Endre Antal Miksa DeToth, better known as Andre DeToth[a] (May 15,
1913 â€" October 27, 2002), was a Hungarian-American film director,
born and raised in Makó, Csanád County, Austria-Hungary. He directed
the 3D film House of Wax, despite being unable to see in 3D himself,
having lost an eye at an early age. Upon naturalization as a United
States citizen in 1945, he took Endre Antal Miksa DeToth as his legal
name.Born in 1913 as Sasvári farkasfalvi tóthfalusi Tóth Endre
Antal Mihály, DeToth 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.DeToth segued from there to the film industry and
worked as a writer, assistant director, editor and sometime actor. In
1939 he directed five films just before World War II began in Europe.
Several of these films received significant release in the Hungarian
communities in the United States. He went to England, spent several
years as an assistant to fellow Hungarian émigré Alexander Korda,
and eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1942.Based on his Hungarian
films, the production work for Korda and writing he had done on
American projects during earlier stints in Los Angeles, he received an
oral contract as a director at Columbia Pictures from which he
ultimately extricated himself by litigation. He preferred working as
an independent and had no "A" budgets early in his career. Thus, he
had to supplement his directing income with writing assignments, often
uncredited. Introduced to Westerns by John Ford, he worked mostly in
that genre throughout the 1950s, often bringing elements of noir style
into those films.
1913 â€" October 27, 2002), was a Hungarian-American film director,
born and raised in Makó, Csanád County, Austria-Hungary. He directed
the 3D film House of Wax, despite being unable to see in 3D himself,
having lost an eye at an early age. Upon naturalization as a United
States citizen in 1945, he took Endre Antal Miksa DeToth as his legal
name.Born in 1913 as Sasvári farkasfalvi tóthfalusi Tóth Endre
Antal Mihály, DeToth 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.DeToth segued from there to the film industry and
worked as a writer, assistant director, editor and sometime actor. In
1939 he directed five films just before World War II began in Europe.
Several of these films received significant release in the Hungarian
communities in the United States. He went to England, spent several
years as an assistant to fellow Hungarian émigré Alexander Korda,
and eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1942.Based on his Hungarian
films, the production work for Korda and writing he had done on
American projects during earlier stints in Los Angeles, he received an
oral contract as a director at Columbia Pictures from which he
ultimately extricated himself by litigation. He preferred working as
an independent and had no "A" budgets early in his career. Thus, he
had to supplement his directing income with writing assignments, often
uncredited. Introduced to Westerns by John Ford, he worked mostly in
that genre throughout the 1950s, often bringing elements of noir style
into those films.
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