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Born in Budapest, Hungary, her true name is Katherina Freiin Schell von Bauschlott, the scion of a once wealthy German patrician family. Her father, the Baron Paul Schell von Bauschlott, was a well-respected diplomat until the Nazis confiscated their estates during WWII, while her mother was Countess Katharina Maria Etelka Georgina Elisabeth Teleki de Szék. Her family was living in poverty until 1948 when they sought asylum in Vienna and Salzburg as the communist regime began to take hold in Hungary. In 1950, her family emigrated to the States and Baron von Schell Bauschlott renounced his title in order for his family to gain citizenship. Catherine entered a convent school in New York's Staten Island area. In 1957, her father joined Radio Free Europe, taking the family to Munich where she developed an interest for acting and trained at the prestigious Falconberg School. Her inauspicious debut (sometimes billed as Catherine von Schell) was in the German film Lana, Queen of the Amazons (1964). While filming Amsterdam Affair (1968), she met and married actor William Marlowe, subsequently moving to London. She went on to appear in Moon Zero Two (1969), the James Bond feature On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Callan (1974) and The Black Windmill (1974), but is best known at that time for the slapstick comedy The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), which marked Peter Sellers' cinematic revisiting of his "Inspector Clouseau" character. Extremely visible on TV with frequent work in such series as The Persuaders! (1971), The Adventurer (1972) and the cult sci-fi series Space: 1999 (1975) starring Barbara Bain and Martin Landau playing the role of "Maya", an alien, for which she is best known. Her marriage to actor Marlowe had run its course by 1977, and she met director Bill Hays that same year, who had two children from a previous marriage. They married in 1982, together working on a TV production of A Month in the Country (1985). Her career began to wane by the time she did the series Wish Me Luck (1987) and she retired shortly thereafter, running a small guest hotel in France. Catherine is often mistakenly thought of as a sister of actors Maximilian Schell, Maria Schell, Immy Schell and Carl Schell, but she is not. One of her two brothers, Paul von Schell, is, however, the widower of actress Hildegard Knef.

Eszter Balint (born in Budapest , Hungary) grew up as a member of the avant-garde theatre company Squat Theatre in New York. She has appeared in starring and featured roles in films by Jim Jarmusch, Woody Allen, Steve Buscemi, alongside David Bowie, and in Louis CK's FX TV show Louie, among others. Eszter has been featured in a number of documentaries as herself.

Eszter is also a musician performer violinist and songwriter with three critically acclaimed solo albums, Flicker, Mud and Airless Midnight. She has appeared as a violinist and/or vocalist on numerous projects by others, including albums by Michael Gira's Angels of Light and Swans, John Lurie's Marvin Pontiac's Greatest Hits, various projects by Marc Ribot, and has contributed tracks to two tribute albums by John Zorn. Eszter has collaborated with Stew (Passing Strange, Notes of a Native Song, The Total Bent, The Negro Problem) on a show of songs about Eszter's life growing up in NY.

Hungarian-born S.Z. Sakall was a veteran of German, Hungarian and British films when he left Europe because of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement. In Hollywood from shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Sakall began appearing in comedies and musicals, often playing a lovable if somewhat excitable and/or befuddled uncle, businessman or neighborhood eccentric. Memorable as the waiter in Casablanca (1942) and as a somewhat lecherous Broadway producer in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). He retired from films in 1954 and died of a heart attack in Hollywood in 1955.

Undoubtedly the woman who had come to epitomize what we recognize today as "celebrity," Zsa Zsa Gabor, is better known for her many marriages, personal appearances, her "dahlink" catchphrase, her actions, gossip, and quotations on men, rather than her film career.

Zsa Zsa was born as Sári Gabor on February 6, 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, to Jolie Gabor (née Janka Tilleman) and Vilmos Gabor (born Farkas Miklós Grün), both of Jewish descent. Her siblings were Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor. Zsa Zsa studied at a Swiss finishing school, was second runner-up in the fifth Miss Hungary pageant, and began her stage career in Vienna in 1934. In 1941, the year she obtained her first divorce, she followed younger sister Eva to Hollywood.

