Michael Curtiz

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December 24, 1886

April 10, 1962

Manó Kaminer Kertész

Lucy Doraine (1918–1923)

Lili Damita (1925–1926)

Bess Meredyth (1929–1962)

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Director

The Comancheros (1961)

Francis of Assisi (1961)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)

A Breath of Scandal (1960)

The Man in the Net (1959)

The Hangman (1959)

King Creole (1958)

The Proud Rebel (1958)

The Helen Morgan Story (1957)

The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956)

The Vagabond King (1956)

The Scarlet Hour (1956) (producer)

We're No Angels (1955)

White Christmas (1954)

The Egyptian (1954)

The Boy from Oklahoma (1954)

Trouble Along the Way (1953)

The Jazz Singer (1952)

The Story of Will Rogers (1952)

I'll See You in My Dreams (1951)

Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951)

Force of Arms (1951)

The Breaking Point (1950)

Bright Leaf (1950)

Young Man with a Horn (1950)

The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949)

Flamingo Road (1949) (executive producer)

My Dream Is Yours (1949) (executive producer)

Romance on the High Seas (1948) (producer)

The Unsuspected (1947) (producer)

Life with Father (1947)

Night and Day (1946)

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Roughly Speaking (1945)

Janie (1944)

Passage to Marseille (1944)

This Is the Army (1943)

Mission to Moscow (1943)

Casablanca (1942)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Captains of the Clouds (1942)

Dive Bomber (1941)

The Sea Wolf (1941)

Santa Fe Trail (1940)

The Sea Hawk (1940)

Virginia City (1940)

Four Wives (1939)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Daughters Courageous (1939)

Sons of Liberty (1939)

Dodge City (1939)

Blackwell's Island (1939) (uncredited)

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Four Daughters (1938)

Four's a Crowd (1938)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)

The Perfect Specimen (1937)

Kid Galahad (1937)

Mountain Justice (1937)

Marked Woman (1937) (uncredited)

Stolen Holiday (1937)

Black Legion (1937) (uncredited)

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

Anthony Adverse (1936) (uncredited)

The Walking Dead (1936)

Captain Blood (1935)

Little Big Shot (1935)

Front Page Woman (1935)

Go Into Your Dance (1935) (uncredited)

The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)

Black Fury (1935)

British Agent (1934)

The Key (1934)

Jimmy the Gent (1934)

Mandalay (1934)

From Headquarters (1933) (uncredited)

Female (1933)

The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

Goodbye Again (1933)

The Mayor of Hell (1933) (uncredited)

Private Detective 62 (1933)

The Keyhole (1933)

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)

The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)

Doctor X (1932)

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)

Alias the Doctor (1932)

The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932)

The Mad Genius (1931)

God's Gift to Women (1931)

Dämon des Meeres (1931)

A Soldier's Plaything (1930)

River's End (1930)

Bright Lights (1930)

The Matrimonial Bed (1930)

Under a Texas Moon (1930)

Mammy (1930)

Hearts in Exile (1929)

The Gamblers (1929)

Madonna of Avenue A (1929)

Glad Rag Doll (1929)

Noah's Ark (1928)

Tenderloin (1928)

Good Time Charley (1927)

The Desired Woman (1927)

A Million Bid (1927)

The Third Degree (1926)

Der goldene Schmetterling (1926) (as Michael Kertesz)

Fiaker Nr. 13 (1926) (as Michael Kertész)

Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925)

Die Sklavenkönigin (1924) (as Michael Kertész)

Harun al Raschid (1924) (as Michael Kertész)

Ein Spiel ums Leben (1924)

General Babka (1924)

Namenlos (1923) (as Michael Kertész)

Die Lawine (1923)

Der junge Medardus (1923) (as Michael Kertész)

Sodom und Gomorrha (1922) (as Mihály Kertész) (writer)

Labyrinth des Grauens (1921)

Frau Dorothys Bekenntnis (1921) (as Michael Kertes)

Herzogin Satanella (1921)

Miss Tutti Frutti (1921) (as Michael Kertész)

Die Gottesgeisel (1920)

Der Stern von Damaskus (1920)

Boccaccio (1920)

Die Dame mit dem schwarzen Handschuh (1919)

Jön az öcsém (1919) (as Mihály Kertész)

Liliom (1919) (as Kertész Mihály)

A napraforgós hölgy (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

99 (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

A csúnya fiú (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

Alraune (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

A skorpió I (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

A Víg özvegy (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

Az ördög (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

Júdás (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

Lu, a kokott (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

Lulu (1918)

Varázskeringö (1918) (as Mihály Kertész)

A béke útja (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

A föld embere (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

A kuruzsló (1917) (as Kertész Mihály)

