CURTIZ, MICHAEL

CURTIZ, MICHAEL (1888–1962), Hungarian director. Born Mihály Kertész in Budapest, Hungary, to carpenter Ignatz and opera singer Aranka. Curtiz grew up poor and made his acting debut in 1897 in an opera his mother had been cast in. He graduated from Markoszy University in 1906 and went to work for a traveling circus as a performer. He joined the Budapest Royal Academy of Theater and Art in 1910 and studied there for two years. After the academy, Curtiz became involved in the country's growing film industry and is said to have directed the country's first feature film, Today and Tomorrow (1912). In 1915, Curtiz married actress Lucy Doraine (nee Ilonka Kovács Perényi), who starred in many of his films from 1912 to 1919. Curtiz, who had served in the Austrian army during World War I, signed a contract with Sascha Studios in Vienna and relocated to Austria from Hungary in 1919 after the Communists nationalized the country's film industry. In 1923, he directed the acclaimed Sodom and Gomorrah and divorced his wife. In 1924 he directed the film Die Sklavenkönigin, released in the United States under the title Moon of Israel. The film inspired Jack Warner to extend an invitation to Curtiz to come and direct for the studio. His first films for Warner Bros. in 1926 were silent, but he gradually moved over to talkies between 1927 and 1929. Curtiz married screenwriter Bess Meredyth in 1929. In the late 1930s, he made several romantic adventures starring Errol Flynn, including Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). By 1937, Curtiz had become an American citizen, but was renowned for never having mastered the English language. Yet he directed some of the most iconic American films, such as the 1942 musical Yankee Doodle Dandy and what is considered the greatest American film, Casablanca (1942), the only film to earn him an Oscar for best director. He continued to work at a hectic pace, turning out 23 more films for Warner Bros., including the Oscar-winning Mildred Pierce (1945), Life with Father (1947), and Jim Thorpe, All-American (1951), but left in 1954, filming the popular White Christmas for Paramount that year. As the studios declined, so too did his career, but he continued to direct a wide variety of films, including Elvis Presley in King Creole (1958) and finishing the John Wayne film The Comancheros (1961) a few months before his death in Los Angeles. (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)