List of Hungarian Americans

This is a list of notable Hungarian Americans. Many Hungarians went to the United States after the Soviet invasion in 1956 during Operation Safe Haven.

List

Entertainment

Actors

*Vilma Bánky [ [http://www.starpulse.com/Actresses/Banky,_Vilma/index.html] [http://www.vilmabanky.freehomepage.com/biography.html] "Prior to Vilma Banky’s birth, her father, a highly esteemed bureau chief for the Franz Josef Austro-Hungarian Empire, had moved the family to the small town of Nagydorog, a suburb of Budapest, in Hungary. Vilma Konsics Bánky was born there on January 9, 1902..."]
*Drew Barrymore [ [http://www.celebritywonder.com/html/drewbarrymore_trivia1.html] "She is half Hungarian on her mother's side" [http://www.simplydrew.com/Biography.htm] "Drews Mother - Jaid Barrymore (nee Ildiko Jaid Mako) [was] Born on 8 May 1946 in Brannenburg, West Germany in a camp for displaced persons. Jaids parents (Drew's grandparents) were Hungarian."]
*Adrien Brody
*Jamie Lee Curtis [ [http://movies.about.com/od/skippingchristmas/a/kranksjc111904_3.htm] "I’m a Hungarian Jew. My grandmother, God rest her soul, was a Hungarian Jew. I am my grandmother now."]
*Tony Curtis [ [http://www.adalarms.force9.co.uk/tony-curtis/hun.htm] [http://www.americancinematheque.com/pressreleases/TonyCurtisPress.htm] "Born Bernard Schwartz in 1925 to Jewish-Hungarian parents, Curtis grew up in New York’s matinee movie-palaces..."]
*Bill Dana [ [http://www.tvacres.com/ethnic_hispanic_AC.htm] "Bill Dana who created the funny talking Hispanic character was actually a Hungarian Jew born 1924 in Quincy, Massachusetts."]
*Eva Gabor [ [http://www.tvacres.com/ethnic_hungarian.htm] [http://www.tvland.com/shows/greenacres/actor2.jhtml] "Eva Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary on February 11, 1926..."]
*Zsa Zsa Gabor [ [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=25448] "Zsa Zsa Gabor born, Budapest Hungary. Though some sources say 1918, 1919, or 1920. 1936 Elected Miss Hungary."]
*Mariska Hargitay
*Goldie Hawn
*Kate Hudson
*Ernie Kovacs
*David Krumholtz
*Peter Lorre
*Paul Lukas
*Bela Lugosi [ [http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article-9049304] "Hungarian-born motion picture actor..."]
*Ilona Massey (née Harmassy)
*Paul Newman
*Joe Penner
*Michael Vartan

Filmmakers

*Nimród Antal - (1973 -) film director [Antal - [http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/notes/nantalinterview.htm] "A Hungarian-American's splashy debut..."]
*László Benedek - film director
*Gabor Csupo - animator of Rugrats and early Simpsons
*George Cukor - film director [ [http://www.hungary.com/servlet/page?_pageid=6224,6177&_dad=portal30&_schema=PORTAL30] [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDA113FF936A25751C1A967958260] "George Dewey Cukor was born in New York City on July 14, 1899, to a Hungarian Jewish immigrant couple..."]
*Michael Curtiz (né Kertesz) - director of "Casablanca"
*Frank Darabont - producer/director [ [http://www.webenetics.com/hungary/famous.htm]
*Jules Engel - animator/filmmaker/world reknown teacher [http://www.deltorofilms.com/FrankDarabont.php] "Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in France in 1959, the son of Hungarian parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian uprising."]
*Joe Eszterhas - screenwriter [ [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=89168] [http://www.slate.com/id/2094831/] "A Justice Department investigation reveals that Eszterhas' father, a Hungarian who immigrated to the United States, wrote anti-Semitic propaganda in his home country during World War II."]
*William Fox (producer) - founder 20th Century Fox
*Alexander Korda - director
*László Kovács (cinematographer) - cinematographer
*Andrew Laszlo - cinematographer
*Ernest Laszlo - cinematographer
*László Marton - theatre director [ [http://www.laszlomarton.net László Marton ] ]
*Peter Medak - director
*George Pal - father of sci-fi cinema, director, producer, cinematographer
*István Szabó - film director, Academy Award winner
*Andrew G. Vajna - movie producer
*Vilmos Zsigmond - cinematographer
*Adolph Zukor - founder Paramount Pictures

