Béla Balázs was born on August 4, 1884 in Szeged, Austria-Hungary as Herbert Bauer. He was a writer and actor, known for The 3 Penny Opera (1931), The Blue Light (1932) and L'opéra de quat'sous (1931). He died on May 17, 1949 in Budapest, Hungary.
Hungarian film theorist and screenwriter. A committed Marxist, he left Hungary in 1919. In Berlin from 1926, he was associated with leftist stage and film projects and worked closely with Bertolt Brecht, Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Erwin Piscator. Worked in Russia as a professor between 1931-45, returning to Hungary after the war to help rebuild the film industry there. A studio in Budapest for young experimental filmmakers was later named in his honor.