Hungary

Attila the Hun

Politician

Attila, frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul, crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum before being defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Subsequently he invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans but died in 453.

Harry Houdini

Magician

Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged different police forces to try to keep him locked up. This revealed a talent for gimmickry and for audience involvement that characterized all his work. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to hold his breath inside a sealed milk can. In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were fabricated, Houdini meanwhile presented himself as the scourge of fake magicians and spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists who gave practitioners a bad name. He was also quick to sue anyone who pirated his own escape stunts. In addition to his performing career, Houdini also pursued an interest in exposing Mediumship and similar claims of the paranormal as frauds.

George Soros

Investor

George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. He is known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England" because of his US$1 billion in investment profits during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis. Soros is a well-known supporter of progressive-liberal political causes. Between 1979 and 2011, Soros gave away over $8 billion to causes related to human rights, public health, and education. He played a significant role in the peaceful transition from communism to capitalism in Hungary and provided one of Europe's largest higher education endowments to Central European University in Budapest. Soros is also the chairman of the Open Society Foundations.

John von Neumann

Mathematician

John von Neumann was a Hungarian-born American pure and applied mathematician and polymath. He made major contributions to a number of fields, including mathematics, physics, economics, computer science, and statistics. He was a pioneer of the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics, in the development of functional analysis, a principal member of the Manhattan Project and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a key figure in the development of game theory and the concepts of cellular automata, the universal constructor, and the digital computer. Von Neumann's mathematical analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of the structure of DNA. In a short list of facts about his life he submitted to the National Academy of Sciences, he stated "The part of my work I consider most essential is that on quantum mechanics, which developed in Göttingen in 1926, and subsequently in Berlin in 1927–1929. Also, my work on various forms of operator theory, Berlin 1930 and Princeton 1935–1939; on the ergodic theorem, Princeton, 1931–1932." Along with Teller and Stanislaw Ulam, von Neumann worked out key steps in the nuclear physics involved in thermonuclear reactions and the hydrogen bomb.

Elizabeth Báthory

Film subject

Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary. She has been labelled the most prolific female serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess," though the precise number of victims is debated. Her story results mainly from those who accused her and was apparently recorded more than 100 years after her death. It quickly became part of national folklore. After her husband Ferenc Nádasdy's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls, with one witness attributing to them over 650 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was 80. The purported witnesses testified to only 30-35 deaths. Supposedly due to her rank, Elizabeth herself was neither tried nor convicted, but promptly imprisoned upon her arrest in December 1610 within Csejte Castle, Upper Hungary, now in Slovakia, where she remained immured in a set of rooms until her death four years later. The case led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, and subsequently also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of The Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.

Zsa Zsa Gábor

Actor

Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American socialite and actress who acted in supporting roles in movies, on Broadway, and occasionally on television. She began her stage career in Vienna at age 15, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that "exuded charm and grace". Her first movie role was as supporting actress in Lovely to Look At. She later acted in We're Not Married! and played one of her few leading roles in Moulin Rouge, directed by John Huston, who described her as a "creditable" actress. Besides her film and television appearances, she is best known for having nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders. She once stated, "Men have always liked me and I have always liked men. But I like a mannish man, a man who knows how to talk to and treat a woman – not just a man with muscles."

Martin of Tours

Deceased Person

Martin of Tours was Bishop of Tours, whose shrine in France became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognisable Christian saints. As he was born in what is now Szombathely, Hungary, spent much of his childhood in Pavia, Italy, and lived most of his adult life in France, he is considered a spiritual bridge across Europe. His life was recorded by a contemporary, the hagiographer Sulpicius Severus. Some of the accounts of his travels may have been interpolated into his vita to validate early sites of his cult. He is best known for the account of his using his military sword to cut his cloak in two, to give half to a beggar clad only in rags in the depth of winter. Conscripted as a soldier into the Roman army, he found the duty incompatible with the Christian faith he had adopted and became an early conscientious objector.

Ilona Staller

Pornographic actor

Ilona Staller, widely known by her stage name, Cicciolina, is a Hungarian-born Italian porn star, politician, and singer. Staller continued to make hardcore pornographic films while a member of parliament. She is famous for delivering political speeches with one breast exposed.

Theodor Herzl

Politician

Theodor Herzl, born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was a Jewish journalist and writer from Austria-Hungary. He is considered to have been the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the founder of the State of Israel.

Ferenc Puskás

Soccer

Ferenc Puskás was a Hungarian footballer and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. He scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary, and 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues. He became Olympic champion in 1952 and was a World Cup finalist in 1954. He won three European Cups, 10 national championships and 8 top individual scoring honors. Puskás started his career in Hungary playing for Kispest and Budapest Honvéd. He was top scorer in the Hungarian League on four occasions, and in 1948, he was the top goal scorer in Europe. During the 1950s, he was both a prominent member and captain of the Hungarian national team, known as the Mighty Magyars. In 1958, two years after the Hungarian Revolution, he emigrated to Spain where he played for Real Madrid. While playing with Real Madrid, Puskás won four Pichichis and scored seven goals in two European Champions Cup finals. In 1995, he was recognized as the top scorer of the 20th century by the IFFHS. After retiring as a player, he became a coach. The highlight of his coaching career came in 1971 when he guided Panathinaikos to the European Cup final, where they lost 2–0 to AFC Ajax. Despite his defection in 1956, the Hungarian government granted him a full pardon in 1993, allowing him to return and take temporary charge of the Hungarian national team. In 1998, he became one of the first ever FIFA/SOS Charity ambassadors. In 2002, the Népstadion in Budapest was renamed the Puskás Ferenc Stadion in his honor. He was also declared the best Hungarian player of the last 50 years by the Hungarian Football Federation in the UEFA Jubilee Awards in November 2003. In October 2009, FIFA announced the introduction of the FIFA Puskás Award, awarded to the player who has scored the "most beautiful goal" over the past year. He was also listed in Pelé's FIFA 100.

