In their personal lives, many actors inadvertently “play” even more tragic roles than theater or film directors entrust to them. This is also the case of a charismatic actor with a captivating voice. Before he stood on the stage of his dreams, he suffered his lot. His life ended tragically, under unclear circumstances.
From a family diary
The newborn cry of the actor from the cover photo was heard in Kutná Hora on January 10, 1929. His father Eduard and mom Bertha they were musically inclined and owned a small textile and haberdashery shop. His father died of leukemia before the war, his mother ran the shop before the Germans confiscated it in 1942. Just one big hint at the beginning. His sixteen years older brother Ota is a well-known theater dramaturg, director, also actor and translator, and later director of one of Prague’s theaters. When our actor was ten years old, Ota went into exile in Great Britain.
According to the order, the “branded” boy had to be given a yellow star by his second brother Johnone of our poets, taken in 1940 to an orphanage, the so-called Lauder school. A year later, on his twenty-second birthday, Jan ended up under the wheels of a German ambulance. Due to his family background, he was not allowed to be treated and succumbed to his severe injuries.
A blessing in disguise
Together with other boys, the gifted actor was placed in the ghetto in Terezín two years later. In the home for boys between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, in block L417, they were supervised by a young Walter Eisinger and led the boy to reading and his own creation. They then secretly published their short stories, poems and other literary works, including jokes and drawings, in their magazine I lead. He performed there in the Terezín Theater.
After two years, exactly on October 19, 1944, he was taken by a German transport Ace 1017 brought to Auschwitz. Immediately after the ascent, he narrowly escaped death. Doctor Mengele he included him in the group that ended up in the gas chamber. In an unguarded moment, he managed to run to another, to his friends.
close
info
Lorenz Timm/Shutterstock
zoom_in
He survived Auschwitz and the Kaufering and Dachau concentration camps, where he was freed in 1945
When the fury of war subsided
He graduated from grammar school in his hometown, and his love for acting led him to the Prague Conservatory. He completed it in 1950. Before moving on with his wife Alena (div. Smolkova) and a daughter Ivana to Prague, worked for twelve seasons on the stage of the Regional Theater in Olomouc. The last time he wore theater costumes was in the Municipal Theaters of Prague, where his brother Ota was the director.
His polished acting was noticed by film directors only in the mid-1960s. He made his cinematic debut as engineer Feigl in a crime drama based on a true event The case of Daniel. It wasn’t his only role as an engineer. We will mention at least one – Grossman from the picture I know you’re a killer. Thanks to his charisma, he often played educated men, officials, writers. His roles as doctors are numerous.
He portrayed an epidemiologist in this well-known comedy (see video):
Source: Youtube
Alongside Rudolf Hrušínský we him as a doctor, surgeon Zíbrt they could see in a successful detective story Death diagnosis. Doctor Koutné you played in a familiar Love from the passage. Docent Houdek, unpleasant superior Sage. Vojtěch Jandery (Jaromír Hanzlík) portrayed in the series Ambulanceon the TV screen was our evening companion in A crime science adventure whose Panopticon of the city of Prague.
A year before her death, she was in the biographical drama Fr Karl Čapek Man against destruction assigned role rector. The role was the last Count Wallenstein in a historical picture Wild hearts.
A tragic death
He met a tragic end at the age of sixty-one on October 4, 1990. He was caught by a train at a railroad crossing, which, according to witnesses, dragged him several tens of meters and dragged him. The circumstances of his death have not been clarified. It could be an unfortunate accident, but it could also be suicide. Zdenek Ornestlike the name of the actor from the opening picture, struggled with depression.
Although he was not given big roles, he was able to play his characters very well and cleanly. It is said that he had a sense of strange, sometimes even sarcastic humor, but he did not verbally attack anyone, he did not make enemies. He left behind a wife and daughter, memories and film roles.
Resources: www.super.cz, www.muzivcesku.cz, nasregion.cz
Tags: Challenge film fans recognize great actor small roles archive photo died wheels train
-
