The well-known artist died of heart failure, as stated by his daughter Ester. For the last four years, however, he was in a coma, which he entered after an operation.
An exceptional fate and appearance
Laufer was born in France, grew up in Great Britain, but eventually the family settled in what was then Czechoslovakia, where his father came from.
Photo: Michaela Feuereislova
Place of Worship at the Broadway Theatre
“I grew up in England and English is the language of rock and roll. When I studied electrical engineering in Vrchlabí for three years, I visited friends of my parents who had Radio Máj, on which you could listen to the US Army station from Munich. Swing and rock ‘n’ roll were played there, the very beginning performed by Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley. I devoured it,” Laufer recalled in an interview with Právo about his teenage years when he fell in love with music.
Photo: Miroslav Zajic
In it, he also mentioned why his family was connected to so many countries: “Father was a doctor who went to Spain in 1936 as an interbrigadista, mum came from a Spanish farm, her dad raised bulls for matches. When the Civil War broke out, she took a medical course and worked in a hospital where she met her father. After the defeat of the Republicans, the Interbrigadists had to flee to France, where I was born. After the occupation of France, my father went to Britain, where he worked in an RAF hospital, putting together battered British pilots.”
Laufer belonged to the constants of Czechoslovak and later Czech culture. In addition to singing, he also acted in films and serials. Viewers may remember him from, among others, the series Cirkus Humberto or from the film series Kamenák.
He also regularly worked abroad as a director. He was thus able to make full use of his language skills, speaking English, Spanish and German fluently.
Josef Laufer died
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