Aletta Ocean

Pornographic actor

Aletta Ocean is the stage name of a Hungarian pornographic actress. She has appeared in Penthouse and Hungarian Playboy. and won the 2010 AVN Awards for Female Foreign Performer of the Year and Best Sex Scene in a Foreign-Shot Production. Ocean has appeared in at least 200 pornographic films

Robert Capa

Photographer

Robert Capa was a Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War. He documented the course of World War II in London, North Africa, Italy, the Battle of Normandy on Omaha Beach and the liberation of Paris. In 1947, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in Paris with David "Chim" Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and William Vandivert. The organization was the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers.

Paul Erdős

Mathematician

Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős worked with hundreds of collaborators, pursuing problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory. He was also known for his eccentric personality.

Edward Teller

Physicist

Edward Teller was a Hungarian-born American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb", even though he claimed he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy, and surface physics. His extension of Fermi's theory of beta decay provided an important stepping stone in the applications of this theory. The Jahn–Teller effect and the BET theory have retained their original formulation and are still mainstays in physics and chemistry. Teller also made contributions to Thomas–Fermi theory, the precursor of density functional theory, a standard modern tool in the quantum mechanical treatment of complex molecules. In 1953, along with Nicholas Metropolis and Marshall Rosenbluth, Teller co-authored a paper which is a standard starting point for the applications of the Monte Carlo method to statistical mechanics. Teller emigrated to the United States in the 1930s, and was an early member of the Manhattan Project charged with developing the first atomic bombs. During this time he made a serious push to develop the first fusion-based weapons as well, but these were deferred until after World War II. After his controversial testimony in the security clearance hearing of his former Los Alamos colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer, Teller was ostracized by much of the scientific community. He continued to find support from the U.S. government and military research establishment, particularly for his advocacy for nuclear energy development, a strong nuclear arsenal, and a vigorous nuclear testing program. He was a co-founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and was both its director and associate director for many years.

Arthur Koestler

Novelist

Arthur Koestler, CBE was a Hungarian-British author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931 Koestler joined the Communist Party of Germany until, disillusioned by Stalinism, he resigned in 1938. In 1940 he published his novel Darkness at Noon, an anti-totalitarian work, which gained him international fame. Over the next 43 years from his residence in Great Britain, Koestler espoused many political causes and wrote novels, memoirs, biographies, and numerous essays. In 1968, he was awarded the Sonning Prize "for outstanding contribution to European culture" and, in 1972, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1976, Koestler was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and, in 1979, with terminal leukaemia. In 1983 he and his wife committed suicide at home in London.

Viktor Orbán

Politician

Viktor Mihály Orbán has been the Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010, a post he held from 1998 to 2002. Orbán leads the Fidesz party; in the 2010 elections, the party, together with the Christian Democratic People's Party, won 52.73% of the votes and a two-thirds supermajority of the seats in the parliament of Hungary.

Miklós Horthy

Politician

Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the years between World Wars I and II and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. He was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary". Horthy started his career as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, ultimately rising to the rank of Admiral. He served in the Otranto Raid and at the Battle of the Strait of Otranto and was its commander-in-chief in the last year of the First World War. After Hungarian communists under Béla Kun seized power in Hungary in 1919, proclaiming the Hungarian Soviet Republic and commencing Hungary's Red Terror, a counterrevolutionary government was formed which asked Horthy to take command of its forces. In 1919, Romanian, Czechoslovakian and Yugoslavian forces invaded Hungary and later the Romanian army overthrew Kun's government. He allowed Hungary's White Terror to persist at first but eventually shut it down and imprisoned a few extremists among the anti-communists. When the Romanians evacuated Budapest in November 1919, Horthy entered at the head of the National Army.

Miklós Rózsa

Composer

Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany, and active in France, England, and the United States, with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953. Best known for his nearly one hundred film scores, he nevertheless maintained a steadfast allegiance to absolute concert music throughout what he called his "double life." Rózsa achieved early success in Europe with his orchestral Theme, Variations, and Finale of 1933 and became prominent in the film industry from such early scores as The Four Feathers and The Thief of Bagdad. The latter project brought him to America when production was transferred from wartime Britain, and Rózsa remained in the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1946. His notable Hollywood career earned him considerable fame, including Academy Awards for Spellbound, A Double Life, and Ben-Hur, while his concert works were championed by such major artists as Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, and János Starker.

Franz Lehár

Composer

Franz Lehár was an Austro-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow.

Georg Lukács

Philosopher

: This article is about the philosopher; for the politician, who was Minister of Education, see György Lukács. György Lukács was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, aesthetician, literary historian, and critic. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, the interpretive tradition that departed from the Marxist ideologic orthodoxy of the USSR. He developed the theory of reification, and contributed to Marxist theory with developments of the class consciousness theory by Karl Marx. As a literary critic György Lukács was especially influential, because of his theoretical developments of realism and of the novel as a literary genre. In 1919, he was the Hungarian Minister of Culture of the government of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. Lukács has been described as the preeminent Marxist intellectual of the Stalinist era, though assessing his legacy can be difficult as Lukács seemed to both support Stalinism as the embodiment of Marxist thought, and yet also champion a return to pre-Stalinist Marxism.

