Alfréd Deésy

Biography

Director, actor and script-writer. He completed his education in his place of birth and Kolozsvár (now Cluj, Romania). He was a popular character actor of dramatic plays. From 1911 he was temporarily a cinema managing director in Debrecen, from 1913 he made movies. He wrote scripts and directed films since 1915. Director of Star, later leading director. In the twenties first he worked for Egyetértés company, later became free-lance (Deésy-film). For five years he shot in Vienna as Alfred Kempf Dezsi. His most famous work from this period is Sacco und Vanzetti (1927), which was banned in Hungary. He returned in 1931. He produced a thematic variety of Gorkij's Éjjeli menedékhely with the title Radmirov Katalin (1918). He was a significant, fertile artistic personality of the era of silent film. In the days of the sound picture he - among others - filmed an adaptation of Zsigmond Móricz's novel I Can't Live Without Music (1935), stressing mostly the elements of entertainment. After the liberation he stood in front of the camera again and his characteristic profile appeared in several episodic roles of Hungarian films. He also composed music. In 1909 in Nagyvárad (Oradea) his musical play based on the script of Gyula Juhász, Atalanta was presented. His diary was left behind in manuscript.