The actor Vladimír Hlavatý was among the outstanding personalities of the Czech theater and film scene of the 20th century. He was born on October 29, 1905 in Prague into an acting family – even as a child he performed in various performances of the Theater in Vinohrady, where he later became one of the main faces of the drama and worked there for a respectable 63 seasons, writes the website.
Hlavatý was known for his cultivated diction, attention to detail and ability to capture the psychology of characters – which made him an ideal representative of characterful and intelligent types. However, the audience remembers him mainly as a representative of “film grandfathers” – for example, in the fairy tale Princess Dandelion, you also played Grandpa Kulík in the film We’ll Be Smarter Next Time, Old Ear! and he also portrayed a nice elderly gentleman in the TV series The Woman Behind the Counter.
The actor had an extremely close relationship with his parents and some sources state that he was emotionally dependent on them. When they died, it was very difficult for him to deal with it. “They both died unexpectedly within three weeks of each other at the turn of 1951 and 1952,” described in his memoirs.
In addition to theater, like many of his colleagues, he also worked in film, radio and television. Czechs and Slovaks could also see him in the films Čapkovy povídky, Vyšší princíp, Láska z pasáž, Brácha za alle pejnice, How about having some spinach or Honzo a little king. His artistic expression was based on modesty, precision and internal discipline, thanks to which he became a respected personality. In addition to acting, he also worked as pedagogue at DAMU in a rather atypical field for men – make-up.
“In the end, I stayed with my most beloved discipline – the science of the mask. It is a technical discipline, which, however, helps the talent a lot. In sum, today it is a whole science not only of a suitably adjusted face, but of the entire external action of the actor, in order to create the right optical, visual impression,” he said in the past. Hlavatý died on October 27, 1992 in his native Prague, just two days before his 87th birthday.
