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The Most Famous

ACTORS from Hungary

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This page contains a list of the greatest Hungarian Actors. The pantheon dataset contains 9,996 Actors, 28 of which were born in Hungary. This makes Hungary the birth place of the 28th most number of Actors behind Pakistan and South Africa.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Hungarian Actors of all time. This list of famous Hungarian Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Hungarian Actors.

Photo of Zsa Zsa Gabor

1. Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917 - 2016)

With an HPI of 62.69, Zsa Zsa Gabor is the most famous Hungarian Actor.  Her biography has been translated into 57 different languages on wikipedia.

Zsa Zsa Gabor (, Hungarian: [ˈɡaːbor ˈʒɒʒɒ]; born Sári Gábor [ˈɡaːbor ˈʃaːri]; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were actresses Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor. Gabor competed in the 1933 Miss Hungary pageant, where she placed as second runner-up, and began her stage career in Vienna the following year. She emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1941, and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style." She was considered to have a personality that "exuded charm and grace". Her first film role was a supporting role in Lovely to Look At, released in 1952. The same year, she appeared in We're Not Married!, and played one of her few leading roles in Moulin Rouge, directed by John Huston. Huston later described Gabor as a "creditable" actress.Outside her acting career, Gabor was known for her extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, her glamorous personality, and her many marriages. In total, Gabor had nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders. She once stated, "Men have always liked me and I have always liked men. But I like a mannish man, a man who knows how to talk to and treat a woman—not just a man with muscles."

Photo of Cornel Wilde

2. Cornel Wilde (1912 - 1989)

With an HPI of 60.31, Cornel Wilde is the 2nd most famous Hungarian Actor.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Cornel Wilde (born Kornél Lajos Weisz; October 13, 1912 – October 16, 1989) was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker. Wilde's acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway. In 1936 he began making small, uncredited appearances in films. By the 1940s he had signed a contract with 20th Century Fox, and by the mid-1940s he was a major leading man. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in 1945's A Song to Remember. In the 1950s he moved to writing, producing and directing films, and still continued his career as an actor. He also went into songwriting during his career.

Photo of Peter Lorre

3. Peter Lorre (1904 - 1964)

With an HPI of 59.72, Peter Lorre is the 3rd most famous Hungarian Actor.  His biography has been translated into 44 different languages.

Peter Lorre (German: [ˈpeːtɐ ˈlɔʁə]; born László Löwenstein, Hungarian: [ˈlaːsloː ˈløːvɛ(n)ʃtɒjn]; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, active first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before moving to Germany where he worked first on the stage, then in film in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lorre caused an international sensation in the Weimar Republic–era film M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang, in which he portrayed a serial killer who preys on little girls. Known for his timidly devious characters, his appearance, and his accented voice, Lorre was frequently caricaturized during and after his lifetime and the cultural legacy of his persona remains in media today. Lorre, of Jewish descent, left Germany after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. His second English-language film, following the multiple-language version of M (1931), was Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), made in the United Kingdom. Eventually settling in Hollywood, he later became a featured player in many Hollywood crime and mystery films. In his initial American films, Mad Love and Crime and Punishment (both 1935), he continued to play murderers. He was later cast playing Mr. Moto, the Japanese detective, in a series of B-pictures. From 1941 to 1946, he mainly worked for Warner Bros. His first film at Warner was The Maltese Falcon (1941), the first of many films in which he appeared alongside actors Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet. This was followed by Casablanca (1942), the second of the nine films in which Lorre and Greenstreet appeared together. Lorre's other films include Frank Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). Frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner, his later career was erratic. Lorre was the first actor to play a James Bond villain as Le Chiffre in a TV version of Casino Royale (1954). Some of his last roles were in horror films directed by Roger Corman. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.

