Fejos, Paul (1897-1963)

Hungarian-born US film director, documentary film-maker, and anthropologist. He made several feature films and documentaries, both in Europe and the USA, before becoming head of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. He was later a consulting professor of anthropology at Stanford (1943-63).

He was born in Budapest and gained his MD before serving in the Hungarian cavalry and air service in World War I. In the late 1930s he began to make ethnographic films in Madagascar, Indonesia, and Thailand, developing an interest in anthropology. He headed an expedition to Peru in the 1940s, where he applied his knowledge of anthropology to film the documentary, Yagua (1941). In addition to his post at Stanford, he taught at such institutions as Yale, Columbia, and Fordham.