Andrew A. Lanyi (May 27, 1925 – August 4, 2009) was a well renowned stock broker, analyst, World War II forced labourer, investor and author who became one of the most successful and well known stock brokers of the 20th century.

Biography

Lanyi was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was forced to a work as a laborer building airfields for the German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

before escaping from captivity. After the war, Lanyi worked as a director of plays in Budapest and then as a radio director where he was known as the "Ed Sullivan" of Hungarian radio. He and his pregnant wife fled to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

during the Hungarian Revolution wife and the couple applied for asylum in the United States. His application was granted and he moved to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and accepted a job with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

.'' He also sold mutual funds at night and later stocks to make ends meet; he initially focused on selling to Hungarian names in the phone book and honed his skills becoming one of the top cold-calling stockbrokers in the industry despite his thick Hungarian accent. Andrew started his career at Blythe Eastman Dillon and went on to work at

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

Ladenburg Thalmann Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services is a diversified financial services company with two primary business lines: independent brokerage and advisory and investment banking and capital markets. The company is engaged in investment banking, equit ...

and

Oppenheimer Oppenheimer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: In arts and media * Alan Oppenheimer (born 1930), American film actor * Andrés Oppenheimer (born 1951), Argentine author and journalist known for his analysis of Latin American p ...

. He retired as Executive Director of Investments of the Lanyi Group, his own group, at Oppenheimer and Co. Inc. in 2007. He was frequently interviewed for many financial publications, including Gene Marcial's Inside Wall Street column at BusinessWeek. Many of Andrew's alumni went on to achieve successful careers, including Cody Willard, former business anchor and co-host of Happy Hour on Fox Business.

Personal life

Lanyi married twice. He married Valerie Lanyi in Austria; they had two children: George (1957-1990), and Paul. They divorced in the 1990s. In 1993, he married Diane Bickoff. On August 4, 2009, he died from

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

at his home in Manhattan. Services were held at

Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel The Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel is a funeral home located on Madison Avenue at 81st Street in Manhattan. Founded in 1898 as Frank E. Campbell Burial and Cremation Company, the company is now owned by Service Corporation International. The fun ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanyi, Andrew 1925 births 2009 deaths Hungarian Jews Theatre people from Budapest American stockbrokers Eötvös Loránd University alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Hungarian emigrants to the United States