Photo from Sakall’s application for U.S. citizenship. |
By Karen Thomas
Writer, Producer and Director of CINEMA’S EXILES: FROM HITLER TO HOLLYWOOD
Hungarian S.Z. Sakall played an endearing “fussbudget” in over thirty movies between 1940 and 1950. He had found success as a comedian in early German talkies, then when Hitler came on the scene, he returned to Hungary. Producer Joseph Pasternak, a distant cousin, brought Sakall to the United States in 1939. He kept his citizenship papers on the mantel in his living room.
