Kálmán Forintos was born in 1940 in Szombathely, although his formative years were spent in Mihályfa, a village near Sümeg. His ancient noble family was classified as ‘class-alien’ under the Rákosi regime [the Stalinist dictatorship in Hungary, 1949–1956], and as a result of the deportation decrees, the family was forced to move to Budapest.
