Pascal was born Gábor Lehel[3] on 4 June 1894 in Arad, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Romania).

His wife wrote in her book on Pascal's relationship with Shaw that her husband's "origin was shrouded in a mystery which, I often suspected, he enjoyed thickening with contradictory remarks.

[5] It is unclear what parts of his account of his childhood are true as there are no formal records of him before the age of 17 when he was enlisted in military school in Holics, Hungary (now Holíč, Slovakia), by a mysterious Jesuit priest.

Becoming a teetotaler at an early age, he smoked cigars prodigiously, later provoking admonishments from George Bernard Shaw that he would ruin his voice.

After World War II ended, Pascal returned to Germany to search for his son Peter, but he was listed among the missing Hitler-Jugend.

Leading the horses through the forest to a stream each day, Pascal developed the habit of riding naked and bareback through the Hungarian countryside.

Pascal began his producing career making silent movies in Italy for German distribution through UFA Studios in Berlin.

In 1934, during a trip to Hollywood, Pascal was contacted by Princess Norina Matchabelli (wife of the perfume manufacturer) about a film project based on the teachings of Meher Baba.

"[10][11][12] Pascal remained in close correspondence with his master Meher Baba until the end of his life; he met with him for the last time in 1952 in Scarsdale, New York.

During that earlier meeting Shaw, who had been impressed with the young Pascal's passion for art and cinema, had told him to pay him a visit when he was entirely penniless.

Pascal sought out Shaw, first by going to New York City hidden in the toilet of a railroad train, then convincing a sea captain to give him a lift to England.

Pascal created the line for Pygmalion (later used by Lerner and Loewe in their musical version My Fair Lady) "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain."

He wrote in 1946: Gabriel Pascal is one of those extraordinary men who turn up occasionally – say once in a century – and may be called godsends in the arts to which they are devoted.