Was trained as an architect in his native Hungary but was unable to find work in that field
Began his film career at the UFA studio in Berlin and then made a series of animated puppet short films in Holland before moving to the United States, where he created his Puppetoons series for Paramount Pictures
His first feature-length film was Destination Moon (1950), which won an Oscar for special effects, as did When Worlds Collide (1951) and War of the Worlds (1953)
Made his directing debut with Tom Thumb (1958) for MGM
His final film was 1975's Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze; its disappointing box-office performance prevented him from making a planned series of science-fiction movies