(Sir) Alexander KORDA

Alexander Korda was one of the most charismatic figures in British film production from the early 1930s until his death in 1956. His reputation is principally based on his career as a producer and studio executive, but he directed more than sixty films with eight of them being made in Britain. The best of these have an obvious historical significance, but also show the cosmopolitan panache and love of Britishness which were often characteristics of his approach.

He was born as Sándor LászlóKellner on 16 September 1893 in the Hungarian village of Puszta Turpásztó. After the death of his father, the family moved to Budapest where he worked firstly as a journalist before entering the film industry as an assistant director. After making his directorial debut in 1914, he quickly established himself as the leading director in Hungarian cinema before anti-Semitism and the chaos of the postwar period led him into permanent exile. He worked successfully in Vienna and then Berlin during the 1920s, but suffered a setback with three frustrating years spent in Hollywood at the end of the decade. Back in France he made his finest film to date, a version of Marcel Pagnol's Marius (1931), before finally arriving in Britain in 1931. With typical aplomb he established himself as a director and producer with two technically polished comedies, Service for Ladies (1932) and Wedding Rehearsal (1932), then in 1932 launched his own production company, London Films.