Alexander Korda (September 16, 1893 - January 23, 1956) was a film director and producer, a leading figure in the British film industry and the founder of London Films. The elder brother of future filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent Korda, Alexander Korda was born Sándor László Kellner in Pusztatúrpásztó in Austria-Hungary (now Hungary), where he worked as a journalist before going into films as a producer. He also worked in Vienna, Berlin, Paris and Hollywood, becoming director of United Artists. The first film Korda made in the United States was in 1927 titled The Stolen Bride. Between then and 1932 he made sixteen more films in the U.S., the last one in 1931 titled Service for Ladies that was released in 1932 after he had already relocated to London, England.
It was in Britain, however, that he made the biggest impression, and in 1932 he founded London Films, soon building the studios at Denham, financed by the Prudential, which eventually became a part of the Rank Organisation. His films were lavish and (after the advent of colour) visually striking. They included The Private Life of Henry VIII (1932), nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Rembrandt (1936), both of which starred Charles Laughton, who was also to have appeared in the ill-fated I, Claudius.
In 1942, Korda became the first film director ever to be knighted.
Among his greatest successes as producer were The Four Feathers, (1937), The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and The Third Man (1949). The Red Shoes was also originally meant to be a Korda film and was meant as a vehicle for his future wife Merle Oberon. It became a J. Arthur Rank film and was eventually made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger instead, starring Moira Shearer.
Alexander Korda was married three times, the first to Hungarian actress MarÃa Corda in 1919. They had one son and divorced in 1930. In 1939, he married the film star Merle Oberon but the marriage ended in divorce in 1945. His last marriage was in 1953 to Alexandra Boycun with whom he remained until his death three years later.
He died at the age of 62 in London and was cremated, his ashes at Golders Green Crematorium in London.
The Alexander Korda Award for the "Outstanding British Film of the Year" is given in his honor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
The Third Man (1949)
