George Pal mini-bio: George Pal (February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-born animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe.
He was born in Cegléd, Hungary. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts in 1928 and from 1928 to 1931 made films for Hunnia Films of Budapest, Hungary.
In 1931 he married Zsoka Grandjean, and moving to Berlin, founded Trickfilm-Studio Gmbh Pal und Wittke having the UFA Studios as main customer from 1931 to 1933. During this time, he patented Pal-Doll (known as Puppetoons in the USA).
In 1933 he worked in Prague; in 1934, he made a film advertisement in his hotel room in Paris, and was invited by Philips to make two more ad shorts. He started to use Pal-Doll techniques in Eindhoven, in a former butchery, then at villa-studio Suny Home.
He made five films before 1939 for the British company Horlicks Malted Milk. He left Germany as the Nazis came to power. In 1940, he emigrated from Europe, and began work for Paramount Pictures At this time, his friend Walter Lantz help him to obtain US nationality.
As an animator, he made the Puppetoons series in the 1940s, then switched to live action filmmaking with The Great Rupert in 1950. He was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1944 for "the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons".
He is best remembered as the producer of landmark science fiction films in the 1950s and 60s, four of which were collaborations with director Byron Haskin. His background with the whimsical Puppetoons set the foundation for the imaginative production designs for his films during this period.
He died in Beverly Hills, California of a heart attack at the age of 72, and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. The Voyage of the Berg, on which he was working at the time, was never completed.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine St. In 1980 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founded the "George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film" series in his memory.
George Pal's work in the 1951 movie When Worlds Collide was mentioned in the song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from the musical The Rocky Horror Show.
