Most Famous Hungarians Of Art, Science, Business, Entertainment & Sports
Intro: Hungarians are the strangest people, Hungary is the most intriguing nation on planet Earth and some quite credible scientists believe Hungarians are actually Martians, yes originally from the Red Planet Mars!
This Famous Hungarians list is not meant to be complete nevertheless it is quite impressive. Hungary is not just a tiny country suffering from a small nation syndrome trying to overcompensate.
Interestingly most of these remarkable Hungarians achieved their greatness away from the motherland. Anyone with real aspirations will want to leave Hungary (I escaped when I was 19 years old and did not return for 20 years).
So perhaps we can append to George Cukor’s famous quote: “It is not enough to be Hungarian – you need talent, too!” and say “and you need leave the country too”. I know it is not poetic but happens to be quite practical.
Some people might find the contents of this article controversial due to the fact that several of these famous Hungarians are “half Hungarian” or that they were “just born” in Hungary and left as infants. I do not think such argument holds up therefore I shall ignore it.
The Most Famous Hungarians: Photographers
Martin Munkacsi
Munkácsi Martin had his fashion models running – at that time it was like WTF? yes he was a revolutionary photographer!
He composed his still valid theory about photo reporting while still in Hungary:
“To see in a thousandth of a second that which the ordinary person passes without notice this is the theory of photo reporting. And to photograph what we see during the next thousandth of a second that is the practical side of photo reporting.”
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was born Endre Ernő Friedmann, one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century and the greatest war photographer in the world.
Capa in 1947 co-founded the wold famous Magnum Photos with David “Chim” Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and William Vandivert. Magnum Photos was the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers.
According to Henri Cartier-Bresson:
“Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.”
Andre Kertesz
André Kertész – Hungarian born photographer highly regarded for his contributions to photographic composition and for introducing the concept and format of the photo essay to the world.
Even though he is considered one of the greatest photojournalists if not the greatest photographers of all time his uncompromising style kept him out of the mainstream, from wider exposure and from becoming a household name.
Among photographers who were aided or influenced by him in Paris at this time were his fellow Hungarian Brassai and a young French student, Henri Cartier-Bresson, who was to become probably the best-known photographer of the century.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Lászlo Moholy-Nagy was a Jewish-Hungarian painter, photographer, industrial designer, printmaker, sculptor and professor at the prestigious Bauhaus school in Germany and later director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago.
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest is named in his honour. In 2003 the Moholy-Nagy Foundation, Inc. was established as a source of information about the photographer’s legacy.
Stefan Lorant
Because of his opposition to Adolf Hitler, Stefan Lorant was jailed after Hitler came to power. When he was released after 6 months he moved to England, where he wrote his popular biography: I Was Hitler’s Prisoner.
Stefán Loránt is the “Godfather of Photojournalism” also a filmmaker and author, he was a good friend of Sir Winston Churchill, the Kennedy’s and Marilyn Monroe.
Josef Petzval
Petzvál József Miksa – mathematician, inventor, and physicist was a pioneer of geometrical optics and photography: he invented photographic objective lens, the darkroom, and perfected the telescope plus the Petzval portrait lens and opera glasses which are still in use today.
Petzval’s inventions are utilized in cinematography, astronomy, and meteorology.
A Josef Petzval anecdote: When he was in the fourth class of elementary school his family had already decided that he will work as a shoemaker when he grows up.
Due to poor grades he was going to repeat his mathematics class. But after he read the book Analytic Paper on the Elements of Mathematics over the summer school break he quickly became a math genius.
Odon Riszdorfer
Ödön Riszdorfer is the co-developer of the automatic camera, father of the hand held, battery operated light meter.
Sylvia Plachy
Sylvia Plachy’s photo essays and portraits have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, Granta, Artforum, Fortune, and other books and magazines.
Her son is Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody.
Nickolas Muray
Hungarian-born American photographer who attended a graphic arts school in Budapest, where he studied lithography, photoengraving, and photography.
Between 1920 and 1940, Nickolas Muray made over 10,000 portraits.
The most famous is his 1938 portrait of Frida Kahlo. Nickolas Muray and Kahlo were at the height of a ten-year love affair in 1939 when the portrait was made.
Most Famous Hungarians: Scientists
Leo Szilard
Leo Szilárd; last name means “solid” in Hungarian – the most famous Hungarian physicist: who conceived the nuclear chain reaction, Co-developed the Atomic Bomb and was directly responsible for the Manhattan Project. Szilard was the co-holder of the patent for the nuclear reactor alongside with Enrico Fermi who will reappear at the end of this post (yes that was a cliffhanger)
in 1962 when Szilard was diagnosed with bladder cancer but when he designed his own radiation therapy the cancer went into remission and never returned!
