 george pal (born gyÃ¶rgy pÃ¡l marczincsak; february 1, 1908 &ndash; may 2, 1980) was a hungarian-born american animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre. he became an american citizen after emigrating from europe. he was nominated for academy awards (in the category best short subjects, cartoon) no less than seven consecutive years (1942â1948) and received an honorary award in 1944. this makes him the second most nominated hungarian exile (together with william s. darling and ernest laszlo) after miklÃ³s rÃ³zsa. ==early life and career== he was born in ceglÃ©d, austriaâhungary, the son of gyÃ¶rgy pÃ¡l marczincsak sr. and his wife maria. he graduated from the budapest academy of arts in 1928 (aged 20). from 1928 to 1931, he made films for hunnia films of budapest, hungary. at the age of 23 in 1931 he married elisabeth "zsoka" grandjean, and moving to berlin, founded trickfilm-studio gmbh pal und wittke, with ufa studios as its 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 left germany as the nazis came to power. he made five films before 1939 for the british company horlicks malted milk. in december of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from europe to the united states,pal, his wife and son, were second cabin passengers on the s.s. statendam which arrived at the port of new york from the netherlands on december 3, 1939. and began work for paramount pictures. at this time, his friend walter lantz helped him obtain american citizenship. as an animator, he made t
1908_births 1980_deaths Academy_Honorary_Award_recipients American_film_directors English-language_film_directors Hungarian_emigrants_to_the_United_States Hungarian_film_directors Hungarian_film_producers People_who_emigrated_to_escape_Nazism Stop_motion_animators