Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (
September 16 1893 -
January 23 1956) was a
film director and
producer, a leading figure in the British film industry and the founder of
London Films.
The elder brother of future filmmakers
Zoltán Korda and
Vincent Korda, Alexander Korda was born
Sándor László Kellner in
Pusztatúrpásztó in
Austria-Hungary (now
Hungary), where he worked as a journalist before going into films as a
producer. He also worked in
Vienna,
Berlin,
Paris and
Hollywood, becoming director of
United Artists. The first film Korda made in the United States was in 1927 titled
The Stolen Bride. Between then and 1932 he made sixteen more films in the U.S., the last one in 1931 titled
Service for Ladies that was released in 1932 after he had already relocated to London, England.
It was in Britain, however, that he made the biggest impression, and in 1932 he founded
London Films, soon building the studios at
Denham, financed by the
Prudential, which eventually became a part of the
Rank Organisation. His films were lavish and (after the advent of colour) visually striking. They included
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1932), nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture, and
Rembrandt (1936), both of which starred
Charles Laughton, who was also to have appeared in the ill-fated
I, Claudius (1937).
In 1942, Korda became the first film director ever to be
knighted.
Among his greatest successes as producer were
The Four Feathers, (1937),
The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and
The Third Man (1949).
The Red Shoes was also originally meant to be a Korda film and was meant as a vehicle for his future wife
Merle Oberon. It became a
J. Arthur Rank film and was eventually made by
Michael Powell and
Emeric Pressburger instead, starring
Moira Shearer.
Alexander Korda was married three times, the first to Hungarian actress
María Corda in 1919. They had one son and divorced in 1930. In 1939, he married the film star
Merle Oberon but the marriage ended in divorce in 1945. His last marriage was in 1953 to Alexandra Boycun with whom he remained until his death three years later.
He died at the age of 62 in
London and was cremated, his ashes at
Golders Green Crematorium in London.
The
Alexander Korda Award for the "Outstanding British Film of the Year" is given in his honor by the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