Photo of Michu Meszaros

4. Michu Meszaros (1939 - 2016)

With an HPI of 56.45, Michu Meszaros is the 4th most famous Hungarian Actor.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Mihaly "Michu" Meszaros (Hungarian: Mészáros Mihály; 1 October 1939 – 12 June 2016) was a Hungarian and American actor, circus performer/entertainer, and stuntman. He was 2 feet 9 inches (0.84 m) tall and weighed 25 pounds. He was best remembered as a performer with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and for his role in the NBC sitcom ALF in 1986. He appeared in several films in the late 1980s and early 1990s and also appeared opposite pop singer Michael Jackson in a Pepsi commercial in 1992. His last appearance was in Death to Cupid in 2015.

Photo of Paul Lukas

5. Paul Lukas (1894 - 1971)

With an HPI of 55.11, Paul Lukas is the 5th most famous Hungarian Actor.  His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Paul Lukas (born Pál Lukács; 26 May 1894 – 15 August 1971) was a Hungarian actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, for his performance in the film Watch on the Rhine (1943), reprising the role he created on the Broadway stage.

Photo of Marta Eggerth

6. Marta Eggerth (1912 - 2013)

With an HPI of 54.44, Marta Eggerth is the 6th most famous Hungarian Actor.  Her biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Marta Eggerth (17 April 1912 – 26 December 2013) was a Hungarian actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her.

Photo of Mickey Hargitay

7. Mickey Hargitay (1926 - 2006)

With an HPI of 51.81, Mickey Hargitay is the 7th most famous Hungarian Actor.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Miklós Karoly Hargitay (January 6, 1926 – September 14, 2006), was a Hungarian-American actor and the 1955 Mr. Universe. Born in Budapest, Hargitay moved to the United States in 1947 and eventually became a U.S. citizen. He was married to actress Jayne Mansfield and is the father of actress Mariska Hargitay. During their marriage, Hargitay and Mansfield made four movies together: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), The Loves of Hercules (1960), Promises! Promises! (1963), and Primitive Love (1964).

Photo of Julio Baghy

8. Julio Baghy (1891 - 1967)

With an HPI of 51.49, Julio Baghy is the 8th most famous Hungarian Actor.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Julio Baghy (13 January 1891, Szeged – 18 March 1967, Budapest; in Hungarian Baghy Gyula) was a Hungarian actor and one of the leading authors of the Esperanto movement. He is the author of several famous novels but it is particularly in the field of poetry that he proved his mastery of Esperanto.

Photo of Vilma Bánky

9. Vilma Bánky (1901 - 1991)

With an HPI of 51.43, Vilma Bánky is the 9th most famous Hungarian Actor.  Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Vilma Bánky (born Vilma Koncsics; 9 January 1901 – 18 March 1991) was a Hungarian-American silent film actress. Although her acting career began in Budapest, and she later worked in France, Austria, and Germany, Bánky was best known for her roles in the American films The Eagle and The Son of the Sheik with Rudolph Valentino, and for several romantic teamings with Ronald Colman.

Photo of Eva Gabor

10. Eva Gabor (1919 - 1995)

With an HPI of 49.55, Eva Gabor is the 10th most famous Hungarian Actor.  Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Eva Gabor ( AY-və gə-BOR, -⁠ GAH-bor; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. She voiced Duchess and Miss Bianca in the animated Disney Classics, The Aristocats (1970), The Rescuers (1977), and The Rescuers Down Under (1990). She was popular in her role on the 1965–71 television sitcom Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character Oliver Wendell Douglas. Gabor was an actress in film, on Broadway, and on television. She was also a businesswoman, marketing wigs, clothing, and beauty products. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.

Pantheon has 28 people classified as actors born between 1883 and 1982. Of these 28, 5 (17.86%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living actors include Catherine Schell, László Szabó, and Eva Henger. The most famous deceased actors include Zsa Zsa Gabor, Cornel Wilde, and Peter Lorre. As of April 2022, 6 new actors have been added to Pantheon including Eva Bartok, Catherine Schell, and László Szabó.

Living Actors

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Deceased Actors

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Newly Added Actors (2022)

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Which Actors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 23 most globally memorable Actors since 1700.