Gabriel Pascal invented his name and no one seems to know his real one. He claimed to have memories of being rescued by Gypsies from a burning building when he was a tiny child and that the Gypsies taught him to beg, steal, and do acrobatic tricks, but no one knows if this is true. It is unclear what parts of his fabulous account of his childhood are true as there are no formal records of him prior to the age of 17 when he was enlisted in military school in Holics, Hungary, by a mysterious Catholic priest. Gabriel Pascal, who was decidedly unfit for military life, became interested in theater and studied at the Academy of the Hofburg Theater in Vienna. Later his interest expanded into the newly burgeoning cinema and he made movies in Germany and Italy with sporadic success.