To the Slovak actor Marian Swans the role of the driver Karel Pávek from the funny comedy Vesničko má středisková is inherent. For the iconic figure, who was inscribed in the hearts of Czechs and Slovaks, but was not the first choice, reports the newspaper.
Originally, the role was to be missed by his colleague Peter Nárožný (87). The audience remembers this Czech actor as a racer from the movie Jáchyme, throw him in the machine! or a chef from a sci-fi comedy How about having some spinach. It was the same with the role of Otík, which was to be played by Václav Vydra (69)but in the end Hungarian János Bán (70) won it.
Swan may have been chosen by the creators because he had a truck driver’s license. The Slovak was thus able to drive all the scenes by himself. On the contrary, Rudolf Hrušínský († 73) was a terrible driver, so his character of a doctor who loves nature and crashes several times in the film was really tailored for him. Moreover, at the time of filming, he was behind the wheel after almost 30 years.
Marián Labuda Sr. was born on October 28, 1944 in Hontianske Nemcie in the family of a tailor. “I know what kind of actor I want to be. The kind that always keeps the audience on their seats. When I’m doing a comedy, let them hold onto them so they don’t fall off laughing, and when I’m doing a drama, let them hold onto them with fear and suspense.” said Marián Labuda.
However, his parents imagined his life path a little differently. “Grandpa was a master with a good heart and a wise mind, so he didn’t say anything, grandma was clearly disappointed that he didn’t become a priest. Life led him to acting against all expectations and he remained faithful to it. He preferred to play with those who had an open heart and mind and when it was, you could feel it,” he recalled for TASR about his father Marek Labuda. His brother Marián is a well-known actor.
In 1965, he graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava to study acting. Already during his studies, he was a guest at the Slovak National Theater (SND) several times, while he became a member of our first theater scene immediately after graduating from university.
In 1968, he co-founded Bratislava’s Divadlo Na Korze, where he was a member until 1971. He later worked in the Nová scéna (NS) drama theater in Bratislava, where he worked his way up from comic and tragicomic characters to major dramatic roles. In 1990, Marián Labuda returned to SND Drama.
He also lent his voice to dubbing, especially for radio. He also voiced some fairy-tale characters on screen and tapes for children. He acted in dozens of radio plays, television productions and films. He also demonstrated his acting skills on leading theater stages in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, he was a guest at Bratislava’s Divadle Aréna, where in 2005 he excelled in the production of Tiso.
Marián Labuda got his first film experience under the guidance of director Petr Solan, with whom he shot the film Until this night ends (1965). In the early 1980s, he was noticed by Czech filmmakers. Juraj Herz entrusted him with the title role in the comedy Bulldogs and Cherries, Dušan Klein and Jiří Krejčík played cameo roles.
Marián Labuda won many awards for his portrayal of various characters: in 1996 the Czech Lion for the best male performance in a supporting role in the film Martin Šulík Záhrad (1995), in 1999 the Literary Fund premium for an extraordinary artistic performance in the play by Yasmina Reza Kumšt. In 2004, he received the Slovak Minister of Culture Award for his extraordinary contribution to the development of Slovak art.
Marián Labuda received the state award Pribin Cross II. class for significant merits in the field of culture (2005). In the same year, he won the award for the best male performance in the Doska 2005 theater critics poll for the character of Jozef Tis.
In 2007, he was awarded the Actor’s Mission award at the Artfilm festival, and he personally attached a bronze plaque with his name to the Bridge of Fame in Trenčianske Teplice. In 2009, he won the annual Lifetime Achievement Award of the Literary Fund, in Trenčianske Teplice he received the Karel Čapek Award for 2008. In 2012, a commemorative plaque with his name was added to the Samko Dudík Cultural House in Myjava.
Marián Labuda – representative of unforgettable comic and tragicomic characters, theater and film actor, whose sense of the grotesque, but also gentle fragility and pure humanity was applauded not only by Slovak, but also by European and world audiences – died on January 5, 2018 in Borinka at the age of 73.