A radiant, beautiful blonde, Zsa Zsa began to appear on television series and occasional films. Her first film was at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Lovely to Look At (1952), co-starring Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton. She next made a comedy called We're Not Married! (1952) at 20th Century Fox with Ginger Rogers. It was far from a star billing; she appeared several names down the cast as a supporting actress. But in 1952 she broke into films big time with her starring role opposite José Ferrer in Moulin Rouge (1952), although it has been said that throughout filming, director John Huston gave her a very difficult time.

In the following years, Zsa Zsa slipped back into supporting roles in films such as Lili (1953) and 3 Ring Circus (1954). Her main period of film work was in the 1950s, with other roles in Death of a Scoundrel (1956), with Yvonne De Carlo, and The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1958) with Anna Neagle; again, these were supporting roles. By the 1960s, Zsa Zsa was appearing more as herself in films. She now appeared to follow her own persona around, and cameo appearances were the order of the day in films such as Pepe (1960) and Jack of Diamonds (1967). This continued throughout the 1970s.

She was memorable as herself in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), in which she humorously poked fun at a 1989 incident where she was convicted of slapping a police officer (Paul Kramer) during a traffic stop. She spent three days in jail and had to do 120 hours of community service. Such infamous incidents contributed to her becoming one of the most all-time recognizable of Hollywood celebrities, and sometimes ridiculed as a result. She was also memorable to British television viewers on The Ruby Wax Show (1997).

In 2002, Gabor was reported to be in a coma in a Los Angeles hospital after a horrifying car accident. The 85-year-old star was injured when the car she was traveling in hit a utility pole in West Hollywood, California. The reports about her coma eventually proved to be inaccurate.

Zsa Zsa's life, spanning two continents, nine husbands, and 11 decades, came to an end on December 18, 2016, when she died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, California. She was 99.

Eva Gabor was born on February 11, 1919 in Budapest, Hungary, to Jolie Gabor (née Janka Tilleman) and Vilmos Gabor (born Farkas Miklós Grün), a soldier. Her older siblings were Magda Gabor, an actress, and Zsa Zsa Gabor, an actress and socialite. Her parents were both from Jewish families. She went to Hollywood, California, to act in the 1930s. Her mother escaped from Nazi-occupied Budapest in the 1940s, also settling in the U.S.

Eva appeared both in films and on Broadway in the 1950s, as well as in several "A"-movies, including The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), starring Elizabeth Taylor, and Artists and Models (1955), which featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

In 1953, she was given her own television talk show, The Eva Gabor Show (1953). Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, she appeared on television and in movies. She appeared on one episode of the mystery series Justice (1954), and was on the game show What's My Line? (1950) as the "mystery challenger". Her film appearances during this period include a remake of My Man Godfrey (1957), Gigi (1958) and It Started with a Kiss (1959).

However, she is best remembered as Lisa Douglas, the socialite turned farm wife on Green Acres (1965) with co-star Eddie Albert playing her attorney husband Oliver Wendell Douglas. Eva Gabor died at age 76 from respiratory failure and pneumonia on July 4, 1995 in Los Angeles, California.

Palvin was born in Budapest. At an early age, Palvin took up football and singing, considering them her favorite hobbies. She was discovered on the streets of Budapest in 2006, at the age of 13. She shot her first editorial in the same year for Spur Magazine. Since, she's graced the covers of L'Officiel, Vogue Russia, and Glamour Hungary. Barbara made her runway debut as an exclusive for Prada during Milan Fashion Week in February 2010.She's modeled for Armani Exchange, H&M, Victoria's Secret, and in February 2012, she became an ambassador for L'Oreal Paris.

Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in 1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner Bros. and became thoroughly entrenched in the studio system. His films during the 1930s and '40s encompassed nearly every genre imaginable and some, including Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945), are considered to be film classics. His brilliance waned in the 1950s when he made a number of mediocre films for studios other than Warner. He directed his last film in 1961, a year before his death at 74.