Edward (Ede) Teller
Hungarian physicist: Co-developed the Atomic Bomb. Father of the the H-Bomb even though he was not keen on that nickname; probably it did not work in bars too well.
Teller was less remorseful than his colleagues about the scientific community’s role in the start of the nuclear arms race, he was not the most charming guy and was considered someone who should have never been born by some
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi von Nagyrapolt
Albert Szent-Györgyi von Nagyrapolt was the recipient of the 1937 Nobel Prize in physiology or medical science “for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes,with special reference to Vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaricacid.” Together with his associates he made pioneering discoveries in the field of muscle research.
During World War I he shot himself in the arm, blamed on the enemy so he could return to Hungary and finish his studies to receive his MD.
John von Neumann
Neumann János was a Hungarian-German mathematician and polymath of Jewish ancestry who made important contributions in quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, computer science, economics and many other mathematical fields.
Most notably, von Neumann was a pioneer of the modern digital computer and the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics (see Von Neumann algebra), member of the Manhattan Project Team, creator of game theory and the concept of cellular automata.
Mihaly Somogyi
Mihály Somogyi – Hungarian chemist: Produced first Child Insulin Treatment in US
Ferenc Pavlics
Engineer – Developed NASA’s famous Moon Rover and Directed Development of the Mars Rover (he had a unique first hand knowledge of Martian landscape and atmosphere; see towards bottom of page for more detail about Hungarians being directly related to Martians)
Oszkar Asboth
Oszkár Asbóth – Hungarian inventor of the helicopter
Erno Rubik
Ernő Rubik – is one of the most famous Hungarians, an inventor, sculptor and professor of architecture not to mention the brain behind a small invention by the name of Rubik’s Cube
His name is well-known worldwide: in 1981 the magic cube was the ‘Toy of the Year’ in many countries, and a world championship was also organized for players
Tivadar Puskas
Tivadar Puskás established the first European telephone exchange in Paris in 1879 and the first telephonograph, precursor to the radio, in Budapest in 1893; was a Hungarian inventor, telephone pioneer, according to Thomas Edison, Tivadar Puskas was the first person to conceive the concept of the telephone exchange.
The first word ever transmitted by telephone in the history of humanity was a Hungarian word: “hallom” (I hear it) spoken by Tivadar Puskas during the testing phase.
He did not receive much public recognition during his lifetime which is typical with most (Hungarian) inventors; asking a blond in a red mini dress at the bar: “Do you know who invented the ballpoint pen?” never got anyone laid.
Jozsef Laszlo Biro
Bíró László József – Hungarian inventor – Developed the ballpoint pen in 1938 AND the automatic gearbox for automobiles, how is that for versatility?
Otto Blathy
Ottó Titusz Bláthy was another genius Hungarian electrical engineer, father of the electric transformer, the tension regulator, the watt meter, the alternating current (AC) electric motor, the turbogenerator, and the high efficiency turbogenerator.
Otto Titusz Blathy was also a complete chess freak the master of longmovers / moremovers, a master of freakishly long sequence of chess moves
Dénes (Dennis) Gabor
Gábor Dénes is a winning Hungarian electrical engineer and inventor of holography, he ranks as one of the pioneers of the theory of communication.
His study Theory of Communication came out in 1946. Dennis Gabor is also the recipient of Physics Nobel Prize.
Janos Csonka
János Csonka – Co-Invented the carburetor with other genius engineer Donat Banki
Kalman Kando
Kálmán Kandó was a Hungarian engineer. He developed high-voltage three phase alternating current motors and generators for electric locomotions, he is called as father of the electric train.
Joseph Galamb
József Galamb designed the famous Model T and Model A Ford, invented the Ignition Plug. Galamb means pigeon in case anyone gave a flying rat’s ass.
Janos Irinyi
János Irinyi was the inventor of the the noiseless and non-explosive a.k.a. silent match.
An unsuccessful experiment of his professor gave him the idea that if the usual compound is replaced by phosphorus, a ‘silent’, non-explosive match can be created.
Peter Carl Goldmark
He invented the Color Television, 33 1/3 LP Record, and the Electronic Video Recorder!
The 343-line color television system invented in 1940 was the first to be used in practice and with which CBS TV network started test transmissions later that year plus the microwave record patented in 1948
Max Kiss
Hungarian pharmacist and Inventor of the famous Ex-Lax! Hungarians are a pretty relaxed bunch!
