary [called Bratislava after Czech and Slovak annexation], d. Vienna in 1804)
Inventor - First Speaking Machine - first experimental phonetician


Dennis Gábor (b. 1900, Budapest - d. 1979, London)
Nobel Prize in 1971 for his investigation and development of holography.

Tivadar Puskás - (b. 9/17/1844, Pest - d. 1893)
Inventor, Telephone Pioneer / Thomas Edison's Colleague - Devised the idea of using telephone exchanges between subscribers, invented the switchboard and built Europe's first telephone exchange. Inventor of the Telephonograph (forerunner to radio) and Telephone News

Peter Carl Goldmark - (b. 12/2/1906, Budapest – d. Westchester County, NY, 12/7/1977)
Engineer, CBS Chief Scientist - Invented the Color Television, 33 1/3 LP Record, and the Electronic Video Recorder! National Medal of Science

Benjamin Lax (b. Miskolc, Hungary, Dec. 29, 1915)
Electrical Engineer / Physicist: Founder and Director of Francis Bitter National Magnetic Laboratories (MIT); Professor of Physics, Emeritus (MIT); Semiconductor and magneto-optics pioneer; Radar Pioneer: developed the radar height finder and discovered radar meteorology.

János (Hans) Selye - (b. 1/26/1907, Vienna, d. 10/16/1982, Montreal)
Physician, Endocrinologist, Researcher - Founder of the concept of Stress: The "Einstein of Medicine!"

Jozsef Dallos - (b. 1905, d. 1979, London)
Physician - The First Practical Contact Lenses!

János Bolyai - (b. 15 Dec 1802 Kolozsvár, Hungary/Transylvania [now Cluj, Romania] d. 27 Jan 1860, Hungary/Transylvania [now Tirgu-Mures, Romania])
Mathematician - Discovered non-Euclidian hyperbolic geometry while at the University of Kolozsvár.

Kálmán Kandó - (b. 1869, d. 1931)
Inventor/Engineer - Discovered triple phase high tension current for electric locomotion and industrial applications. He is the Father of Modern Electric Trains!

János Irinyi - (b. May 17, 1817, Nagyléta, Hungary - d. 1895)
Chemist - Invented safety matches!

Mihály Csikszentmihályi (b. Hungary, d.)
Renowned Psychologist - Father of "Flow Theory," former Chair of University of Chicago's Department of Psychology, and Bestselling Author

1) Ottó Bláthy - (b. 1860, Tata, Hungary - 1939)
Father of the electric transformer, the tension regulator, the watt meter, the alternating current motor, the turbogenerator and high efficiency turbogenerator.

Miksa Déri - (b. 1854, Bács, Hungary - 1938)
Developed A/C electric generator

Károly Zipernowsky - (b. 1853, d. 1942)
A/C electronics pioneer! Founder of heavy-current electrical engineering

Count Samuel Teleki - (1854 - 1916)
Explorer! Led the famous East-Africa Expedition

http://www.webenetics.com/hungary/nobel.htm
http://www.webenetics.com/hungary/famous.htm

[shadepanther]

I believe Rachael Weisz's Father was a Hungarian Jew whofled during WWII. (Actress, stared in Enemy at the Gates, The Mummy, Mummy returns and About a Boy (a few others I dont really know))

[Emperor Dimitricus]

wow. im getting hungary reading all those names...

[Manningham]

Any Ukrainians want to fill me in on my cultural heritage? I dont know much beyond what my grandparents, who I never really knew, told me. I've got this framed Orthodox Icon (?) with a picture of jesus, some roses, and the words "Boze Blogoslaw Nasz Dom", I think that's "God bless this house", but I can't really remember anymore. People either hate it or love it, I love it of course. I'll try and put up a picture of the thing if I can figure out how