Korda, Sir Alexander

Korda, Sir Alexander

 orig. Sándor Laszlo Kellner

(born Sept. 16, 1893, Pusztatúrpásztó, Hung.—died Jan. 23, 1956, London, Eng.) Hungarian-born British film director and producer. He worked as a journalist in Budapest, where he founded a film magazine and, in 1917, became manager of the Corvin movie studio. He left Hungary in 1919 to make several films in Berlin, then went to Hollywood, where he directed movies such as The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927). After moving to England in 1931, he founded London Film Productions. He helped develop Britain's film industry, directing and producing successful films such as The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Catherine the Great (1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935), and Rembrandt (1936), and producing The Third Man (1949), Summertime (1955), and Richard III (1955). In 1942 he received the first British knighthood conferred on someone in the film industry.