András Schiff

Classical Artist

András Schiff is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor who has won a number of major awards. Since 2011, he has been an outspoken critic of the Hungarian government.

Barbara Palvin

Model

Barbara Palvin is a Hungarian fashion model and actress.

Miklós Fehér

Soccer

Miklós "Miki" Fehér was a Hungarian footballer who played as a striker. On 25 January 2004, he died of a cardiac arrest during a match between Vitória de Guimarães and his team Benfica in Guimarães. Fehér spent most of his nine-year career in Portugal, representing three teams as a professional and amassing top division totals of 80 games and 27 goals.

Victor Vasarely

Painting Artist

Victor Vasarely, born Vásárhelyi Győző 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997, was a Hungarian–French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the short-lived op art movement. His work entitled Zebra, created in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of op art.

Michael Curtiz

Film Director

Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early credits as Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész. He directed more than fifty films in Europe and more than one hundred in the United States, many of them cinema classics, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Dodge City, The Sea Hawk, The Sea Wolf, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and White Christmas. He thrived in the heyday of the Warner Bros. studio in the 1930s and '40s. He was less successful from the late 1940s onwards, when he attempted to move from studio direction into production and freelance work, but he continued working until shortly before his death.

Joseph Pulitzer

US Congressperson

Joseph Pulitzer, born Pulitzer József, was a Hungarian-American Jewish newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s. He became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party and was elected Congressman from New York. He crusaded against big business and corruption. In the 1890s the fierce competition between his World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal caused both to use yellow journalism for wider appeal; it opened the way to mass-circulation newspapers that depended on advertising revenue and appealed to readers with multiple forms of news, entertainment and advertising. Today, he is best known for the Pulitzer Prizes, which were established by money he bequeathed to Columbia University, as was the Columbia School of Journalism. The prizes are given annually to award achievements in journalism and photography, as well as literature and history, poetry, music and drama.

Judit Polgár

Chess Player

Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person to do so until then. Judit Polgár is currently ranked 52nd in the world FIDE ratings list with an Elo rating of 2696, the only woman on FIDE's Top 100 Players list, and has been ranked as high as eighth. She has won or shared first in the chess tournaments of Hastings 1993, Madrid 1994, León 1996, U.S. Open 1998, Hoogeveen 1999, Siegman 1999, Japfa 2000, and the Najdorf Memorial 2000. Polgár is the only woman to have won a game from a current world number one player, and has defeated nine current or former world champions in either rapid or classical chess: Anatoli Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Boris Spassky, Vasily Smyslov, Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, Alexander Khalifman, and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

Elizabeth of Hungary

Noble person

Elizabeth of Hungary, T.O.S.F., was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Landgravine of Thuringia, Germany and a greatly venerated Catholic saint. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. After her husband's death she sent her children away and regained her dowry, using the money to build a hospital where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death at the age of 24 and was quickly canonized.

Lajos Kossuth

Politician

Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe. Kossuth's bronze bust can be found in the United States Capitol with the inscription: "Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848–1849".

Stephen I of Hungary

Monarch

Stephen I, also Saint Stephen, was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the first King of Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until his death in 1038. He was born as Vajk in Esztergom. The year of his birth is uncertain, but many details of his life suggest that he was born in or after 975. He was the only son of Grand Prince Géza and his wife, Sarolt, who was descended from the prominent family of the gyulas. Although both of his parents were baptized, Stephen was the first member of his family to become a devout Christian. He married Gisela of Bavaria, a scion of the imperial Ottonian dynasty. After succeeding his father in 997, Stephen had to fight for the throne against his relative, Koppány, who was supported by masses of pagan warriors. He defeated Koppány mainly with the assistance of Vecelin, Hont and Pázmány and other knights of foreign origin, but also with help from native lords. He was crowned on 25 December 1000 or 1 January 1001 with a crown sent by Pope Sylvester II. In a series of wars against semi-independent tribes and chieftains—including the Black Hungarians and his uncle, Gyula the Younger—he unified the Carpathian Basin. He protected the independence of his kingdom by forcing the invading troops of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor to withdraw from Hungary in 1030.

Rita Faltoyano

Pornographic actor

Rita Faltoyano is a retired Hungarian pornographic actress. She grew up on a farm near Budapest with her godparents. It was there that she learned to ride horses and eventually began riding at competition level. In addition to being a champion equestrian she is also a gymnast and swimmer. Prior to working in adult films, Faltoyano was a student. She has said her mother was Miss Hungary 1974 and her father was a former European and Olympic Champion in water polo. Her parents started entering her into beauty pageants at age 16. Her first movie was with Pierre Woodman in No Sun, No Fun; her first scene she performed was with three men where she did her first ever anal and double penetration. In 2004, Faltoyano, along with a number of other adult performers, was expelled from Mexico. They had been visiting for the first Festival Erótico de México but were charged by immigration authorities with performing in a profit-making event despite being there on tourist visas. One-time she was in relationship with pornographic actor Ramon Nomar. She was married to Tommy Gunn from 2005-2008.

Jenő Jandó

Pianist

Jenő Jandó is a Hungarian pianist and Professor of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.

Balázs Dzsudzsák

Soccer Midfielder

Balázs Dzsudzsák is a Hungarian footballer who plays for Russian Premier League club Dynamo Moscow and the Hungarian national team as a winger.

