Pal, George.

Pal (1908-1980) was a motion picture producer and director and winner of eight Academy Awards, five of them for special effects. Among his movies were "The War of the Worlds," "The Time Machine," "Houdini," "Atlantis, the Lost Continent," and "Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze." Pal was involved in early preparations for the 1976 film "Logan's Run," although his name did not appear in the credits.

Pal was born in Cegled, Hungary, Feb. 1, 1908; graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts with an architecture degree; began his cinema career in Budapest, then moved to Universum Film Aktien Gesellschaft (UFA) in Berlin where he became head of the animation department; moved to Paris and under the sponsorship of Phillips radio he began work on his first "puppet-toon," The ship of ether; he opened a studio in Holland (1930s) where he continued working on his "puppet-toon" concept which involved manipulating thousands of different interchangeable wooden heads, arms, legs, and bodies to produce a fluid and lifelike effect when filmed a frame at a time; in 1940, Paramount studio commissioned Pal to make a series of theatrical puppet cartoon short subjects, The madcap models and George Pal Puppetoons; he went on to feature films in 1950 with The great Rupert and Destination moon, the first Technicolor science fiction film; the recipient of numerous awards including Academy Awards for Achievement in Special Effects and a special Award for the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons; died 1980.