Árendás zsidó (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

A senki fia (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

A szentjóbi erdö titka (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

A vörös Sámson (1917) (as Kertész Mihály)

Az ezredes (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

Az utolsó hajnal (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

Egy krajcár története (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

Halálcsengö (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

Tatárjárás (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

Tavasz a télben (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

Zoárd mester (1917) (as Mihály Kertész)

A fekete szivárvány (1916) (as Mihály Kertész)

A karthausi (1916)

A magyar föld ereje (1916) (as Mihály Kertész)

Az ezüst kecske (1916) (as Mihály Kertész)(actor)

Doktor úr (1916) (as Mihály Kertész)

Farkas (1916) (as Mihály Kertész)

Makkhetes (1916) (as Mihály Kertész)

Akit ketten szeretnek (1915) (as Mihály Kertész)(actor)

A Hercegnö Pongyolaban (1914) (as Mihály Kertész)

A kölcsönkért csecsemök (1914) (as Mihály Kertész)

A tolonc (1914) (as Mihály Kertész)

Az aranyásó (1914) (as Mihály Kertész)

Az éjszaka rabjai (1914) (as Mihály Kertész)(actor)

Bánk Bán (1914) (as Mihály Kertész)

Házasodik az uram (1913) (as Mihály Kertész)

Rablélek (1913) (as Mihály Kertész)

Az utolsó bohém (1912) (as Mihály Kertész)

Ma és holnap (1912) (as Mihály Kertész)(actor)


Producer

Bright Lights (1935)

Actor

Atlantis (1913)

Writer

Drakula halála (1923) (uncredited)

Appearances

"Toast of the Town" (1 episode, 1954)

"This Is Your Life" (1 episode, 1954)

The Screen Director (1951) (uncredited)

It's a Great Feeling (1949) (uncredited)

Show Business at War (1943)

The Academy Awards

1944 Won Best Director for: Casablanca (1942)

1943 Nominated Best Director for: Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

1939 Nominated Best Director for: Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

139 Nominated Best Director for: Four Daughters (1938)

1936 Nominated Best Director for: Captain Blood (1935). This was a write-in candidate, who came in second on the final ballots. It was not an official nomination.

Directors Guild Of America

1953 Nominated DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for: I'll See You in My Dreams (1951)

Laurel Awards

1961 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Director 4th place

1960 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Director 10th place

1959 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Director 7th place

1958 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Director 4th place

Venice Film Festival

1937 Nominated Mussolini Cup for: Kid Galahad (1937)

Walk of Fame (Hollywood)

Star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture At 6640 Hollywood Blvd.

Western Heritage Awards

1962 Won Bronze Wrangler Theatrical Motion Picture
for: The Comancheros (1961)

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Don’t talk to me while I’m interrupting.

The only things you regret are the things you don't do.

Randy Scott is a complete anachronism. He's a gentleman. And so far he's the only one I've met in this business full of self-promoting sons-of-bitches.

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Curtiz was one of cinema’s most prodigious and prolific talents, turning out 160 films in a 50-year career. He had vision and versatility, depth and breadth, making a huge range of great films.

The actual facts of Curtiz’s early years are fuzzy, mostly because of his tendency to tell tall tales to gullible interviewers and at certain times the Curtiz biography has been embellished by blatant fabrications – that he had run away to join the circus and that he was a member of Hungary’s 1912 Olympic hockey team, for example. The less colorful truth was that Curtiz, born Manó Kertész Kaminer on December 24th, 1886, had a conventional middle-class Jewish upbringing. He entered the Hungarian film industry as an actor in 1912 but quickly graduated to directing, honing his craft for six months at the Nordisk studio in Copenhagen. When the Hungarian film industry was nationalized in 1919 he sought sanctuary in Austria and Germany

Fought in the Hungarian army during World War I.

He was a stickler for realism, thinking little of nearly drowning thousands of extras on ‘Noah’s Ark’ or firing real spears at Errol Flynn, who subsequently wrote, “Nothing delighted Curtiz more than real bloodshed”. Legend has it that he also pinched a baby to make it cry on cue for the camera.

He was known for his trouble with the English language. During filming of “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1936), he wanted many riderless horses in the background during the final charge. His instructions were, "Bring on the empty horses," later the title of the autobiography of one of the stars of the film, David Niven.

He often became intensely absorbed, to the point of distraction. Once was hurt falling out of a moving car because he wanted to write down an idea. He was driving at the time.

His nickname was Miska.

He passed away of cancer and is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA., in the Whispering Pines section.

Must-see Movies

Captain Blood (1935)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Casablanca (1942)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Mildred Pierce (1945)
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