Gyula Horn

Politician

Gyula Horn was a Hungarian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary from 1994 to 1998. Horn is remembered as the last Communist Foreign Minister of Hungary who played a major role in the demolishing of the "Iron Curtain" for East Germans in 1989, contributing to the later unification of Germany, and for the Bokros package, the biggest fiscal austerity programme in post-communist Hungary, launched under his premiership, in 1995.

Tímea Babos

Tennis Player

Tímea Babos is a professional Hungarian tennis player. She has won one singles and six doubles titles on the WTA tour as well as ten singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF tour in her career. On 20 August 2012, Babos reached her best singles ranking of world number 59. On 29 April 2013, she peaked at world number 42 in the doubles rankings. Babos is a member of the Gosling tennis academy and resides in Sopron, Hungary.

Dennis Gabor

Physicist

Dennis Gabor CBE, FRS was a Hungarian-British electrical engineer and physicist, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics.

ByeAlex

Singer

ByeAlex is a Hungarian indie-pop singer and the most famous hipster in Hungary. He represented Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden, with the song "Kedvesem", coming 10th in the final.

Imre Lakatos

Philosopher

Imre Lakatos was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its 'methodology of proofs and refutations' in its pre-axiomatic stages of development, and also for introducing the concept of the 'research programme' in his methodology of scientific research programmes.

Thomas Szasz

Psychiatrist

Thomas Stephen Szasz was a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990 he had been professor emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. He was a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism. His books The Myth of Mental Illness and The Manufacture of Madness set out some of the arguments with which he is most associated. Szasz argued that mental illnesses are not real in the sense that cancers are real. Except for a few identifiable brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, there are “neither biological or chemical tests nor biopsy or necropsy findings for verifying or falsifying DSM diagnoses", i.e. there are no objective methods for detecting the presence or absence of mental illness. His views on special treatment followed from libertarian roots which are based on the principles that each person has the right to bodily and mental self-ownership and the right to be free from violence from others, although he criticized the "Free World" as well as the communist states for their use of psychiatry. He believed that suicide, the practice of medicine, the use and sale of drugs and sexual relations should be private, contractual, and legal.

Marcel Breuer

Architect

Marcel Lajos Breuer, was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer extended the sculptural vocabulary he had developed in the carpentry shop at the Bauhaus into a personal architecture that made him one of the world’s most popular architects at the peak of 20th-Century design.

László Kubala

Soccer

László Kubala Stecz, also referred to as Ladislav Kubala, Ladislao Kubala, was a footballer, who played as a forward with, among others, Ferencvárosi TC, ŠK Slovan Bratislava, Vasas SC, FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol. He also played for three different national teams, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Spain, as well as a Europe XI and the Catalan XI. During the 1950s he was a leading member of the successful FC Barcelona team. During his playing career with that club he scored 194 goals in 256 appearances. In 1999, during the club's centenary celebrations, a fan's poll declared him the best player ever to play for the club. After retiring as a player he began a career as coach. He had two spells as coach of FC Barcelona and he also coached both the senior Spain national team and the Spain Olympic Team. A forward with great passing qualities, Kubala had an uncommon dribbling ability, combining pace and skill. Kubala's composure in finishing, and power when striking for goal were also highly renowned. Also, he was one of history's greatest free kick specialists, able to bend the ball with pace and accuracy.

Zoltán Gera

Soccer

Zoltán Gera is a Hungarian footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for West Bromwich Albion. He is the current captain of the Hungary national team. He has previously played for Fulham, Ferencváros, Pécsi Mecsek, Harkány SE and West Bromwich Albion. Gera is known for his overhead-kick goals and his cartwheel to back-flip celebration, which he demonstrated in Fulham's Europa League quarter-final win against Juventus in 2010. He has been named Hungarian Player of the Year on three occasions in 2002, 2004 and 2005. For his efforts in the 2009–10 season and his goals in the Europa League, Gera was named Fulham's Player of the Season. Gera made his international debut in 2002 against Switzerland, losing 2–1. In 2009, Gera briefly retired from the national team following a dispute with the then manager Erwin Koeman. After Koeman was replaced by Sándor Egervári in 2010, Gera returned to the international squad.

Ernő Rubik

Inventor

Ernő Rubik is a Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Magic: Master Edition, Rubik's Snake and Rubik's 360.

Imre Nagy

Politician

Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions. Nagy's second term ended when his non-Soviet-backed government was brought down by Soviet invasion in the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, resulting in Nagy's execution on charges of treason two years later.

Ádám Szalai

Soccer

Ádám Szalai is an Hungarian professional footballer who plays for FC Schalke 04 in Germany, as a striker.

Eve Angel

Pornographic actor

Eve Angel is a Hungarian porn actress and model. Other stage names used by her include Eva Shine, Marina Mendoza, Katie, Daphne and Severine.

Leó Szilárd

Physicist

Leó Szilárd was a Hungarian-American physicist and inventor. He conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear reactor with Enrico Fermi, and in late 1939 wrote the letter for Albert Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb. He also conceived the electron microscope, the linear accelerator and the cyclotron. Szilárd himself did not build all of these devices, or publish these ideas in scientific journals, and so credit for them often went to others. As a result, Szilárd never received the Nobel Prize, but others were awarded the Prize as a result of their work on two of his inventions. He was born in Budapest in the Kingdom of Hungary, and died in La Jolla, California.

Laszlo Barna

TV Producer

Laszlo Barna is a film director, editor and writer.