Diminutive 2'9" actor and circus performer Mihaly 'Michu' Meszaros was born in 1939 in Budapest, Hungary. Meszaros performed for the Hungarian National Circus prior to coming to America in the 1970s. Not surprisingly, he portrayed circus midgets in both "Big Top Pee-wee" and "Warlock: The Armageddon." Mihaly was best known for donning the furry full body costume as the titular rascally extraterrestrial on the hugely popular 1980s sitcom "ALF" in scenes that featured the little creature walking, running, or standing in complete view. He also appeared on the TV shows "H.R. Pufnstuf" and "Dear John." He performed stunts for the hit comedy "Look Who's Talking." In addition, Meszaros was the tiny butler Hans in the nifty horror flick "Waxworks" and the grotesquely mutated George Ramirez in the hilariously wacky cult favorite "Freaked." Moreover, Mihaly was a member of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His hobbies included drinking scotch and smoking giant cigars. Meszaros died at age 76 after falling into a coma on June 13, 2016.

Dr. Ava's personal brand is "Sexual Empowerment." She is a media therapist, author of ten books, global speaker and founder of Lovelogy University.

Dr. Ava, has appeared on hundreds of shows including The Doctors (2008), LA Shrinks (2013), Kendra on Top (2012), Cathouse: The Series (2005), and a variety of programs for MTV, VH1, Discovery, Lifetime, TLC, "E" and A&E.

Dr. Ava has earned a doctorate in human behavior from Newport University (CA) and a doctorate of education in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. She is also a certified hypnotherapist, certified AASECT sex counselor, continuing education provider for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and California Board of Nursing.

Through her private practice in L.A., she counsels some of Hollywood's elite on personal issues that range from anger management, fear of intimacy, communication problems, performance anxiety, infidelity, love and sex addiction, lack of desire, power struggles to parental concerns. A highly sought after speaker, Dr. Ava has traveled to four continents motivating Fortune 500 business people, religious organizations, medical institutes, women's groups and college students to embrace the power of love and create magical relationships.

Mickey Hargitay was born on 6 January 1926 in Budapest, Hungary. He was an actor, known for The Loves of Hercules (1960), Delirium (1972) and Bloody Pit of Horror (1965). He was married to Ellen Hargitay, Jayne Mansfield and Mary Birge. He died on 14 September 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Beautiful, buxom, and shapely blonde bombshell Ahna Capri was born Anna Marie Nanasi on July 6, 1944 in Budapest, Hungary. Capri moved with her family to the United States when she was a child and started acting in television series at age 11. She made her film debut at age 13 in the Western Outlaw's Son (1957). Ahna achieved her greatest enduring popularity as the enticing Tania in the martial arts cult classic Enter the Dragon (1973). Capri gave an excellent and impressive performance as country singer Rip Torn's snobbish, annoyed girlfriend Mayleen Travis in Payday (1973). Ahna's other memorable movie roles include the terrified Nicky in the creepy Devil-worship horror winner The Brotherhood of Satan (1971), feisty wildlife photographer Terry Pendrake in Piranha (1972), and luscious assassin Londa Wyeth in the Crown International exploitation romp The Specialist (1975).

Among the many television series Capri has done guest spots on are Mrs. Columbo (1979), Baretta (1975), Kojak (1973), Police Story (1973), Cannon (1971), Mannix (1967), Ironside (1967), Adam-12 (1968), Mod Squad (1968), The Invaders (1967), The Wild Wild West (1965), I Spy (1965), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Branded (1965), Leave It to Beaver (1957) and Maverick (1957). A longtime resident of the San Fernando Valley, Ahna was involved in a fatal traffic accident in North Hollywood on August 9, 2010 when a five-ton truck collided with her car. After spending more than a week in a coma on life support at a hospital, Ahna Capri passed away with family members at her side at age 66 on August 19, 2010.