portspeople

*Larry Csonka - football player [ [http://hipcat.hungary.org/sports.htm] Dead link|date=March 2008]
*Ladislas Farago - journalist [ [http://www.highbeam.com/ref/doc3.asp?docid=1E1:IX-Ladislas] [http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=74-1594160066-0] "Known for his best-selling military histories, Ladislas Farago also wrote a witty tribute to his homeland, Strictly from Hungary."]
*Nick Fazekas - basketball player [cite news|url=http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2005/02/08/91769.php?sps=rgj.com&sch=Sports&sp1=rgj&sp2=Sports&sp3=Sports&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=sports |first=Steve |last=Sneddon |title=NBA a realistic goal for Fazekas |publisher="Reno Gazette-Journal" |date=2005-02-08 |accessdate=2007-06-29 "Nick’s grandfather, Albert Fazekas, who lives in the Denver area, has that fire in his heart. He was a freedom fighter in the Hungarian Revolution in 1956."]
*Charlie Gogolak, football player
*Pete Gogolak, football player, who invented "soccer style" kicking
*Lou Groza - football player
*Mickey Hargitay - bodybuilder, father of Mariska Hargitay (above) [ [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800086369] [http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/mickeyhargitay.html] "Born in Budapest, Hungary in January 1926 to parents who were in show business in Europe, Miklos "Mickey" Hargitay came to the US in the early 1950s."]
*Tim Howard - soccer player [ [http://www.math.sc.edu/~kozek/usgoalies.htm] [http://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/profilenews.cfm?pagecode=&areacode=NEWS_FPLD&id=5818] "Howard's Hungarian-born mother was the prime mover in getting an early diagnosis."]
*Al Hrabosky - baseball player [ [http://www.alhrabosky.com/] "The southpaw's nickname, The Mad Hungarian, came from his nationality, Fu Manchu mustache and long hair, and angry stomping to the back of the mound to psych himself up."]
*Karch Kiraly - volleyball player [ [http://www.hungarian-history.hu/oly.htm] [http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/newspeakerbio/3706/index.php] "He is of Hungarian descent; his father László fled Hungary in the wake of the failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution and emigrated to the United States."]
*Bernie Kosar - football player [ [http://www.webenetics.com/hungary/sports.htm The Hungary Page - More Famous Hungarians ] ]
*Jack Lengyel - football coach
*Joe Namath - football player [ [http://www.sk-szeged.hu/szolgaltatas/vasvary/newsletter/03dec/driver.html] [http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=91-0786552530-0] "The son of a Hungarian immigrant, Namath left the steel country of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania..."]
*Charles Nagy - baseball player
*Monica Seles - tennis player [ [http://www.ahf.cc/news_vojvodina.htm NEWS FROM VOJVODINA, SERBIA from the American Hungarian Federation - Founded 1906 ] ]
*Don Shula - football coach [ [http://www.gotohungary.com/roots/huninamerica.shtml] [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/classic/bio/news/story?page=Shula_Don] "He was born on January 4, 1930 in Grand River, Ohio, the fourth of Hungarian immigrants Dan and Mary Shula's seven children."]
*Joe Theismann - former football player turned broadcaster

cientists

*Béla H. Bánáthy - linguist, systems scientist, and professor
*Peter Carl Goldmark - engineer
*Paul Halmos - mathematician
*Stevan Harnad - scientist
*John George Kemeny - scientist
*Nicholas Kurti - physicist
*Cornelius Lanczos - physicist
*Peter Lax - mathematician
*László Lovász - mathematician
*Erno Laszlo - dermatologist and cosmetic businessman
*Andor Szentivanyi- immunologist
*George Andrew Olah - chemist
*Charles Simonyi - computer developer
*Thomas Szasz - psychiatrist and academic
*Gábor Szegő - mathematician
*Victor Szebehely - scientist [ [http://www.webenetics.com/hungary/sciencemathandtech2.htm] [http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/1998-1999/memorials/Szebehely/szebehely.html] "Victor Szebehely was one of a truly remarkable group of immigrants who came to the United States from Hungary as a result of the upheavals caused by the Second World War in Europe."]
*Albert Szent-Györgyi - biologist and polymath
*Leo Szilard - physicist [Winkler, Allan. "Life Under a Cloud", Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999, p.11]
*Edward Teller - father of the hydrogen bomb [Winkler, Allan. "Life Under a Cloud", Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999, p.68]
*Georg von Békésy - biophysicist
*Theodore von Kármán - scientist
*John von Neumann - computer scientist [ [http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/VonNeumann.html] "Von Neumann was a child prodigy, born into a banking family is Budapest, Hungary".]
*Eugene Wigner - quantum physicist, Nobel Prize (1963)

Writers/Editors/Journalists

*Csaba Csere - technical director and editor of Car and Driver
*Elie Wiesel - author, 1986 Peace Prize Nobelist
*Kati Marton - author [ [http://www.webenetics.com/hungary/famous.htm] [http://www.ideastations.org/ftr/guests/marton.html] "Author and journalist Kati Marton was born in Hungary and has spent two decades writing and reporting from the United States, Europe and the Far East."]
*Joseph Pulitzer - publisher [ [http://www.notablebiographies.com/Pe-Pu/Pulitzer-Joseph.html] [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pulitzer.htm] "Joseph Pulitzer was born in Makó, Hungary, as the eldest son of Hungarian Jews."]