Richard Ryen

Actor

Richard Ryen was an Hungarian born actor who was expelled from Germany by the Nazis prior to World War II. Ryen was born Richard Anton Robert Felix in Hungary. He began working in Germany as an actor and later became a well-respected stage director at the Munich Kammerspiele. His first movie was 1932 comedy Die Verkaufte Braut. The following year, he had a bit part in Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen with S.Z. Sakall. In 1934, Felix made three more movies, Weiße Majestät, Peer Gynt and Das Erbe von Pretoria in Germany before the Nazi's expelled him. Felix emigrated to Hollywood and changed his name to Ryen. Ironically in Hollywood, as was the fate for so many German actors and actresses of that time, like Conrad Veidt, he was mainly cast in Nazi roles, which kept him working during the war years. Working for Warner Bros., his first movie was as an uncredited role as a Nazi radio station manager in the anti-Nazi movie Berlin Correspondent in 1942 which starred Dana Andrews. Right after that movie, he received another small role as a German policeman in Desperate Journey starring Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn and Raymond Massey. He appeared on screen for 15 seconds while he is checking a license plate.

László Moholy-Nagy

Visual Artist

László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.

Ágnes Szávay

Tennis Player

Ágnes Szávay is former professional tennis player from Hungary. She was the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2007. She achieved her career high ranking of World No. 13 on 14 April 2008

Alexander Korda

Film Director

Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British film producer and director. He worked in Hollywood the first time during the transition to "talkies", from 1926 to 1930. The change led to divorce from his first wife, a popular Hungarian actress who could not make the transition because of her strong accent in English. From 1930, Korda became a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.

Norbert Michelisz

Racing driver

Norbert Michelisz is a Hungarian auto racing driver, who currently competes in the World Touring Car Championship.

Karl Goldmark

Composer

Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna was a Hungarian composer.

Béla Tarr

Film Director

Béla Tarr is a Hungarian film director.

Sándor Petőfi

Poet

Sándor Petőfi was a Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary. He is considered Hungary's national poet, and was one of the key figures of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. He is the author of the Nemzeti dal, which is said to have inspired the revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary that grew into a war for independence from the Austrian Empire. It is most likely that he died in the Battle of Segesvár, one of the last battles of the war.

Eugene Wigner

Physicist

Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner, was a Hungarian American theoretical physicist and mathematician. He received a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles"; the other half of the award was shared between Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen. Wigner is notable for having laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics as well as for his research into the structure of the atomic nucleus. It was Eugene Wigner who first identified Xe-135 "poisoning" in nuclear reactors, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as Wigner poisoning. Wigner is also important for his work in pure mathematics, having authored a number of theorems. In particular, Wigner's theorem is a cornerstone in the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics.

Arpad Miklos

Pornographic actor

Arpad Miklos was a Hungarian pornographic actor who appeared in gay and straight pornographic films.

Béla Guttmann

Soccer Midfielder

Béla Guttmann was a Jewish Hungarian footballer and coach. He played as a midfielder for MTK Hungária FC, SC Hakoah Wien, Hungary and several clubs in the United States. However he is perhaps best remembered as a coach and manager of some the world's leading football teams, including AC Milan, São Paulo FC, FC Porto, Benfica and C.A. Peñarol. His greatest success came with Benfica when he guided them to two successive European Cup wins in 1961 and in 1962. Together with Márton Bukovi and Gusztáv Sebes, Guttmann formed a triumvirate of radical Hungarian coaches who pioneered the 4–2–4 formation and he is also credited with mentoring Eusébio. However throughout his career he was never far from controversy. Widely travelled, as both a player and coach, he rarely stayed at a club longer than two seasons, and was quoted as saying the third season is fatal. He was sacked at AC Milan while they were top of Serie A and he walked out on Benfica after they refused a request for a pay rise, purportedly leaving the club with a curse as he left. He also earned a reputation for his self-confidence and his brash style, leading to comparisons with José Mourinho.

Genseric

Deceased Person

Genseric or more often Gaiseric or sometimes Geiseric, was King of the Vandals and Alans who established the Vandal Kingdom was one of the key players in the troubles of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. During his nearly 50 years of rule, he raised a relatively insignificant Germanic tribe to the status of a major Mediterranean power — which, after he died, entered a swift decline and eventual collapse. Succeeding his brother Gunderic at a time when the Vandals were settled in Baetica, Gaiseric transported all his people, around 80,000, to Northern Africa in 428. He might have been invited by the Roman governor Bonifacius, who wished to use the military strength of the Vandals in his struggle against the imperial government. Gaiseric caused great devastation as he moved eastward from the Strait of Gibraltar across Africa. He turned on Bonifacius, defeated his army in 430, and then crushed the joint forces of the Eastern and Western empires that had been sent against him. In 435 Gaiseric concluded a treaty with the Romans under which the Vandals retained Mauretania and part of Numidia as federates of Rome. In a surprise move on October 19, 439, Gaiseric captured Carthage, striking a devastating blow at imperial power. In a 442 treaty with Rome the Vandals were recognized as the independent rulers of Byzacena, and part of Numidia. Gaiseric’s fleet soon came to control much of the western Mediterranean, and he annexed the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta and Sicily.

