Kurtz (surname)

Kurtz or Kurz is a surname first found in Switzerland.^[1] It is mainly a German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname, meaning someone who is short in height. It comes from the German word 'kurz' meaning 'short'.^[2]

Notable people of this name

• Bob Kurtz, director, producer, artist, and designer who primarily works in films and TV commercials
• Bob Kurtz (broadcaster), American sportscaster
• David B. Kurtz (1819–1898), American politician in California
• Dayna Kurtz, American singer/songwriter
• Efrem Kurtz (1900–1995), conductor
• Eugene Kurtz (1923–2006), American composer
• Frank Kurtz (1911–1996), diver and aviator
• Frank Kurtz (director), creator of the Creepsville comic-book series
• Gary Kurtz (born 1940), a producer on Star Wars
• Gerdina Hendrika Kurtz (1899–1989), Dutch historian, writer and archivist
• Glenn Kurtz (born 1962), American writer
• Hal Kurtz (born 1943), Major League Baseball pitcher
• Howard Kurtz (born 1953), American journalist, author and media critic
• Jacob Banks Kurtz (1867–1960), United States Congressman from Pennsylvania
• Johann Heinrich Kurtz (1809–1890), German Lutheran theologian
• Joseph Edward Kurtz (born 1946), Roman Catholic Archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky
• Joyce Kurtz (born 1958), American voice actress
• Justin Kurtz (born 1977), Canadian ice hockey player
• Katherine Kurtz (born 1944), fantasy author
• Linda Kurtz, American beauty queen and television host
• Lucy Cometina Kurtz (1861–1937), wife of Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland
• Maxine Kurtz (born 1921), American city planner
• Michael L. Kurtz (born 1941), Southeastern Louisiana University historian
• Mike Kurtz (c. 1845–1904), American burglar and gang leader in New York City
• Oliver Kurtz (born 1971), former field hockey forward from Germany
• Paul Kurtz (1925–2012), American philosopher and prominent skeptic
• Stanley Kurtz, contributing editor for National Review Online
• Scott Kurtz, author of the webcomic Player Vs. Player
• Stephen G. Kurtz, American historian
• Steve Kurtz, performance artist
• Swoosie Kurtz (born 1944), American actress, daughter of Frank Kurtz
• Thomas Eugene Kurtz (born 1928), computer scientist who co-developed the BASIC programming language
• William Kurtz (1833–1904), German-American photographer based in New York City
• William Henry Kurtz (1804–1868), United States Congressman from Pennsylvania

In fiction

• Kurtz (Heart of Darkness), main character of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness
  • Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, the main antagonist of the film Apocalypse Now, played by Marlon Brando, which is based on the Conrad story, but in a Vietnam War setting
• Dr Kurtz, a character in Robert Ardrey's play Thunder Rock and the film based on the play.

References

This page or section lists people with the surname Kurtz (surname). If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.