Václav Kotva († 82) made a mark with the audience as an actor of smaller, but significant roles. A native of the Czech city of Radnice his list includes films such as Marečka, give me a pen!, Jáchym, throw him in the machine!, the Oscar-winning Trains closely watched and Handsome Hubert. He played the main role only once, in the comedy Svatej z Krejcárku, writes the website.
Since he grew up during the Second World War, he got into acting only after it. Even before studying at DAMU, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and worked as a teacher. He took acting more as a hobby. He started his career in the theater, but in the 1970s and 1980s he also appeared in films and television. He gradually starred in more than 200 projects.
“We met quite often. He was a very good, collected, educated person with a great sense of humor. I remember he was still reading something between the sets. Every conversation with him was enriching. He was stung by a wasp when we were filming Three Guys on the Road. It was a cold season, we didn’t understand how she could get married there. Unfortunately, Václav was allergic to wasp stings, so he ended up in the hospital. Fortunately, it turned out well,” Jan Skopeček remembered him years ago.
He also once dedicated beautiful words to him colleague Jan Kačer. “He played wonderfully small roles and had a great life, which as if he connected great Czech acting with those volunteer experiences. And in that he was irreplaceable. All that he experienced as a child and later as a teacher, he played his roles from it. I think that was his greatest school. Great actors always have deep experiences somewhere in their heart or brain, and their art is that they can create a new experience out of them,” he added. Václav Kotva died on November 2, 2004 in Prague. He is buried in his native Town Hall.
