István Vágó was a television presenter, editor, musician, one of the most successful Hungarian figures in the quiz genre, but Lumberjacks we also saw him on stage as a bassist in a hobby band.
He was born to György Vágó and Veronika Vadas in Budapest on February 14, 1949. His father once trained to become a Catholic priest and taught at the Episcopal Catholic High School in Pest. His mother, who was born in Békéscsaba, was deported with her family to Auschwitz during the Second World War due to her Jewish origin, from where her father, grandparents and brother never returned. Later, when he got married, he was baptized at the request of his mother-in-law.
Szágó studied as a pharmaceutical-chemical engineer and then worked at the MEDIMPEX foreign trade company. He was a qualified tour guide, but he never practiced this profession. He spoke excellent English, German, French, Spanish, interviewable Italian and Portuguese, but also made himself understood in other languages.
He applied to the “Reporter wanted” competition announced by Hungarian Television, where Tamás Vitray offered him a bar kochba game leadership in 1976. He became a big fan of all kinds of quiz games, many of which he tried out as a presenter. From 1997, he was at TV2 for a short time, where a All or nothing he hosted the show, which he started on Hungarian Television in 1993. He led it together with László Grétsy from 1987 to 1997 Let’s stop for a word! c. language training program, which reached its 500th broadcast in 1997, and some of its topics were also published in book form. from 2000 a Be a millionaire yourself! hosted a show known as
Later, he hosted more shows, but they were no longer as successful.
His work has been recognized with numerous awards. In 1979, he received an MTV level award, in 2005 he was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (civilian section), and he also received the Pro Urbe Budapest award. In 2006, he won the Prima prize, and in 2023 he was posthumously elected honorary citizen of Budapest.
He died unexpectedly at the age of 74 on April 29, 2023, as a result of a ruptured abdominal aorta.
NO, ATEMPO.sk
Photo: Tamás Urbán/Fortepan, philanthropikum.com
