Michael Curtiz

Director

Born December 24, 1886 (139 years)

Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]

Michael Curtiz (December 24, 1886 — April 10, 1962), born Manó Kaminer, was a 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. The best-known were The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and White Christmas. He thrived in the heyday of the Warner Bros. studio in the 1930s and '40s. Curtiz 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.