Comedy actress Helena Růžičková would have celebrated her 90th birthday this year on June 13. However, she did not live to see this important jubilee, she died in 2004 at the age of 67. Fans have not forgotten the star that Czechs and Slovaks fell in love with primarily thanks to the Sun, Hay… trilogy and the cult film about the Homolkov family. In the famous Hoštica, they even organized a huge celebration in her memory.
Organizer of the event 90 roses for Helena told the newspaper that several thousand people had arrived. Venca Konopník, alias Bronislav “Broňa” Černý (65), who changed his motorbike for a truck, also came from nearby Strakonice. Photos of the star of the films Sun, hay… can be viewed in the gallery.
The director also came to remember the iconic actress Zdeněk Troška (73), Yvetta Blanarovičová (62), Michaela Kuklová (58) or a writer Marie Formáčková (73)who wrote several books with Helena not only about her fight with cancer. “Helena Růžičková is simply a phenomenon. She was, is and will be. It’s been 22 years since she’s been here, but I feel like she’s here at the cottage saying that she’ll call me next week.” he confided A little bit. “It’s still palpable, and Helena was incredible,” added the director.
An African sorcerer predicted her career
Helena Růžičková, born Málková, was born on June 13, 1936 in Prague. She was allegedly predicted an artistic career by an African sorcerer. Her father, who knew more than 20 world languages, worked before the birth of the future actress in Africa, where he met a shaman. After the birth of his daughter, he sent the date of her birth to an African magician, who predicted that she would be an artist.
The father took it seriously and enrolled his daughter in ballet as a three-year-old, and a year later she was already performing in several Prague theaters, including the National Theatre. In 1940, she also appeared in the film adaptation of the novel by Bozena Němcova Babička of the same name, directed by František Čáp. A year later, she also acted in Z české mlýnů directed by Miroslav Cikán.
However, she never studied acting, even though she tried several times to get into the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) in Prague. Finally, she graduated from the Higher Medical School and briefly worked as a dental laboratory technician. During the entrance exams at DAMU, she met her husband, actor and assistant director Jiří Růžiček, whom she married in 1955.
Cancer did not deprive her of humor
She won the undying favor of comedy fans with the role of Heduš Homolková in the extremely popular comedy trilogy by Jaroslav Papoušekwhich consists of the films Ecce homo Homolka (1969), Hogo fogo Homolka (1970), Homolka and Tobolka (1972). The trilogy offered a successful satirical picture of a typical Czechoslovak petty-bourgeois family in the time of socialism. In the films, banal family situations turn into endless arguments full of comical and even absurd dialogues.
In the 1970s and 1980s, she appeared in other popular comedies The Girl on the Broom (dir. Václav Vorlíček, 1971), Women in the Offside (dir. Bořivoj Zeman, 1971), Tomorrow we’ll spin it, dear…! (dir. Petr Schulhoff, 1976), How about some spinach (dir. Václav Vorlíček, 1977), Bulldogs and Cherries (dir. Juraj Herz, 1981) or Next time we’ll be smarter old lady! (dir. Petr Schulhoff, 1982). She also acted in the well-known fairy tales Three Nuts for Cinderella (dir. Václav Vorlíček, 1973) or John the Little King (dir. Bořivoj Zeman, 1977).
She also secured a leading position among Czech comedic actresses thanks to the character of Škopková’s mother in Zdenek Troška’s comedy trilogy Sun, hay, strawberries (1983), Hay, hay and a few faces (1989) and Hay, hay, erotica (1991). To this day, the comedies broadcast by many televisions are a satirical look at life in the typical South Bohemian village of Hoštice during the period of late socialism and the early transformation of the 1990s.
Růžičková did not lose her proverbial humor even after she was diagnosed with cancer, to which she eventually succumbed. The popular actress has written cookbooks, an autobiography and also a book about her battle with an insidious disease.
In 1991, she became a co-founder of the Slon Foundation to help children from the orphanage in Šarišské Michaľany in eastern Slovakia. She suffered from cancer in the last years of her life, she began to give up her fight after the death of her husband and son Jiří Růžička Jr.
