He was one of the most popular Czech actors, he excelled on stage and on the film screen. He was brilliant at playing dramatic roles, but he also had great comedic talent. You are the audience Josef Abrhám is mainly remembered as Mayor Blažej from the popular series Hospital on the outskirts of the city or as Dalibor Vrána from the comedy Vrchní, prchni! However, someone else should have received that characterhe writes
Petr Nárožný was in the game and Zdeněk Svěrák had a bloody fight with Ladislav Smoljak over him. However, Smoljak, who directed the film, disagreed. He was already clear about the main character and was definitely not going to back down. “At that time, Nárožný performed in a trio with Šimko and Sobot in the roles of, as he said, a stupid rager. I had a completely different idea of Vrán, which only Josef Abrhám met. I didn’t want humor at first glance, I wanted an actor who would get the joke more gently,” Smoljak once justified his decision.
And as is well known, it was finally his turn. However, Abrhám did not blow the role to his close colleague from the Drama Club only once. When the film Dissolved and Dissolved was filmed in 1984, it was Nárožný who was supposed to play Professor Žalud. He even had shoes signed in the costume shop. However, Abraham did not wear them. He bought new ones for filming and then sold them to an extra.
Josef Abrhám was born on December 14, 1939 in Zlín. His love for the theater was in his genes – he was the grandson of the Slovak playwright, novelist and evangelical priest Jozef Hollé, and his parents were volunteers. He gained his first acting experience while studying at the University of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava. from which, after two years, he transferred to the Prague Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU), which he graduated in 1962.
From there, his steps were directed to the Vinohrady Theater in Prague, where he performed for three seasons. Since 1965, the newly founded Drama Club became the actor’s home stage. He remained faithful to him until the beginning of the 90s, and it was there that he met his future wife Libuša Šafránková, the famous representative of the fairytale Cinderella. He also briefly worked in the National Theatre.
In the Drama Club, he excelled in the plays Pension for Single Gentlemen, Višňový orchard, Stryček Váňa, Players, Auditor, Václav Havel’s one-act play Audience and many others. He made his debut in front of the camera in 1961, in his third year at DAMU, as a student of Pep in the film Strop directed by Věra Chytilová. In the same year, he also played a small role in the detective film Kde alibi svečení.
In the following year, he received acting opportunities in four films, while in the film Velká cesta he played the leading role of the famous writer Jaroslav Hašek. Josef Abrhám’s filmography is extremely rich and varied. Charismatic actor he played a number of unforgettable characters, among them, for example, the role of a seducer in the detective story Partie száleho dragoun, a class teacher in the comedy Marečka, pejtej mi peno! or Mr. Knotek in Ball Lightning.
Undoubtedly, his unforgettable roles also include the central character of the bookseller Dalibor Vrána in the legendary comedy Vrchní, prchni!. He also demonstrated his great acting talent in the role of writer and playwright Karel Čapek in the biographical drama Human against Destruction. He received the Czech Lion in 1994 for the best male performance in Jan Hřebejk’s film The Jackal of Summer. He was nominated for this prestigious award back in 2006 in the supporting male acting category for his role in the film Beauty in Trouble and in 2011 in the leading male acting category for his role in the film Leaving.
Apart from the fake waiter Vrán, the most popular portrayal of Abraham is the scheming doctor and later the head of the surgical department Arnošt Blažej in the television series Hospital on the outskirts of the city. The series, crowned with adjectives such as top-notch or phenomenal, also received sequels called Hospital on the outskirts of the city after twenty years and Hospital on the outskirts of the city – new destinies.
He married the popular actress Libuša Šafránková in 1976. They lived together for 45 years. during which they appeared together several times on the movie screen. Except for the married couple in Vrchní, flee! their same role in the comedy Svatební cesta do Jiljí is also unforgettable. They also starred side by side in other films, most recently in 2013 in the romantic comedy Prijde letos Ješísek?
The sixth volume of the popular ‘Poets’ called How Poets Wait for a Miracle and the fairy tale Anděl Páně 2, which came to cinemas in 2016, were Josef Abrhám’s last films. He last appeared on TV screens in 2017 in the series Dwarf.
Josef Abrhám won many awards for his acting skills. On January 8, 2019, the President of the Slovak Republic, Andrej Kiska, awarded him the state award of the Order of the White Double Cross II. class for extraordinary merits for development in the field of culture, and in November 2020 he won the Thalia Award for lifelong excellence. He spent the last months in seclusion and completely withdrew from public life after the death of his beloved wife Libuša Šafránková in June 2021. The excellent Czech actor Josef Abrhám died on May 16, 2022 at the age of 82 in a hospital in Mělník of pneumonia.