Andrea was born in Budapest in 1979. She had lived in the countryside of Hungary until 1996 when she won the second place of the national "Look of the Year Competition" which drove her to move to Budapest. After an excellent graduation in an Italian and Hungarian bilingual high school, she spent another 5 years studying Italian culture, literature and language at the Arts Department of the Eötvös Lóránd University. She gained her double degree in 2005 as an Italian Major. Her ruling passion has been dancing since she was 13. Andrea maintained herself and helped her not well-heeled family in the country by modeling for several years. She did at least 30 TV commercials in a few years and had the luck to be selected for a small role in Spy Game (2001) movie in which she played with Robert Redford and with Brad Pitt. It was the period when she realized she wanted to focus her energies on transmitting emotions among people and chose the acting career. Beside working and studying, she attended one year at the 'Földessy Margit' Acting School in Budapest, whereupon she was admitted in the biennial International Acting School-Rome, in Italy and she quit modeling. She has been living in Rome since 2003 studying and working as an actress. Speaks and acts perfectly in English, Italian and Hungarian. Beside numerous acting workshops, she also has attended a screen-writing course at the Schilling-Moharos Screenwriter School in Hungary. She also studied German for twelve years and French for one year. Her filmography continues to grow by 3-5 films each year.

Heavyweight Hungarian-born character actor Oscar Beregi Jr.'s best performances were on the small screen, usually as Eastern European or Russian heavies. His stock-in-trade villainy was of a cultured or psychological, rather than physical nature, urbane and intellectual, yet inevitably sinister. His father, matinee idol Oscar Beregi Sr., had appeared on the Hungarian and German stage in Shakespearean roles, as well as acting in films, since 1919. Both Beregis left Hungary in 1939, the father settling in the United States, while the son ran a restaurant in Chile. It took several years for the younger Beregi to be granted a visa to enter the U.S., and then only through the intervention of then-U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson.

When Beregi finally arrived in America, he spoke little English and worked as a salesman for several years, learning the language, before re-entering the acting profession well into middle age. On the big screen, he was largely restricted to small supporting roles. However, Beregi made the most of the meatier roles offered him in television, such as mob boss Joe Kulak (a character possibly based on real-life mobster Jake Guzik) in eight episodes of The Untouchables (1959). He was also impressively commanding as the scientific criminal mastermind Farwell in Rod Serling's The Rip Van Winkle Caper (1961) and, in the same series, as former SS concentration camp commandant Guenther Lutze, driven to insanity by the ghosts of his former victims in Deaths-Head Revisited (1961). He was also effective in Middle Eastern intrigue (The Third Man (1959)) and in parodying his evil personae in I'm Only Human (1966), Tequila Mockingbird (1969), and Young Frankenstein (1974).

In his spare time, he was a successful breeder of Komondors, a breed of large, white Hungarian sheep dog, considered a living treasure in their native country.

Franciska Töröcsik was born on 28 April 1990 in Budapest, Hungary. She is an actress, known for Cat Call (2023), Don't Breathe (2016) and Swing (2014).

Dora Kiss was born in Budapest, Hungary. She resides in Los Angeles. She is fluent both in English and Hungarian. Dora speaks with an American accent. She has been a member of The Actors' Gang Theatre company (Art.Dir. Tim Robbins) for ten years. Dora is an All-American, formal pro tennis player.

Nóra Trokán was born on August 13, 1986 in Budapest, Hungary. She is known for her work on Game of Swords (2006), The Witcher (2019) and Well (2016).

Nora Trokan is an international actress from Hungary, regarded there as one of the most influential artists of her generation. Theatrical triumphs mark her first ten years in the business. Perfecting her craft, she played the most challenging, most desirable leading roles in dramatic history. Maggie from Arthur Miller's "Cat on a hot tin roof" Irina from Chekhov's "Three sisters", Sen Te from Brecht's "Good Man from Szechuan", the title role in Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" to name a few. Following her first decade on stage, the audience's and industry's demand for her onscreen presence gave way to a shift to film and TV. You can see her in Netflix's hit series "The Witcher" in the role of DRYAD GENERAL. Nora is also lead in Hungary's highest-grossing Tv-show "The Teacher" for three chart-topping seasons, also as a series regular in a critically acclaimed periodic limited series along with more than thirty short and feature-length film appearances. Among her most recent work are behemoth projects such as Paramount's "Halo" and Lionsgate's next feature, "Borderlands", in which she plays alongside Kevin Hart.