Zoltan Lajos Bay
Zoltán Lajos Bay was the first person to observe radar echoes from the Moon.
Zoltan Lajos Bay was an incredibly accomplished Hungarian physicist, university professor, and engineer who developed microwave technology, including tungsten lamps.
He was the president of the Department of Nuclear Physics in the National Bureau of Standards also an honorary member into the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Donat Banki
Donát Bánki was Hungarian mechanical engineer, the brain behind several inventions including the carburetor maybe you have heard of it? story says his inspiration for the idea of the carburetor came when he noticed a girl spraying water onto flowers on the university campus
Donat Banki is also the inventor of the high-compression engine with a dual carburetor
Paul Erdos
Paul Erdős maybe was not Einstein but pretty close, probably with worse PR or a harder to remember name. Paul Erdos was a child of Jewish mathematicians this lucky gene pool allowed him to shine early on as a child prodigy.
Erdos was incredibly prolific, very funny and famously eccentric Hungarian mathematician which sums up most Hungarians in case that was needed. His field of expertise and interests included problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory. Paul Erdos tyle was more of a “problem solver” than a “theory developer”.
The eccentric behavior and lifestyle of Paul Erdos manifested partially in that most of his belongings would fit in a suitcase. He never stayed on one campus too long he was a true maverick always on the go cherishing his freedom.
Paul Erdos had an eccentric sense of Hungarian humor as well, he altered his vocabulary to call women: bosses, men: slaves, people who stopped doing math: had died, people who had married were: captured, people who had divorced were: liberated and music was: noise.
The awards and other earnings that Paul Erdos received were generally donated to needy people and other charities.
Paul Erdos had an ongoing love affair with amphetamines. It was the source of his drive and inspiration.
Paul Erdos was the recipient of at least 15 honorary doctorates and he became a member of the scientific academies in 8 countries. Erdos being the most prolific publishers of scientific papers in mathematical history gave birth to 1,500 mathematical articles in his lifetime.
Maria Telkes
Mária Telkes was an inventor in the field of solar energy, she worked at the solar energy research department of MIT.
Maria Telkes created the first thermoelectric power generator the first thermoelectric refrigerator utilizing the principles of semiconductor thermoelectricity.
Richard Adolf Zsigmondy
Zsigmondy is famous for his work on the chemistry of colloids (a certain colored glass), his kowledge about glass and its coloring eventually resulted in the development of the slit ultramicroscope.
Franz Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvas
Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás was an avid adventurer, scholar, and paleontologist, he introduced theories for physiology and living behavior based on the study of unearthed skeletal remains of dinosaurs.
Franz Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvas was a significant contributor the the science of paleobiology and geology; i.e. the theory of dwarfism amongst Transylvanian dinosaurs due to scarce food supplies and theory about the dinosaurs’ sexual dimorphism.
Lorand Eotvos
Lóránd Eötvös was a very famous Hungarian physicist known for his experimental work on gravity namely the so-called weak equivalence principle and the gravitational gradient on the Earth’s surface.
The University of Budapest was renamed after him to Lóránd Eötvös University.
Anyos Jedlik
Ányos Jedlik is a not so famous inventor, engineer, physicist, Roman Catholic priest spite the fact that his accomplishments include the invention of the Dynamo and Electric Motor.
He came up with the concept of the dynamo at least 6 years before Siemens and Wheatstone.
Most Famous Hungarians: Businessmen
Robert Deak
Father of the Secured Credit Card – All women should love Hungarians just for this one contribution! : )
Calvin Klein
Designer CK – undoubtedly to meet a Hungarian equals obsession!
George Elmer Pataki
Pataki Governor of New York State starting January 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party and is a Roman Catholic.
Estee Lauder
Cosmetics Mogul – sorry ladies and sheilas beauty IS skin deep!
Most Famous Hungarians: Entertainers
Imre Kertesz
Imre Kertész is Jewish-Hungarian author, Holocaust concentration camp survivor, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002 “for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history”.
Harry Houdini
The most famous and “Greatest Magician on Earth”
Jerry Seinfeld
Actor, Comedian – starred in a show about nothing – that is so Hungarian!
Bela Lugosi
Béla Lúgosi – Hungarian born actor – The most famous and the original Dracula! “I want to suck your blood!” Born Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko in Lugos, Hungary
Adolph Zukor
Zukor was the founder of Paramount Pictures Studios, and one of the greatest film moguls of all time.