Artists

*Lajos Markos - painter
*Maurice Ascalon - sculptor and industrial designer
*Eric Tscherne - Hot Wheels Designer
*Marcel Breuer - architect and furniture designer
*László Moholy-Nagy - painter, photographer
*Sylvia Plachy - photographer [ [http://www.upenn.edu/ARG/archive/plachy/plachy.html] "Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy captures..."]

Musicians/Composers

*Peter Cetera - singer/bassist/composer/producer, formerly of the band Chicago (mother of Hungarian descent) [ [http://www.petercetera.com] Cetera has stated this in interviews and on his Web site; however he's not revealed his mother's birth/maiden name.]
*Csaba Erdélyi - violist
*Stephan Erdody - Grammy Award Winning Cellist
*Keith Jarrett - jazz and classical pianist and composer
*Gene Kardos - Big Band leader of the 1930s
*Mark Knopfler and David Knopfler - of Dire Straits
*Eugene Ormandy - conductor [ [http://www.unicover.com/EA1CAKBC.HTM] "A Hungarian-American conductor, Eugene Ormandy was born on November 18, 1899, in Budapest, Hungary. He graduated from the Budapest Royal Academy, where he studied violin with Jenö Hubay, an eminent Hungarian violinist."]
*John Popper - singer/harmonicist of Blues Traveler
*Tommy Ramone - member of the Ramones [ [http://www.onewaymagazine.com/feature_14-23.html] [http://www.officialramones.com/site/tommy/tommy.html] "Tommy Ramone was born Thomas Erdelyi In Budapest, Hungary but grew up in Queens one of the boroughs of New York City."]
*Miklós Rózsa - film score composer [ [http://members.iinet.com.au/~agfam/miklos/bio.html The Miklós Rózsa Society Website ] ]
*Paul Simon - singer/songwriter, Hungarian parents
*Gene Simmons - Singer, bassist rock band KISS: Hungarian mother
*Mike Shinoda - member of Linkin Park (mother is of Hungarian descent)
*Gábor Szabó - jazz guitarist
*Zoli Téglás - vocalist of Ignite

Politicians

*Chris Gabrielli - Massachusetts candidate for governor.
*Joseph Gaydos - former Pennsylvania congressman
*Fiorello H. LaGuardia - former mayor of New York City (Hungarian mother)
*Tom Lantos - former congressman from California [ [http://www.hungaryemb.org/News3/CongressMarc15.htm visa application cheap flight hungary at hungaryemb.org ] ]
*George Pataki - former Governor of New York; father was Hungarian [ [http://www.gimagine.com/gimagine/American_Hungarian_Foundation/2006/2006-02-26-The_Hungarian_Legacy_in_America/default.htm] [http://www.nycivic.org/articles/050106.html] "His Hungarian father and Irish-Italian mother did not provide the lineage considered desirable in those days."]
*Mark Singel - former Pennsylvania Lt. Governor
*Jesse Ventura - former Governor of Minnesota

Other

*Steven Brust - writer
*Louis C.K. - comedian whose birth name is Louis Szekely
*Magda Gabor - entertainer
*Harry Houdini - escape artist
*Hirsch Jacobs - racehorse owner and trainer
*Chris Jansing - newscaster
*Calvin Klein - World famous fashion designer
*Alex Koroknay-Palicz - executive director of National Youth Rights Association [ [http://oneandfour.org/archives/2006/05/a_nation_of_imm.html One and Four » Blog Archive » A Nation of Immigrants - My Great-Grandmother ] ]
*Ernie Kovacs - entertainer
*Eugene Lang - philanthropist [ [http://www.cdi.org/adm/Transcripts/502/ Modern American Patriot: Eugene Lang ] ]
*Paul László - architect, interior designer
*Estée Lauder (person) - co-founder of Estée Lauder Companies, cosmetics
*George Pál - animator
*Laszlo Rabel - United States Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient
*Helena Rubinstein - co-founder of make-up label Helena Rubinstein
*George Soros - speculator, investor, philanthropist, political activist
*Thomas Szasz - psychiatry professor
*Ferenc A. Váli - lawyer, author, political analyst
*Roland Wank - architect

ee also

*List of Hungarians
*List of people of Hungarian origin
*Hungarian Canadians
* [http://www.manhattanhungarians.org/ Manhattan Hungarian Network]

Huba Nagy, architect

References