Foregoers

Born 8/30/1812, Futak, Hungary, died 7/6/1869. “Father of California Wine Culture!” – Ronald Reagan. Hungarian Nobleman.  After serving in the Hungarian Diet, took up the cause of the democratic revolutionary Louis Kossuth. Feeling the heat after the arrest of Kossuth, he traveled throughout Europe and came to America in 1840. He found his way to California […]

(2/1/1928, Budapest, Hungary – 2/11/2008) US Congressman Lantos was elected to his eleventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives from California in November 2000. He was first elected to Congress in November 1980 Lantos was 16 years old when Nazi Germany occupied his native country. As a teenager, he was a member of the […]

Mathematician, born 7/13/1944 in Budapest. Invented Rubik’s cube in 1974 and many more logical, mind-teasing toys since. Turned his inventions into multi-million dollar enterprises. Though his name is now a household word, at the time, Erno Rubik was a lecturer in the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in […]

b. 1908, Corona, NY, d. 2004. Founder of the current world cosmetics leader, Estee Lauder Companies Inc., which employs some 10,000 people around the globe and today controls 45 per cent of the cosmetics market in US department stores and is sold in over 100 markets under well recognized brand names: Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, […]

(1925 – ) Oscar Winning Actor Newman was born as the second and youngest child of German and Hungarian parents in Cleveland, Ohio. His numerous acclaimed films include Cool Hand Luke, Hud, The Hustler, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Verdict, Absence of Malice and The Color […]

(1900 – 1989) Writer He was highly successful in Hungary from the 1930s, published over books of novels and essays, survived Nazi occupation and had to flee in 1948. After a short stop in Italy, he emigrated to San Diego, California where he lived in obscurity, and committed suicide in 1989. Marai was an author of […]

(1966 – ) Actor Marton became an actor in 1989 after graduating from the New Zealand Drama School. His first movie role was in the 1994 movie Jack Brown Genius. Other film credits include XXX, The Monkey’s Mask, Broken English, Down and Under, Rain, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (Poggle),  Lord of the […]

(Sári Gabor, 1918 – 2016 ) Though officially an actress, Zsa Zsa Gabor is more famous as a whimsical celebrity sex symbol (the former Miss Hungary married nine times). Her credits include Queen of Outer Space, Moulin Rouge and a small role  in the Orson Welles classic Touch of Evil. Eva Gabor (1920 – 1995) […]

(1853 – 1919) Painter His oeuvre consists of about one hundred paintings and twenty drawings – not too many, but his paintings were the first great summary of modern art in Hungary. His individual style – best illustrated by Trees in Electric Light  and Storm over the Great Hortobágy – was characterized by pantheism and expressive […]

(Gy?z? Vásárhelyi, 1906 – 1997) father of Op Art He pioneered the visually disturbing effects that were later called Op Art. His paintings were characterized by their repeated geometric forms and interacting vibrant colors which created a visually disorientating effect of movement. Forms from nature were transposed into purely abstract elements in his paintings. During the […]