George Cukor
György Cukor – the Hungarian director of Gaslight and My Fair Lady
“It is not enough to be Hungarian – you need talent, too!” and
“Being a Hungarian does not necessarily make you a genius!”
These quotations were posted on the walls of a Hollywood studio and above the entrance of MGM respectively.
George Cukor was a key figure in the great generation of Hollywood film-makers.
He received his first Oscar for Wizard of Oz and the second for My Fair Lady.
William Fox
Hungarian founder of Fox Studios
Alanis Morrisette
Singer, Songwriter
Paul Newman
Oscar Winning Actor and philanthropist R.I.P.
Drew Barrymore
Actress – her role in E.T. was so amazingly natural due to the Martian ancestry of Hungarians.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Actor/Actress ;) … Google it if you don’t get it
Goldie Hawn
Actress
Johnny Weissmuller
Actor, his most famous role: Tarzan – most Hungarians do look that great in a loin cloth!
Freddie Prinze, Sr.
Actor, comedian star of popular TV sitcom: Chico and the Man.
and even though the son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Hungarian father he always referred to himself as Hungarian.
Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Teen heart throb actor – just one of the many heart breakers from Hungary!
Gene Simmons
KISS! – yes that tongue is Hungarian!
Joe (József) Eszterhas
Highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, most famous movies: Basic Instinct, Sliver, Flashdance
The Gabor Sisters
No comment needed here, DAHLING!
Most Famous Hungarians: Travel Book Publisher
Eugene Fodor
Hungarian founder of Fodor’s Travel Guides – Hungarians do get around …
Most Famous Hungarians: Musicians and Composers
Franz Liszt
Liszt Ferenc – one of the most famous Hungarian pianists and composers, he was also an accomplished piano teacher, conductor and inventor of the symphonic poem.
Liszt (means flour in Hungarian) is widely considered to be one of the greatest piano virtuoso of all time, and certainly the most famous of the nineteenth century. He established the Hungarian Music Academy.
Liszt can be considered an extremely dedicated craftsman an Olympic athlete of music, he allegedly spent 10-12 hrs every day practicing scales, arpeggios, trills and repeated notes to continuously develop his technique and endurance.
Erkel Ferenc
Erkel was the most significant Hungarian composer in the 19th century, the creator of the Hungarian grand opera and the national anthem (Himnusz) of Hungary and an internationally acknowledged chess player.
Bela Bartok
Bartók Béla was a Hungarian composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music.
Bartok is usually considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.
He was one of the founders of the field of ethnomusicology, the study of folk music and the music of non-Western cultures.
Ferenc Lehar
Ferenc Lehár – Foremost composer of 20th century operettas, they are almost unbearable to listen to for any straight man but it is still pretty cool feat.
Ferenc Lehar received the Goethe Medal from Adolf Hitler.
Zoltan Kodaly
Kodály Zoltán was one of the most famous personality in Hungarian culture, Zoltan Kodaly was the president of the Hungarian Arts Council, International Folk Music Council, and honorary president of International Society for Music Education.
Kodaly was a composer, ethnomusicologist, educator, linguist, and philosopher.
Most Famous Hungarians: Sports Figures
Martina Hingis
Tennis player
Monica Seles
Tennis, Hungarians are used to having a knife stuck in their backs.
Joe Namath (Németh)
Sports Hero, Super Bowl Quarterback and MVP
Joe Theismann
one of the most famous and legendary two-time Superbowl quarterback
Ferenc Puskas
Puskás Ferenc – Soccer Legend: The “Greatest Soccer Player in History!” – part of the the “Magnificent Magyars” (“Magnificent Hungarians”)
“For Hungary he played 84 times and scored a world record 83 goals!
No player, not even Pele, has scored that many goals for a national team.”
Retrospective On The Contributions Of The Most Famous Hungarians:
The scope of achievements is quite amazing … not even close being a complete list but here we go:
Absolute geometry, torsion balance, the carburetor, transformer, electric bulbs with tungsten filaments and krypton charge, radioactive tracing, the nuclear power plant, thermonuclear fusion, the cooling tower, the electric engine, supersonic flight, radar astronomy, the new metric standard based on light, the ball-point pen, holography, radio, television, electronic computer, the first computer language: Basic, unleaded petrol, Vitamin C, the theory of games assisting in making rational decisions and conduct; these are all outstanding creations of universal culture.
Instrumental in discovering or developing these major achievements were contributions by people to whom Hungary was their homeland, who took their basic knowledge and humanity from Hungarian schools, or to whom this country provided shelter and room for their creations. Equal respect and gratitude are due to the magnificent Red Planet Mars!
