thumb|Ferenc Molnár was a war correspondent during the First World War.
Ferenc Molnár ( , ; born Ferenc Neumann; January 12, 1878April 1, 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage director, dramatist, and poet. He is widely regarded as Hungary's most celebrated and controversial playwright.
His primary aim through his writing was to entertain by transforming his personal experiences into literary works of art. While he never connected to any one literary movement, he did use the precepts of naturalism, neo-romanticism, expressionism, and Freudian psychoanalytic theories, so long as they suited his desires. According to Clara Györgyey, “By fusing the realistic narrative and stage tradition of Hungary with Western influences into a cosmopolitan amalgam, Molnár emerged as a versatile artist whose style was uniquely his own." a controversial play written, directed, and staged in the basement of a friend's house.
Molnár served as a proud and jingoistic supporter of the Austro-Hungarian Empire while working as a war correspondent during World War I. His war reports were so positive that he was decorated by the Habsburg emperor but criticized by some pacifist peers. and the play that followed, Józsi, are both comedies that essentially dramatized newspaper sketches about a spoiled rich child, and were published as a collection of short dialogues. As a further example, while writing The Devil in 1907, Molnár also wrote three books, including his novel for young people, A Pál-utcai Fiúk (The Paul Street Boys).
Molnár's later plays, such as The Swan (1920), and The Play's the Thing (1924), continued to receive a wide audience and favorable reviews. More than 100 movies and television productions have been made out of his works, including The Swan, which was brought to the screen in 1956 with Grace Kelly and Louis Jourdan, and Egy, Ketto, Haro, which Billy Wilder turned into One, Two, Three, starring James Cagney and Horst Buchholz, in 1961. His novel The Paul Street Boys has been filmed repeatedly in English, Italian and Hungarian. That novel has also been widely popular in translation and made part of grade school curricula in Croatia, Serbia and Poland.
Later years
On January 12, 1940, Molnár relocated to America and spent his last 12 years living in Room 835 at New York's Plaza Hotel. In 1943, he suffered a massive heart attack, forcing him to suspend work for almost a year. To celebrate the end of World War II, Molnár wrote and published Isten veled szivem (God Be With You My Heart) and the English Edition of The Captain of St Margaret's.
After the war, Molnár became outraged and depressed after learning of the fate of his Jewish friends and colleagues during the Holocaust in Hungary, and his personality changed. He became apathetic, morose, and misanthropic.
Molnár married the actor Lili Darvas shortly after divorcing Fedák in 1925. They were active both in Vienna, where Darvas acted as part of Max Reinhardt's theatrical troupe at the Theater in der Josefstadt from 1925 until the Anschluss in 1938, when they were forced to flee.
Molnár and Darvas had long been fixtures on the theatrical scene in New York, where Liliom had become a hit. They arrived in New York in 1940. He and Darvas later separated amicably, but remained married and friends until Molnár's death in 1952.
Molnár died of cancer, aged 74, at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on April 1, 1952. Because of his superstitious fear that creating a will would hasten his death, Molnár left behind several manuscripts, unfinished work, and a significant amount of money. Lili attended his funeral with a few close friends. In the name of all women Molnár had loved, Darvas bid him farewell with a quotation: "Liliom, sleep my boy, sleep!"