His city is Budapest, he was born there, he graduated there, and worked a lot there. After he finished the College in 1971, he went to Debrecen to the Csokonai theatre. After it he played in the Petofi theatre, Veszprem. He has already worked in the National theatre; the Mafilm theatre group; Katona Jozsef theatre, Kecskemet. Before 1994 he was the art director of the Labdater teatrum theatre for a few years. In 1994 he went to the Uj Theatre to work as an actor. He has done a lot film, his good friend is Miklos Jancso, the director. Awards: Balazs Bela award (1982); Erdemes Muvesz (1986); Elizabeth award (1987,1990); SZOT award (1988); Kossuth award (1990).

Peter Medak is a Hungarian-born British film director. Born in Budapest, Hungary, then part of the Warsaw Bloc, Medak fled to England at the age of 18 during the bloody uprising against the Soviet regime. He began his career with associated British Picture Corporation in Borehamwood. He studied and worked his way through by being an assistant editor, assistant cameraman and eventually a 3rd, 2nd and 1st assistant director on many British films of the late 1950s and early 196Os.

Medak worked with some of the most legendary British film directors, including, among others, Sir Carol Reed, David Lean, Anthony Asquith, and Fred Zimmerman. He was signed in 1963 by Universal Studios in Hollywood where for the first six months he the chance to observe Alfred Hitchcock and many others. He began directing television in Hollywood and in London. In 1967, he signed with Paramount Studios where he finally achieved his dream and directed his first feature film called Negatives (1968), featuring Glenda Jackson in her film appearance.

He then proceeded making two highly acclaimed black comedies: The Ruling Class (1972), and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972) (for which he received an Academy Award nomination). Since then he has directed many feature films on both sides of the Atlantic. In recent years, he made The Krays, which won him The Evening Standard Award for Best Director in England. Later films which he directed include: Let Him Have It, Romeo is Bleeding, The Men's Club, etc.

Klári Tolnai is a professional Film and Theatre actress, based in Budapest, Hungary. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Asti International Film Festival for her performance in Stifled. (2021) Klári also co-wrote of 'Stifled' which nominated for Best Short Film at Oscar-Qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival. (2022) She played Tabitha in Shadow and Bone (2021), Ruth in The Alienist (2018) however, the act that brought her widespread attention was her role in the Netflix series, The Last Kingdom (2017-2022), where she played Sidgeflead, Sihtric's wife.

In the meantime, she was also busy working on Hungarian productions, she played in several movies and tv series. In 2022, released of the psychological thriller called 'A Karantén Zóna' (The Quarantine Zone) on HBO and HBO Max, where she played Panni, one of the main characters.

Edina Ronay was born in Budapest, the daughter of well-to-do restaurateurs. Most of their possessions were lost during the Second World War, forcing the family to leave Hungary and relocate to England in 1946. Edina's Cambridge-educated father, Egon Miklos Ronay, managed to borrow £4,000 to open another restaurant, The Marquee, situated opposite Harrod's in Knightsbridge. Some years later, he came to further prominence as a leading food critic, having published the successful 'Egon Ronay Guide to British Eateries'.

Young Edina developed an interest in painting and fashion early on. In this, she was supported by her father, who enrolled her at the Saint Martin's School of Art in London. However, the sixteen-year old dropped out after just one year, having been noticed by a film producer and given a small part as one of the (lesser) delinquent girls in The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's (1960). Edina afterwards attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1963. From 1961 to 1975, she acted in many popular television series and the occasional motion picture, though primarily confined to sultry supporting roles. She played murder victims in The Black Torment (1964) and A Study in Terror (1965) and was decorative as the American-accented saloon girl Dolores in Carry on Cowboy (1965). Edina also joined members of the Carry On gang in another screwball farce, cast as the daughter of Sylvia Syms in the crime caper The Big Job (1965). Her guest-starring appearances in classic crime/action series include episodes of The Avengers (1961), The Champions (1968), Sherlock Holmes (1964), Special Branch (1969) and Department S (1969).

