Oldřich Nový († 83) he is among the most important Czech theater and film actors – he created more than 50 film and serial characters, not to mention a number of roles on stage. However, he became famous mainly for his film character Kristián in the comedy of the same name.
Nový was born on August 7, 1899 in Žižkov, which at that time was not yet part of Prague. His father, Antonín Nový, as the chief Prague fireman, introduced fire patrols to cinemas and often took his son Oldřich to them as well. His mother Cecília led him to acting by reading fairy tales to him, and his uncle Miloš Nový was an actor in the National Theatre. Already from 1913 he performed in volunteer ensembles and attended the drama school of Karel Želenský.
After a year’s experience in the Ostrava theater, in 1919 he joined the Brno National (Zemsky) Theater, where he stayed for 16 years. He first worked as an actor, from 1923 as a director and from the 1925/1926 season he was the head of the operetta. He managed to raise this, until then, folk genre to a higher artistic level. He returned to Prague in 1935, when he first became a member and a year later director of the New Theatre, which after difficult beginnings he transformed into one of Prague’s leading stages. He headed the ensemble until 1948.
Oldřich Nový got his first film experience in 1922 in Přemysl Pražský’s silent comedy Neznámá kráska. In 1934, he created the main character Monocle Fredy in Vladimir Majer’s comedy called Rozpustá noc. Two years later, Otakar Vávra and Hugo Haas offered him more acting space in the film Velbloud uchem jhly. He played a marriage cheat in Vladimír Slavínský’s comedy Uličnice, which was also released in 1936.
Slavínský already offered Oldřich Nové the main role in the next comedy False Cat (1937). Slovak actor and singer František Krištof-Veselý played alongside Oldřich Nové in both films. Charm and effortless elegance were typical for both of them. The breakthrough role of the 40-year-old Oldřich Nový at the time was the role of Kristián in the comedy of the same name. Under the direction of Martin Frič in 1939, thanks to this character, he became a star of Czech cinema.
In the same year, he also shot the films Grandfather Against His Will, Eva tropi ghlouposti and Girl in Blue. Together with Vlast Burian, the king of comedy at that time, they appeared together in the film When Burian dusted (1940), and under Frič’s direction, the still popular comedy Roztomilý čovsk was created in 1941.
Despite the danger, he refused to divorce
At the end of II. during the World War, his life was mercilessly affected by the events connected with the occupation. His wife was Alice Wiener-Mahlerwhom he met back in 1928 during his time in Brno, and they got married on June 11, 1936. Due to her Jewish origin, Alica was deported to a camp in Terezín in 1944.
Novy managed to delay her transport several times, even with the help of influential friends, for example the actress Adina Mandlova. He also refused to divorce his wife. And so he too ended up in the camp in Osterode, Germany.
The couple took care of their daughter Jana together, whom Nový brought home in a baby blanket – her mother’s name was never known, the actor kept it a secret all his life. “Mom had to wear a yellow star and she could hardly go anywhere. So I went everywhere only with my father.
In January 1945, however, the Nazis sent him to an internment camp. When he came to say good-bye to me at my bed, I suspected some danger, and sent him a phosphorescent dog in a leather bag, which he hung around his neck. He then returned with the talisman from me, saying that it brought him good luck. I have the bag hidden to this day,” she recalled New daughter Jana Včeláková.
After the war, the condition of Nové’s wife, who suffered from schizophrenia, worsened due to the trauma she had experienced. It also affected relations with her stepdaughter, of whom Alica Wienerová was often jealous.
Elegance in the times of socialist realism
After the end of the war, he returned to acting in the New Theater, but left it in 1948 due to disagreements with the appointed state advisers. He accepted the offer of the Karlín Variety Theatre, which after 1948 was named the People’s Art Theatre.
Together with Jan Werich, he worked as an artistic director. In the theater, Odřich Nový, either as a director or an actor, signed dozens of plays until 1964. Even though in the post-war period there was no room for the type of character that Oldřich Nový portrayed, film offers also came.
In 1949, the director Martin Frič offered him a role in the comedy Pytlák’s hideout or The Noble Millionaire. Director Vladimír Čech cast Nové in the roles of aging cynical men in the detective films Kde alibi stekáči and Alibi na vode. He also played in the parody Phantom of Morrisville, as well as in the unforgettable comedy Světáci, where Zdeněk Podskalský entrusted him with the role of an etiquette teacher.
He got his last film role in front of the cameras in 1971 in the successful TV series Such a Normal Family. Unforgettable elegant, but also comedian and brilliant actor Oldřich Nový died on March 15, 1983 at the age of 83.