Louis I of Hungary

Monarch

Louis the Great was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 until his death. Louis was the head of the senior branch of the Angevin dynasty. He was one of the most active and accomplished monarchs of the Late Middle Ages, extending territorial control to the Adriatic and securing Dalmatia, with part of Bosnia, within the Holy Crown of Hungary. The rulers of Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Bulgaria became his vassals. He spent much of his reign in wars with the Republic of Venice. He was in competition for the throne of Naples, with huge military success and the latter with little lasting political results. Louis is the first European monarch who came into collision with the Ottoman Turks. During his reign Hungary reached the peak of its political influence.

Gordon Bajnai

Politician

György Gordon Bajnai was the seventh Prime Minister of Hungary from 2009 to 2010. In March 2009, following Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's announced resignation, Bajnai was nominated by the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party to become Hungary's next prime minister. Bajnai became prime minister when the parliament passed a constructive motion of no-confidence against Ferenc Gyurcsány on 14 April 2009.

Szabolcs Huszti

Soccer Midfielder

Szabolcs Huszti is a Hungarian footballer who plays for Hannover 96. He is well known for his dribbling, pace, passing and goal scoring ability from midfield.

Katinka Hosszú

Swimmer

Katinka Hosszú is a female Hungarian swimmer, who has competed three times at the Summer Olympics: 2004, 2008, and 2012. She currently swims for the Vasas SC, Hungary, under head coach Shane Tusup.

Ferenc Molnár

Playwright

Ferenc Molnár was a Hungarian-born dramatist and novelist who adopted American citizenship. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar. Molnár was born in Budapest. He emigrated to the United States to escape persecution of Hungarian Jews by German authorities during World War II. As a novelist, he is remembered principally for The Paul Street Boys, the story of two rival gangs of youths in Budapest. The novel is a classic of youth literature, beloved in Hungary and abroad for its treatment of the themes of solidarity and self-sacrifice. It was ranked second in a poll of favorite books as part of the Hungarian version of Big Read in 2005 and has also been made into a film on several occasions. The most notable production was a Hungarian-U.S. collaboration released in 1969. Molnár's most popular plays are Liliom, later adapted into the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play Carousel; The Guardsman, which served as the basis of the film of the same name; and The Swan. His Hungarian film from 1918, The Devil, was later adapted for American audiences in 1921 and starring George Arliss in his first nationally released film. The 1956 film version of The Swan was Grace Kelly's next to last movie, and was released on the day of her wedding to Prince Rainier.

Charles Simonyi

Astronaut

Charles Simonyi, son of Károly Simonyi, is a Hungarian-American computer software executive who, as head of Microsoft's application software group, oversaw the creation of Microsoft's flagship Office suite of applications. He now heads his own company, Intentional Software, with the aim of developing and marketing his concept of intentional programming. In April 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-10, he became the fifth space tourist and the second Hungarian in space. In March 2009, aboard Soyuz TMA-14, he made a second trip to the International Space Station. His estimated net worth is US$1 billion.

Viktor Kassai

Referee

Viktor Kassai is a Hungarian football referee. He participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and refereed the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final. He has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2003.

Krisztina Egerszegi

Swimmer

Krisztina Egerszegi is a Hungarian former world record holding swimmer and one of the greatest Hungarian Olympic champions of the modern era. She is a three-time Olympian and five time Olympic champion; and one of three individuals to have ever won the same swimming event at three Summer Olympics. She held the world record in the long course 200 m backstroke for almost 17 years, after setting it at the 1991 European Championships. As of June 2009, that time remains the European and Hungarian records. It is the oldest record on the European list, and the second-oldest on the Hungarian list—Egerszegi's former world record in the 100 m backstroke, set 3 days prior to the 200 m backstroke, is the oldest.

Theodore von Kármán

Physicist

Theodore von Kármán was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization. He is regarded as the outstanding aerodynamic theoretician of the twentieth century.

Adolph Zukor

Businessperson

Adolph Zukor was a Hungarian film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.

Sándor Kocsis

Soccer

Sándor Kocsis Péter was a Hungarian footballer who played for Ferencváros TC, Budapest Honvéd, Young Fellows Zürich, FC Barcelona and Hungary. During the 1950s, along with Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor, József Bozsik and Nándor Hidegkuti, he was a member of the Mighty Magyars. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution he moved to Spain where he became a member of the FC Barcelona team of the late 1950s. Kocsis was a prolific goalscorer for both Budapest Honvéd and Hungary. While playing for Honvéd, he was the top goal scorer in any European league in both 1952 and 1954. He also scored 75 goals in 68 appearances for Hungary - a 1.10 goal/game average at the game's highest level. Kocsis was the top goal scorer in the 1954 World Cup with 11 goals, being the first player to score two hat tricks in a World Cup. His record 2.2 goal/game average in a single World Cup finals competition is still unbeaten as of 2010, and only Just Fontaine has scored more goals in a single World Cup. His 1.103 goals/game average is ranked No.1 for players past 43 caps FIFA in class-A competition, closely followed by Gerd Mueller with 1.097 goals/game, and are the only two players in history above a +1.0 goals/game average encompassing more than 43 internationals. Ferenc Puskás with .99 goals/game is currently ranked 3rd.

Susan Polgar

Chess Player

Susan Polgar is a Hungarian-American chess Grandmaster. She is an Olympic chess champion, a chess teacher, coach, writer and promoter and the head of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence at Texas Tech University as well as the coach for the 2011 National Championship college chess team. She is the oldest of the famous "Polgár sisters": Zsuzsa, Zsófia, and Judit. Susan is perhaps most famous for being a child prodigy at chess, for being the first female to earn the grandmaster title through tournament play, and for breaking a number of gender barriers in chess. On the July 1984 FIDE Rating List, at the age of 15, she became the top-ranked woman player in the world, and remained ranked in the top three for the next 23 years. She was also the first woman in history to break the gender barrier by qualifying for the 1986 "Men's" World Championship. She was the Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999. In October 2005, Polgar had an Elo rating of 2577, making her the second-ranked woman in the world at the time, after her sister Judit. Polgar went on to win ten Olympic medals and four Women's World Championships. She has not played in official competition since 2006.