In 1975, Edina turned her back on the acting profession to embark on what would become an immensely successful career as a fashion designer. Specializing in knitwear, she set up her own company in 1984, her collections sought after by boutiques and luxury department stores worldwide and featured in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle and other top fashion magazines. Her shop on King's Road in Chelsea has been patronized by celebrities and glitterati, including stars like Jane Fonda, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman and Faye Dunaway. Vastly more successful in the field of fashion than as an actress, Edina Ronay has been made a Fellow of London's Royal Society of Arts & Design. Her former husband (divorced) was the Dutch photographer Dick Polak. One of her two children is the actress Shebah Ronay.

Born in Budapest, Hungary as Andrea Szucs. She is the daughter of a mathematics-physics professor father and a pianist mother. Andrea started performing at the age of 6 as a child protege violinist and a member of the Hungarian Radio and TV's Children Choir. She left Hungary in 1989 when the Iron Curtain opened and moved to Vienna, where she had worked as a musical theater triple threat. In late 1993 the American Musical and Dramatic Academy offered a full scholarship that she'd gratefully accepted and moved to the USA in 1994. She is native Hungarian, fluent in German, read-write Russian. Andrea is trained in psychodrama, drama therapy and group therapy. She is a licensed and published clinician as Andrea Szucs.

Born on June 16, 1910, sultry, opulent, mole-lipped, Budapest-bred blonde singer/actress Ilona Massey survived an impoverished childhood in Hungary to become a glamorous talent both here and abroad. As a dressmaker's apprentice she managed to scrape up money together for singing lessons and first danced in chorus lines, later earning roles at the Staats Opera.

A statuesque Broadway, radio and night-club performer, Ilona made her debut in the Austrian film Heaven on Earth (1935) before coming to America to duet with Nelson Eddy in a couple of his glossy operettas. In the first, Rosalie (1937), she was secondary to Mr. Eddy and Eleanor Powell, but in the second vehicle, Balalaika (1939), she was the popular baritone's prime co-star.

Billed as "the new Dietrich," Ms. Massey did not live up to the hype as her soprano voice was deemed too light for the screen and her acting talent too slight and mannered. An American citizen in 1946, continued pleasantly moody in non-singing roles in a brief movie career that included such films as the Franz Schubert biopic New Wine (1941); the action adventure International Lady (1941); the double agent Nazi thriller Invisible Agent (1942), the musical comedy Holiday in Mexico (1946), the action drama Northwest Outpost (1947) and the romantic drama Trouble in the Air (1948).

For the most part Ilona was called upon to play ladies of mystery and sophisticated temptresses in thrillers and spy intrigues. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and Love Happy (1949), the latter starring The Marx Brothers, are her best recalled. She appeared on radio as a spy in the Top Secret program and, on TV, co-starred in the espionage series Rendezvous (1952). The ABC mystery-drama had glamorous Ilona as a nightclub owner.

In the mid-50s, in addition to singing appearances on "Cavalcade of Stars," "The Milton Berle Show," "The Robert Q. Lewis Show," The Colgate Comedy Hour" and "The Ken Murray Show" and acting guest spots on such anthologies as "Lux Video Theatre," "Cameo Theatre" and "Studio One in Hollywood," Ilona hosted her own musical program, The Ilona Massey Show (1954), in which she sang classy ballads. By the 1960's she was rarely seen and ended her career with an obscure bit in the film The Cool Ones (1967).

Three marriages ended in divorce, her second being to actor Alan Curtis. 64-year-old Ms. Massey died of cancer on August 20, 1974, and was survived by her fourth husband, (retired) Major Donald Shelton Dawson. She had no children.

