Híres Magyarok

Fülöp (Philipp von) Lénard (1862-1947) was the first scientist born in Hungary to win the Nobel Prize. His scientific career started under Eötvös in Budapest, but he later moved to Germany where he died. He was honored in physics in 1905 „for his work in connection with cathode rays”. His principal sphere of research covered […]

Ferenc Rofusz Animator He received an Oscar in 1981 for his animated film The Fly (the first Hungarian Oscar for a cartoon).The film is a simple story about a day in the life of a housefly. The fact that the film is totally from the point of view of the fly, along with the building tension […]

(1878 – 1952) Playwright He was one of the many talented immigrants that were part of the “Hungarian Invasion” of New York Theatre. His play Liliom provided the plot for Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s famed musical Carousel. Some of his plays were adapted for the Big Screen, including The Swan, starring Grace Kelly, Charles Vidor, Alec Guiness, […]

b. Doborjan, Hungary (now Raiding, Austria) 10/22/1811; d. Bayreuth, 7/31/1886, Germany Composer He was taught to play the piano by his father and then Czerny, establishing himself as a remarkable concert artist by the age of 12. He gave concerts around the whole world, but was active as a composer. The greatest pianist of his time, he […]

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, […]

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 […]

Ernő Rubik (Hungarian: [Rubik Ernő]; born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including Rubik’s Cube (1974), Rubik’s Magic, Rubik’s Magic: Master Edition, Rubik’s Snake. While Rubik grew to fame based on the Rubik’s Cube and his other puzzles, much […]

Elie Wiesel (1928-) was born in Máramarossziget, now Sighet, Transylvania. During World War II, he, with his family and other Jews from the area, were deported to the German concentration and extermination camps, where his parents and little sister perished. He is the recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize „because He was one of […]

Dénes (Dennis) Gábor (1900-1979) was born in Budapest as the oldest son of Bertalan Gabor, director of a mining company, and his wife Adrienne. He graduated from the Technische Hochschule in Berlin in 1924 and received his Doctorate there in 1927, in electrical engineering. He ranks as one of the pioneers of the theory of […]

Calvin Klein, the American fashion king was born on 11/19/1942 in New York from a Hungarian father, Leo Klein. Calvin graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1962 at the age of twenty. In 1968, longtime friends Calvin Klein and Barry Schwartz opened their first apparel company, designing and selling women´s coats – an […]