Fun Quotes About Hungarians:
Do extra-terrestrial beings exist?
- the Nobel Prize winning Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi was once asked by his disciples in California.
Of course, Fermi answered – they are already here among us, they are called Hungarians…
The following passage is from The Curve of Binding Energy by John McPhee
(1973, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp. 104-105):
“Not all the Los Alamos theories could be tested.
Long popular within the Theoretical Division was, for example, a theory that the people of Hungary are Martians.
The reasoning went like this: The Martians left their own planet several aeons ago and came to Earth; they landed in what is now Hungary; the tribes of Europe were so primitive and barbarian it was necessary for the Martians to conceal their evolutionary difference or be hacked to pieces.
Through the years, the concealment had on the whole been successful, but the Martians had three characteristics too strong to hide: their wanderlust, which found its outlet in the Hungarian gypsy; their language (Hungarian is not related to any of the languages spoken in surrounding countries); and their unearthly intelligence.
One had only to look around to see the evidence: Teller, Wigner, Szilard, von Neumann — Hungarians all.
Wigner had designed the first plutonium-production reactors.
Szilard had been among the first to suggest that fission could be used to make a bomb.
Von Neumann had developed the digital computer.
Teller — moody, tireless, and given to fits of laughter, bursts of anger — worked long hours and was impatient with what he felt to be the excessively slow advancement of Project Panda, as the hydrogen-bomb development was known. …
Teller had a thick Martian accent.
He also had a sense of humor that could penetrate bone.”
You Know You’re Hungarian When…
Do you wish to immerse yourself in the one of a kind (weird) Hungarian culture? Perhaps the wackiness of this nation has something to do with why the brightest minds have left Hungary to become the most famous Hungarians not in the mother land but abroad.
Check out this excellent list: You Know You’re Hungarian When… on Facebook.
Below are a few excerpts of the over 200 funny observations. These are closest to my heart and not “inside jokes” so you can understand them even if you are not Hungarian.
8. When you tell someone that you are Hungarian, they ask “Are you hungry?” Then you congratulate them on being the millionth person to say that to you.
16. When your foreign friends ask you if you still believe that Santa Claus brings the presents on the night between December 24th-25th… then you answer somehow confused that Santa Claus brings the presents on the 6th of December and it is actually Little Jesus who brings the presents on Christmas, but the presents are already there on the 24th at 6PM
26. When you start counting on your hand with one being the thumb.
56. When you know that all geniuses and celebrities have some relation with Hungarians. Or they just simply are Hungarians.
60. When you smuggle in drinks and food in your bag when you go to the cinema, just to save money.
67. When you tell to every single person that the Rubik’s cube was invented in Hungary.
69. When any foreigner’s passing mention of Transylvania will set off a twenty-minute rant about the Treaty of Trianon.
76. When you tell everyone that Lugosi Béla is from Hungary, more so, the real Dracula himself was Hungarian, and anyway, Hollywood majorly was created by Hungarians.
81. When you can make astonishingly delicious dishes without spending more than 3 euros (krumplis tészta, káposztás tészta, túrós tészta). (pasta with potatoes/cabbage/cottage cheese and sour cream)
90. When you were a child you had to eat carrots all the time… and when you asked the question: Why? your parents answer is: “Hogy jobban fütyülj”! (so you can whistle better)
108. When mixing red wine and coke is a delicious combination and you can’t believe that foreigners think it’s weird.
121. When having a barbecue means roasting lard on a stick and dripping the grease on bread.
122. When friends/family celebrate your birthday by pulling your ears.
125. When you think zsíros kenyér and pálinka (lard on bread and fruit brandy) is a balanced meal as long as you also have onions.
129. When you have to stand out in the rain to grow tall. (told by parents to kids)
143. When you are eating something that looks like a plate full of puke, and you call it “Lecsó”. But it tastes amazing! (half dissolved onions, tomatoes, in paprika sauce with wieners)
153. When you can’t leave the house without your pockets full of zsebkendő. (tissues)
181. When your grandmother tells you that if you make a certain face it will stay that way if you do it for too long.
I really don’t know if this list or the Hungarian culture has anything to do with the mass migration from Hungary. I can only speak for myself: the Hungarian wanderlust is genetic (mutation) and undeniable!
The greatest thing I have ever done in my life was when I escaped from the Communist Hungary in 1986 (with a pocket full of tissues) and did not look back for 20 years!