Eva Bartok was both a beautiful lady and a talented actor whose roots were in classical theater. Her first and only film in Hungary, Mezei próféta (1947) ("Prophet of the Fields"), was banned by communist censorship. Actually her life up to that point had been marked by confusion and tragedy. Her father,a Jew who had married a Catholic lady, disappeared without a trace during the rise of Nazism in Europe and Eva, herself, was forced to marry a Nazi officer at age 15 in order to avoid being sent to a concentration camp.

Having survived the horrors of Nazism and World War II, she found her vocation in acting but was soon threatened and persecuted by the new Communist regime. Hollywood-based producer Alexander Paal helped her escape from Hungary by marrying her and taking her to England, where she made her screen debut in Paal's production of A Tale of Five Women (1951), filmed in 1948 but shelved for several years due to financial difficulties. After divorcing Paal, Eva received valuable support from film mogul and fellow Hungarian expatriate,Alexander Korda, who was then president of MGM-England. He placed her under contract to London Films which provided a small salary, an English language coach and the opportunity to audition for developing film projects at the studio.

In spite of this, Eva spent months without finding real work and was becoming quite desperate. William Wordsworth, a public relations man who became her third husband, suggested that she attend as many premieres and theater opening nights as possible in order to bring attention to herself. Unable to buy the proper wardrobe and accessories to make a decent showing at these social events, Eva began designing and making her own gowns and hats from pieces of cheap materials. Soon the media took notice of this beautiful brunette dressed in weird costumes and Eva Bartok became a local celebrity most notable for her hats.

The publicity caught the eye of an Italian promoter who offered Eva a contract to perform in a vaudeville show. With Korda's permission, Eva flew to Italy and had great success reciting monologues on the stages of Milan, Florence and Rome. Meanwhile, in England, the film, A Tale of Five Women (1951) had finally reached movie houses and was seen by producer-actor Burt Lancaster, who was looking for a leading lady for his next film, The Crimson Pirate (1952). Impressed by Eva's beauty and talent, he wired her in Italy and she accepted promptly, sensing the importance of the project.

Thanks to the publicity and worldwide distribution of this film, Eva was perceived as a real movie queen but her next vehicles were not what you would expect from a rising superstar. It is understandable that Eva was a young woman marked by the horrendous experiences of her early years which might explain that, over time, she would become more concerned with spirituality than with the quality of the projects she took on all over Europe. Somehow, she became more famous for her off-camera antics than for her screen work. Eva's long lasting affair with David Michael Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven and related to the Royal Family, made headlines everywhere especially when David's wife, the Machioness, filed for divorce and named Eva Bartok as the culprit in her failed marriage. For a long time, the actress seemed to be divided between her image as a glamorous carefree playgirl among the European rich and a real human in desperate need to find the meaning of her own existence.

Her filmography in the 1950s is prolific both in England and in West Germany but it includes lots of low-budget turkeys (now "cult classics"), some decent vehicles and a few top productions. She also made a series of films that paired her with popular actor-director, Curd Jürgens, who became her fourth husband. Besides her work in movies, she appeared on London stages and on television in the UK and in the US. After turning down a Hollywood contract in 1956, Miss Bartok faced a serious health crisis when she was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor and was found pregnant at the same time. An Indonesian mystic helped her out of this predicament with a new spirituality called Subud. Eva reported later that she had been healed and was successful in giving birth to a "miraculous" baby girl in 1957. (see 'Deana Jürgens').

From then on, she was totally committed to Subud although she made half a dozen more films before retiring from movies altogether in 1967 at age 40. In later years, she revealed that daughter Deana had been fathered by Frank Sinatra but the claim went ignored by Sinatra and family. She continued her Subud activities during residencies in Indonesia, Hawaii, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London where she died quietly in 1998.

Dávid Jancsó was born on 2 July 1982 in Budapest, Hungary. He is an editor and actor, known for Monkey Man (2024), The Brutalist (2024) and Pieces of a Woman (2020).

Szonja Oroszlán was born on 19 May 1977 in Budapest, Hungary. She is an actress, known for The Martian (2015), Valami Amerika (2002) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).