Joe Bugner

Professional Boxer

József Kreul "Joe" Bugner is a Hungarian-born British-Australian former heavyweight boxer and actor. He holds triple nationality, being a citizen of Hungary and a naturalized citizen of both Australia and the United Kingdom. As an actor he is best known for his role in the 1994 action film Street Fighter, alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia. Born in Szőreg, a southeastern suburb of Szeged in southern Hungary, Bugner and his family fled after the 1956 Soviet invasion and settled in England. Standing at 6'4" with a prime weight of around 220 lb, Bugner twice held the British and British Commonwealth heavyweight titles and was a three-time European heavyweight champion. He was ranked among the world's top ten heavyweights in the 1970s, fighting such opponents as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ron Lyle, Jimmy Ellis, Manuel Ramos, Chuck Wepner, Earnie Shavers, Henry Cooper, Brian London, Mac Foster, Rudi Lubbers, Eduardo Corletti, Jurgen Blin, George Johnson and Jose Luis Garcia. He fought for the world heavyweight championship in 1975, losing on points in a second bout with Ali. Bugner retired from boxing in 1976, but over the next two decades he made sporadic comebacks with varying success. He relocated to Australia in 1986, adopting the nickname "Aussie Joe", beating fighters such as Greg Page, David Bey, Anders Eklund and James Tillis before retiring again after a TKO loss to Frank Bruno in 1987. He made a final comeback during the 1990s, winning the Australian heavyweight title in 1995 and the lightly-regarded WBF heavyweight championship in 1998 at the age of 48. He retired for the last time in 1999 with a final record of 69-13-1, including 43 wins by knockout.

Zsuzsanna Jakabos

Swimmer

Zsuzsanna Jakabos is a Hungarian swimmer, who three times competed for her native country at the Summer Olympics: 2004, 2008, and 2012.

László Cseh

Swimmer

László Cseh is a five-time Olympic medalist Hungarian swimmer. He is a 27-time European Champion.

Ephraim Kishon

Playwright

Ephraim Kishon was an Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and Oscar-nominated film director. He was one of the most widely read contemporary satirists in the world.

Katalin Vad

Pornographic actor

Katalin Vad, better known by her porn star name Michelle Wild is a Hungarian actress and former erotic performer who worked mainly for Private Media Group and LUXx Video. Her first adult film, Sex Opera, was shot in 2001, and subsequently she worked repeatedly with the same company, Private, and the director Kovi, producing such adult films as Brides & Bitches and The Sex Secrets of the Paparazzi. She has also worked with such prominent porn directors as John Leslie and Rocco Siffredi. She appeared in more than 70 adult films in her career since 2001. She won a best actress award at the 2003 Brussels Erotic Festival. In the same year, Private produced a semi-documentary-style adult film titled "The Private Life of Michelle Wild". The film featured snippets of Wild speaking about her desires, interspersed with scenes from her previous films. She had a regular column in the men's magazine FHM and co-hosted a latenight radio talkshow. She met her future husband, a cocktail bartender, when he was a guest on her radio show.

Dora Venter

Pornographic actor

Dora Venter is the pseudonym of the Hungarian pornographic film actress Melinda Gál. She was born October 1, 1976 near Salgótarján. She moved to Budapest, and studied to be a nurse, receiving her CCRN certificate in 1998. She auditioned for pornography in late April 1999, and shot her first films several weeks afterwards, her second at the Cannes Hot D'Or. This was initially intended to supplement her low pay as a nurse, but ended up being a full time career for years. Early in her career, she starred in Swedish movies for director Mike Beck, under the stage name Claudia Wennström. She also appeared in Italian, German, French, and Hungarian films. From 2001 through 2004, she worked for Catalan director Conrad Son, in more artistic pornographic roles. Much of her work includes anal sex. She was nominated for the Barcelona Erotic Film Festival 2003 Best Actress "Ninfa" prize at the for her role in Laura está sola, and won the 2004 prize for Best Supporting Actress for her role in La Memoria de los peces, both for Conrad Son Company. She returned to nursing in September 2003, while continuing to make occasional films. She has been cited as saying that her friends know of her film work, while most of her patients do not, due to the limited penetration of international pornography in Hungary.

Sigmund Romberg

Theatrical Composer

Sigmund Romberg was an Austro-Hungarian composer who spent most of his adult life in the United States. He is best known for his musicals and operettas, particularly The Student Prince, The Desert Song and The New Moon. Early in his career, Romberg was employed by the Shubert brothers to write music for their musicals and revues, including several vehicles for Al Jolson. For the Shuberts, he also adapted several European operettas for American audiences, including the successful Maytime and Blossom Time. His three hit operettas of the mid-1920s, named above, are in the style of Viennese operetta, but his other works, from that time, mostly employ the style of American musicals of their eras. He also composed film scores.

Melinda Czink

Tennis Player

Melinda Czink is a Hungarian professional female tennis player. On September 21, 2009 Czink reached her career-high singles ranking of world no. 37. She has reached two WTA Tour singles finals. In 2005, she lost to Ana Ivanovic in Canberra. In 2009, she defeated Lucie Šafářová in Quebec City for her first WTA Tour title. On the ITF Tour, she has won 20 singles titles.

