George Pal

He was nominated for Academy Awards (in the category Best Short Subjects, Cartoon) for seven consecutive years (1942–1948) 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 Miklós Rózsa.

George Pal studied at Hungarian University of Fine Arts. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is stop-motion animated film. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are speculative fiction. Places of work recorded in the authority are Berlin, Eindhoven and Los Angeles. Residence is recorded at Budapest and Berlin. Employment is recorded with Hunnia Film Studio, UFA and Paramount Pictures. Work by George Pal is recorded in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Eye Filmmuseum and Harvard Film Archive. Distinctions recorded are Winsor McCay Award, Academy Honorary Award, star on Hollywood Walk of Fame and Inkpot Award.

Pal was born in Cegléd, Hungary, as Gyula György Marczincsak the son of Gyula Marczincsak, Sr. and his wife Mária Tikó; in 1936 he officially changed his last name Marczincsak to "Pál", becoming György (George) Pál. He graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 1928 (aged 20). From 1928 to 1931, he made films for Hunnia Film Studio of Budapest, Hungary. In 30th June of 1930 in Budapest, he married Elisabeth "Zsóka" Grandjean, and after 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 the Pal-Doll technique (known as Puppetoons in the US). In 1933, he worked in Prague. In 1934, he made cigarette advertisement films 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. In December of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from Europe to the United States, and began work for Paramount Pictures. At this time, his friend Walter Lantz helped him obtain American citizenship. As an animator, he made the Puppetoons series in the 1940s, which led to him being awarded an honorary Oscar in 1943 for "the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons". Pal then switched to live-action film-making with The Great Rupert (1950). He is best remembered as the producer of several science-fiction and fantasy films in the 1950s and 1960s, such as When Worlds Collide, four of which were collaborations with director Byron Haskin, including The War of the Worlds (1953). He himself directed Tom Thumb (1958), The Time Machine (1960), and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962).

In May 1980, he died in Beverly Hills, California, of a heart attack at the age of 72, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. The Voyage of the Berg, on which he was working at the time, was never completed.

The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of George Pal's films, including Radio Röhren (Valve) Revolution (1934), an advertising short for Philips, Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945), and John Henry and the Inky Poo (1946).

The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit) The Puppetoon Movie (1987) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit) The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 (2020) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit) The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 (2023) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit)