Valéria Hidvéghy or Valerie Pascal Delacorte (14 June 1914 – 14 July 2011) was a Hungarian actress.

Life

Delacorte was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

and broke through the iron curtain to marry the film producer

Gabriel Pascal Gabriel Pascal (born Gábor Lehel; 4 June 1894 – 6 July 1954) was a Hungarian film producer and director whose best-known films were made in the United Kingdom. Pascal was the first film producer to successfully bring the plays of Georg ...

. She is best known today for her 1970 memoir of him, ''The Disciple and His Devil: Gabriel Pascal and Bernard Shaw''. In a letter to the editor of ''The New York Times'' in 1995 she wrote that the character of Eliza in the guise of a Magyar princess in "

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...

" was due to her first husband. After Pascal's death she married George T. Delacorte, Jr. in 1959 and together with him became a philanthropist as well as safeguarding Pascal's correspondence and legacy. She outlived this second husband as well and in 1991 three years after his death, made her first donation of $1 million and five Old Master paintings to the

Norton Museum of Art The Norton Museum of Art is an art museum in West Palm Beach, Florida. The museum has a collection that includes over 8,200 works, with a concentration in Western art history, European, Visual arts of the United States, American, and Chinese art ...

. In total she donated 60 paintings to the museum. Delacorte died at her home in Palm Beach Gardens.

Selected filmography

* ''

The Borrowed Castle ''The Borrowed Castle'' (Hungarian: ''A kölcsönkért kastély'') is a 1937 Hungarian romantic comedy film directed by Ladislao Vajda and starring Piroska Vaszary, Ida Turay, and Imre Ráday.Biltereyst, Maltby & Meers p.79 The film's sets were ...

'' (1937) * '' A Girl Sets Out'' (1937) * ''

Tokay Rhapsody ''Tokay Rhapsody'' (Hungarian: ''Tokaji rapszódia'') is a 1937 Hungarian comedy film directed by Johann von Vásáry and starring Ági Donáth, Blanka Szombathelyi and Árpád Lehotay. Pór p.63 It was shot at Hunnia Studios in Budapest and ...

'' (1937) * '' Marika'' (1938) * '' Barbara in America'' (1938) * ''

Rézi Friday ''Rézi Friday'' (Hungarian: ) is a 1938 Hungarian comedy film directed by Ladislao Vajda and starring Ida Turay, Mici Erdélyi and Antal Páger. It was shot at the Hunnia Studios in Budapest. The film's sets were designed by art director M� ...

'' (1938) * ''

Magda Expelled ''Magda Expelled'' (Hungarian: ''Magdát kicsapják'') is a 1938 Hungarian comedy film directed by Ladislao Vajda and starring Ida Turay, Klári Tolnay and Antal Páger (actor), Antal Páger. The film was based on a play. In 1940 it was remade in ...

'' (1938) * '' The Henpecked Husband'' (1938) * ''

Black Diamonds Carbonado, commonly known as black diamond, is one of the toughest forms of natural diamond. It is an impure, high-density, micro-porous form of polycrystalline diamond consisting of diamond, graphite, and amorphous carbon, with minor crystal ...

'' (1938) * '' Hello, Peter!'' (1939) * ''

The Five-Forty ''The Five-Forty'' (Hungarian: ''Öt óra 40'') is a 1939 Hungarian mystery thriller film directed by Andre de Toth and starring Maria von Tasnady, Margit Makay and Ferenc Kiss. It was shot at the Hunnia Studios in Budapest. The film's sets were ...

'' (1939) * ''

Princess of the Puszta ''Princess of the Puszta'' (Hungarian: ''Pusztai királykisasszony'') is a 1939 Hungarian romance film, romantic drama film directed by Béla Csepreghy and starring Éva Szörényi, Sándor Szabó (actor), Sándor Szabó and Gyula Csortos.Cunningh ...

'' (1939) * '' The Bercsenyi Hussars'' (1940) * '' The Last of the Vereczkeys'' (1940) * ''

Castle in Transylvania ''Castle in Transylvania'' (Hungarian: ''Erdélyi kastély'') is a 1940 Hungarian drama film directed by Félix Podmaniczky and starring Maria von Tasnady, Antal Páger and Mária Mezei.Juhász p.181 It is based on a 1932 play of the same title ...

'' (1940) * '' The Unquiet Night'' (1940) * '' András'' (1941) * '' Let's Love Each Other'' (1941) * '' Taken by the Flood'' (1941) * '' Flames'' (1941) * '' Changing the Guard'' (1942) * '' Cadet Love'' (1942) * ''

Sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

'' (1942) * '' African Bride'' (1944)

References

External links

*
The Disciple and His Devil: Gabriel Pascal and Bernard Shaw
on google books 1914 births 2011 deaths Actresses from Budapest American memoirists Hungarian film actresses American art collectors Women art collectors American women memoirists Hungarian emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women {{Hungary-actor-stub