George Szell

Classical Artist

George Szell, originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras. Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into "what many critics regarded as the world's keenest symphonic instrument." Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. While on tour with the Orchestra in the late 1980s, then-Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi remarked, "We give a great concert, and George Szell gets a great review."

Niki Belucci

Pornographic actor

Niki Belucci, real name: Hungarian: Pósán Nikolett is a Hungarian erotic House music DJ, often seen hosting events nearly topless. She is also known for her childhood gymnastics achievements and her six month spent as a pornographic actress when she appeared in 29 hardcore films.

László Bíró

Inventor

Bíró László József was the inventor of the modern ballpoint pen. Bíró was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1899 into a Jewish family. He presented the first production of the ballpoint pen at the Budapest International Fair in 1931. While working as a journalist in Hungary, he noticed that the ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. He tried using the same ink in a fountain pen but found that it would not flow into the tip, as it was too viscous. Working with his brother György, a chemist, he developed a new tip consisting of a ball that was free to turn in a socket, and as it turned it would pick up ink from a cartridge and then roll to deposit it on the paper. Bíró patented the invention in Paris in 1938. In 1943 the brothers moved to Argentina. On 10 June they filed another patent, that issued in the USA as US Patent 2,390,636 and formed Biro Pens of Argentina. This new design was licensed for production in the United Kingdom for supply to Royal Air Force aircrew, who found they worked much better than fountain pens at high altitude.

Paul Lukas

Actor

Paul Lukas was a Hungarian-born American actor.

Andrew Grove

Organization leader

Andrew Stephen Grove, is a Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, and author. He is a science pioneer in the semiconductor industry. He escaped from Communist-controlled Hungary at the age of 20 and moved to the United States where he finished his education. He later became CEO of Intel Corporation and helped transform the company into the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors. In 1968, As a result of his work at Intel, and from his books and professional articles, Grove had a considerable influence on the management of modern electronics manufacturing industries worldwide. He has been called the "guy who drove the growth phase" of Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs, when he was considering returning to be Apple's CEO, called Grove, who was someone he "idolized," for his personal advice. One source notes that by his accomplishments at Intel alone, he "merits a place alongside the great business leaders of the 20th century."

Baroness Emma Orczy

Novelist

Baroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi was a Hungarian-born British novelist, playwright and artist of noble origin. She is most known for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel. Some of her paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.

Dániel Gyurta

Swimmer

Dániel Gyurta is a Hungarian swimmer who mainly competes in the 200m breaststroke. Also known as Dani, he was only 15 years old when he won a silver medal in the men's 200m breaststroke at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. His coaches are Sándor Széles, Ferenc Kovácshegyi and Balázs Virth. Gyurta, unlike his rivals Brendan Hansen and Kosuke Kitajima in the 200m breaststroke in Athens, swims a relaxed and relatively slow first 100 and sprints the second 100 meters. Hansen and Kitajima "go out hard and fast and try to hold on for comeback", but Gyurta "swims a completely different race. Goes out slowly and then comes back like a train". On August 12, 2008 he set an Olympic record in the preliminaries of the 200m breaststroke at the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing. His record was broken one day later by Kitajima in the semi-finals. Gyurta finished fifth in the final. At the 2009 World Aquatics Championships he won gold medal in 200m breaststroke, edging out Eric Shanteau in the last meters. He was named Hungarian Sportsman of the year for this achievement. Two years later Gyurta successfully retained the gold medal at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships, thus becoming only the second man to defend the world title on 200 metre breaststroke after David Wilkie of Great Britain, who won the first two world titles, in 1973 and 1975.

Andrew G. Vajna

Film Producer

Andrew George Vajna is a Hungarian film producer.

Rudolf Serkin

Classical Artist

Rudolf Serkin was a Bohemian-born pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the twentieth century.

Anita Blond

Pornographic actor

Tom Lantos

US Congressperson

Thomas Peter "Tom" Lantos was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from California, serving from 1981 until his death as the representative from a district that included the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a portion of southwestern San Francisco. Lantos had announced in early January 2008 that he would not run for reelection because of cancer of the esophagus, but died before finishing his term. Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to have served in the United States Congress. In speaking before the House of Representatives after his death, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that Lantos "devoted his public life to shining a bright light on the dark corners of oppression... He used his powerful voice to stir the consciousness of world leaders and the public alike." U2 lead singer Bono called him a “prizefighter,” whose stamina would make him go “any amount of rounds, with anyone, anywhere, to protect human rights and common decency." In 2008, after his death, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded in 1983, was renamed the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Its mission is partly to "to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights." In 2011, the Tom Lantos Institute was set up in Budapest to promote tolerance and support minority issues in central and eastern Europe and in the world.

Béla IV of Hungary

Monarch

Béla IV was King of Hungary and of Croatia, duke of Styria. He was one of the most famous kings of Hungary, he distinguished himself through his policy of strengthening of the royal power following the example of his grandfather Béla III, and by the rebuilding Hungary after the catastrophe of the Mongolian invasion in 1241. For this reason he is called by the Hungarians as "the second founder of our country".

Zsolt Dér

Actor

Zsolt Dér is an actor.

Zsolt Haraszti

Cinematographer

Zsolt Haraszti was a cinematographer.

Hajnal Sellő

Film Editor

Hajnal Sellõ is a film editor.