Biography for
Emeric Pressburger More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

5 December 1902, Miskolc, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)

Date of Death

5 February 1988, Saxstead, Suffolk, England, UK (bronchial pneumonia)

Birth Name

Imre József Emmerich Pressburger

Nickname

Imrie

Height

5' 11" (1.80 m)

Mini Biography

Educated at the Universities of Prague and Stuttgart, Emeric Pressburger worked as a journalist in Hungary and Germany and an author and scriptwriter in Berlin and Paris. He was a Hungarian Jew, chased around Europe (he worked on films for UFA in Berlin and Paris) before World War II, finally finding sanctuary in London--but as a scriptwriter who didn't speak English. So he taught himself to understand not only the finer nuances of the language but also of the British people. A few lucky breaks and introductions via old friends led to his meeting with "renegade" director Michael Powell. They then went on to make some of the most interesting (IMHO) and complex films of the 1940s and 1950s under the banner of "The Archers". Pressburger often showed a deep understanding of the British only granted to those "outside, looking in". He always prided himself on being "more English than the English". After all, some of us were just BORN English, but he CHOSE to become English. He spent his last days at Shoemakers Cottage, Aspall, Stowmarket, Suffolk in the English countryside that he loved so well.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Crook

Spouse

Wendy Orme	(29 March 1947 - 1971) (divorced) 1 child
Ági Donáth	(24 June 1938 - March 1941) (divorced)

Trivia

Emeric's novel "The Miracle of St. Anthony's Lane" was written for Kurt Gerron to film in 1934. It had been optioned to make a film at least 4 times and each time the film was not made so the rights reverted to Pressburger. Pressburger said he could retire if he had a few more stories like that. It was finally filmed as Miracle in Soho (1957) in 1957.

Admirers of the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger include Martin Scorsese.

Father of Angela Pressburger.

Received a BFI Special Award (with Michael Powell) in 1978

Made a Fellow of BAFTA, 1981

Made a Fellow of the BFI, 1983

Emeric's grandson Kevin Macdonald is an Oscar winning documentary maker. He has also written a biography about his grandfather.

In 1970, the BFI held their first Powell & Pressburger retrospective. 14 films were shown and the booklet "Michael Powell in collaboration with Emeric Pressburger" by Kevin Gough-Yates was published to accompany the season.

In 1978 the BFI held a complete retrospective showing all the extant works of Powell & Pressburger. The book "Powell, Pressburger and others" by Ian Christie was published to accompany this.

References to "Richard Imrie" are really Emeric Pressburger helping out his old friend Michael Powell but wanting to start a new career as a writer of novels as well as films.

Emeric's grandson Andrew Macdonald is a film producer, his work includes Trainspotting (1996)

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1962

Despite occasionally working on the same film, Emeric Pressburger isn't related to Arnold Pressburger.

Personal Quotes

The worst things that happened to me were the political consequences of events beyond my control ... the best things were exactly the same.

[interview in Film-Kurier, 11/2/29] There is an unjustified suspicion of the younger generation and that is an enormous, perhaps the worst, mistake. After all, the future lies in their hands. Pay attention to the younger generation of screenwriters.

[interview in New York City, 1980] I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, and it should have, if possible, something which is probably the most difficult thing - it should have a little bit of magic . . . Magic being untouchable and very difficult to cast, you can't deal with it at all. You can only try to prepare some nests, hoping that a little bit of magic will slide into them.

Salary

Men Against Britannia (1957)	£ 175
The Red Shoes (1948)	18.75% of profits
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)	£ 5,000 + 12.5% of profits
Wanted for Murder (1946)	£ 175
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)	£ 2,500 + 12.5% of profits
Squadron Leader X (1943)	£ 1,500
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)	£ 3,000
Contraband (1940)	£ 1,000
The Spy in Black (1939)	£ 250

Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z