André de Toth

Early life Born in 1913 as Sasvári farkasfalvi tóthfalusi Tóth Endre Antal Mihály, de Toth earned a degree in law from the Royal Hungarian Pázmány Péter Science's University in Budapest in the early 1930s. He garnered acclaim for plays written as a college student, acquiring the mentorship of Ferenc Molnár and becoming part of the theater scene in Budapest.

Career

De Toth moved on from there to the film industry and worked as a writer, assistant director, editor and sometime actor. In 1939, just before World War II, he directed five films, beginning in Europe. Several of these films received significant release in the Hungarian communities in the United States. De Toth was then sent by the Nazis to film the invasion of Poland. De Toth went to England, where he spent several years as an assistant to fellow Hungarian émigré Alexander Korda, and eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1942.

In 1951, de Toth received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing (with co-writer William Bowers) for the story filmed as The Gunfighter.

While largely remembered as the director of the earliest and most successful 3D film, House of Wax, de Toth also directed the noir films Pitfall (1948) and Crime Wave (1954).

He later returned to the European film industry, mainly with Italian productions, and also directed the war action film Play Dirty starring Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport.

In 1996, he published his memoir, Fragments – Portraits from the Inside (London: Faber and Faber, 1994; ).

Personal life

De Toth lost the sight in one eye and wore a black eyepatch; as a 1994 report in The Independent noted, this led to an almost deadly incident:

During his seven marriages, de Toth became father and stepfather of 19 children, He was married to Veronica Lake from 1944 until their divorce in 1952. They had a son, Andre Anthony Michael de Toth III (born 1945) and a daughter, Diana DeToth (born 1948). In 1953 he married the actress Mary Lou Holloway (née Stratton). At the time of his death in 2002, de Toth was married to his seventh wife, Ann Green.

On October 27, 2002, de Toth died from an aneurysm, aged 89. Gold for the Caesars (Italian title: Oro per i Cesari) (1963) Play Dirty (1968) Superman (1978) (second unit director only - uncredited)