These Christmas holidays will be special for the family of Czech actor Miroslav Donutil (74). He revealed to the weekly that they will survive for the first time with their grandson Eliáš, who was born last year on December 25. “We honor these holidays very much and now our grandson will be with us for the first time. I am very much looking forward to that. We will celebrate his first birthday, so everything will be even more beautiful. We have only one wish to be healthy. Not only our family, but all people,” he confessed.
The actor’s family followed many customs that belong to this period, but he abandoned some of them as an adult. Although he and his father were fishermen, this type of food never caught on with them, and on Christmas Day they replace fish with poultry.
“We even poured lead. Mom baked cookies, Christmas cookies, the whole apartment smelled like it. Only carp never caught on with us. It’s still like that today. That’s why we’ll have a goose for Christmas and a candle the next day.” said Donutil, adding in one breath that he doesn’t even rush into the preparations. However, there is one exception.
“Cleaning? Not that. I don’t get involved. As they say, I will come to the ready. For me, it will be a direct transition to the tree. Every year I just prepare potato salad. That’s my specialty, I’m proud of it,” he finished.
Miroslav Donutil was born on February 7, 1951 in Třebíč, but grew up in Brno. He was not far from acting, as his parents were engaged in amateur theater. Donutil himself played in the amateur theater group Debakl during his high school studies.
He studied acting at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno. He finished his studies in 1973 and became a member of the Brno Theater on a String (today the Goose on a String Theater), with whom he collaborated as a student. In the legendary and artistically progressive theater, where he worked until 1990, Donutil matured into an original acting personality.
Under the guidance of directors such as Peter Scherhaufer, Zdeněk Pospíšil and Eva Tálská, he portrayed around 50 theater characters. One of the most legendary was the role of the robber Nikola Šuhaj in the theater performance Ballad for the Bandit, which was written by Milan Uhde for the String Theater based on Ivan Olbracht’s novel Nikola Šuhaj the robber. In 1978, a film of the same name was created based on the theater performance, directed by Vladimír Sís, and the main character of the robber was again played by Miroslav Donutil.
In the 1980s, Donutil also appeared in front of the camera in a film by Jiří Menzel Postřižina, in Juraj Herz’s films Straka v hrsti and Zastihla me noc or in the fairy tale Magical Inheritance, directed by Zdeněk Zelenka. The turning point in Donutil’s acting career came in 1990, when he became a member of the National Theater in Prague. Already in the first season on the first Czech stage, he successfully performed in Chekhov’s play Uncle Van, in which he played the role of Ivan Vojnicky.
Among the successful performances was the play Servants of Two Masters, where he played Truffaldine. He also played Gajev in the Cherry Orchard, Polonius in Hamlet, Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Mikuláš Klubka in A Midsummer Night’s Night, or Jakub Bušek in Our Furians. He left the National Theater in 2013, but continued to perform for several seasons as a guest in the audience-successful title Servants of Two Masters.
Donutil’s film career took off in the 1990s. The comic character of First Lieutenant Růžička was portrayed in Vít Olmer’s film Tankový poror, which was based on a literary work by Josef Škvorecký. Czech and Slovak viewers also laughed at Donutil’s People’s Democratic Army officer Tronik from Zdenek Sirové’s film Black Barons. which was a film adaptation of the book of the same name by Miloslav Švandrlík.
He was nominated for the Czech Lion in the supporting actor category for his role as a lawyer in Věra Chytilová’s legendary comedy The Inheritance. in which he played alongside his former colleague from the String Theater Bolek Polívka. Chytilová also cast Donutil in the black comedy Traps, traps, traps, where he portrayed the castrated state secretary Dohnal. The character won him the Czech Lion for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
The main character of the military officer, but also of the comically strict father Šebek, was again unforgettably played by Donutil in the successful film by Jan Hřebejk Pelíška. For the portrayal of Šebek, a sincere believer in the socialist establishment until the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the troops of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, you earned a nomination for the Czech Lion in the category actor in the main role. Other films in which Donutil starred include, for example, Boredom in Brno, Želary, Hrubeš and Mareš Reloaded, Roman for Men, Krok do tmy, or Cesta do Rímo.
Donutil is also one of the famous serial actors. He played secondary or main characters in television projects such as Chetnické humoresky, Kriminálka Staré Město, Doctor Martin, or Labyrinth. Together with Jiří Bartošek, he spoke foreword to the extensive travelogue series On the road to…
He also entertained the audience with stories from his student days or early days as an actor in his own programs and projects Something is always happening, Ask me what you want, I’ll answer what I want, or in the One man show.
Entertainer and comedian Miroslav Donutil, multiple winner of the TýTý audience television award, became the president of the international Academy of Humor in 2012, which awards the Golden Gunár award during the Kremnické gaga humor and satire festival in Kremnica. OHe was married in 1977 and has two sons with his wife, the younger Martin Donutil, like his father, is involved in acting.
