This is the story of how a chance encounter led to an international diplomatic agreement. With a happy ending worthy of an Oscar. The second. ... The story begins with a stroll by the playwright and journalist Carlos Zamarriego through the charming Benalmádena International Cemetery and his discovery of the grave of a man he did not know, Paul Lukas, and an inscription that caught his eye: ‘Actor’. His curiosity was piqued; he checked his mobile and was quick to raise his eyebrows when he realised that this actor of Hungarian origin had enjoyed great success in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, and had even beaten the legendary Humphrey Bogart of Casablanca to the iconic golden statuette. Almost four years have passed since that scene in the cemetery, and the finale will take place this Tuesday, 13 October (5pm) at the same location, attended by the Hungarian Ambassador to Spain, Jorge de Habsburgo, and the mayor of the town, Juan Antonio Lara Martín, to unveil the new gravestone, as part of the activities of theFestival Internacional de Cine y Cortometrajes de Benalmádena (FICCAB).
“When I found the grave, I wondered how it was possible that an Oscar-winning actor was buried here and nobody knew about it, so I set about investigating,” recalls Zamarriego, who has returned with SUR to the grave site to show how it has changed. Over the past four years, the writer has gone on to become the biographer of Pál Lukács – his real name – and has written a book due to be published shortly by Applehead, which will reveal in detail the connection between the actor from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and 55 Days at Peking and Benalmádena.
Paul Lukas “fell so deeply in love that he chose the Costa del Sol not only as the place to live, but also as the place to die,” says Carlos Zamarriego
“The earliest reports placing Lukas on the Costa del Sol date back to 1956, and he fell so deeply in love with the place that he chose it not only as the setting for his life, but also for his death,” notes the writer, who adds that the actor died unexpectedly in 1971 whilst on a trip to Tangier, but he had stated in his will his intention to spend eternity at the international cemetery, and his friends – particularly the Yacobi family – repatriated his body and fulfilled his final wish.
The passage of time had left the marble of the tomb weathered and darkened, but it has now regained its splendour thanks to the new headstone, which was commissioned and funded by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As Zamarriego explains, this restoration project has many key figures, much like a good film. Thus, the following people became involved in this story: Mari Carmen Martín Lara, until recently a librarian at Arroyo de la Miel, who delved into the archives and drew attention to the lack of protection for the tomb, and the director of FICCAB, Jaime Noguera, who in 2023 organised a tribute to the legendary actor with a screening of the film Watch on the Rhine (1943), the film in which he shared the bill with Bette Davis and for which he won an Oscar. However, the film was never released in Spain as Lukas played the role of an anti-Nazi and former Republican fighter who fought against Franco.
The Hungarian Ambassador to Spain, Jorge de Habsburgo, and the Mayor of Benalmádena, Juan Antonio Lara Martín, will unveil the restored grave this Tuesday, 13 October
“It is curious how, after playing that role and winning the Oscar, this actor – who even starred in anti-fascist propaganda for the US Government during the Second World War – ended up living in Franco’s Spain,” notes Zamarriego, who also explains this contradiction by recalling that Paul Lukas not only found a thriving and splendid Malaga that reminded him of the California he had arrived in during the 1930s, but also a Hungarian community that made him ‘feel at home’: the businessmen Jorge Yacobi and Nicolás Zoller, the writer Andrés Laszlo, the filmmaker Ladislao Vajda and the photographer Juan Gyene, as well as a few colleagues he had brought with him from Hollywood, such as the Russian actor Misha Auer.
‘Forever in Benalmádena’
Following the tribute at FICCAB in 2023, Jaime Noguera also set up a page on Change.org to campaign for the protection of Lukas’s grave, which quickly gained supporters for its restoration. Thus, Benalmádena councillor Aúrea Peralta and the cultural attaché at the Hungarian Embassy, Jòzsef Balàzs, threw themselves wholeheartedly into this cause: the former by campaigning for the protection of the actor’s mausoleum, which culminated last summer in an institutional motion by the town council approved by all the political groups on the council; and the latter by funding the new headstone, which will be unveiled this Tuesday as the final – or first – act in the campaign to honour one of the most distinctive actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The event at the cemetery will be accompanied by a talk and a screening at FICCAB of The Lady Vanishes (1938), the film in which Lukas worked with the master Alfred Hitchcock.
“Paul Lukas will remain in Benalmádena forever, and this should serve as an inspiration, because whilst people talk about Frank Sinatra or Ava Gardner, who only passed through the Costa briefly, our history is that of the people who did not just pass through but stayed here, and we should study and remember many of them,” reflects the writer and researcher, who also applauds the new headstone, which includes both the stage name and the original Hungarian name of the actor from *The Scent of Mystery and Lord Jim, as well as correcting the error in his date of birth – which on the old grave read 1895, instead of the correct date, which is one year earlier. Accompanied by the message ‘Your friends will always remember you’ and a detail that makes it clear that an Oscar winner lies there: the silhouette of the golden statuette on the headstone itself. An icon that also adds to the legend, as there are those who maintain that Lukas is buried there alongside the award itself.