Biography

November 3, 1884 · Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]

1942 · Tokyo, Japan

Károly Hochstadt

His death place and date is still unconfirmed. He and his wife left Hungary in 1941 because of the Holocaust and tried to get into the United States. Some sources say that he died in Tokyo, Japan in 1942. Others that his train was stopped by the Soviet army and he was imprisoned in a Gulag labor camp in Karaganda, Kazahstan where he performed in the camp theatre company. He died there from diphtheria in June, 1943.

Hungarian stage and silent film comedian, one of the most popular slapstick stars of the era. He later worked in both Germany (for example in L'ange bleu (1930)) and Hollywood in minor roles.

His nickname and stage name "Pufi" means "Fatty" in Hungarian. In his prime he weighted ca. 290 pounds.

America is the true country of exaggerations. For me, who wasn't just there as a visitor, but who worked and lived there the country always seemed like the huge pumpkins and pickles shown in the shop windows which are ten times bigger than real pumpkins and pickles. Everything there is overgrown and huge. Everything is exaggerated to the limits. Everything. Nature, the lives of people, the needs of people, everything, everything. Children are like adults, but when they grow up they remain the same they were in childhood and then they look like children. Please don't misunderstand me: I don't want to say that every American is naive and childish. That's not true. There are a lot of great, educated, very intelligent and wise people there. Just like everywhere else. But the average American, most of them is a big, naive child. Naive in cruelty and naive in goodness.