These Czech actors and actresses were stars during the period of First Republic.
Some of them started as amateur actors, others in silent movies. Here are the…
Table of Contents
First Republic Actors and Actresses
Nataša Gollová
At first, Nataša Gollová and Adina Mandlová were inseparable. When Gollová started an affair with the Nazi supervisor of Czech cinematography during German occupation (who was until then Mandlová’s lover) their friendship was over. She was a successful theatre actress before WWII and the most admired Czech movie actress of the 1940ies. Her career sky-rocketed after the comedy Eva Fools Around (Eva tropí hlouposti) and in movies she was often paired with Oldřich Nový. After the war she was marked a German collaborator and her reputation never fully recovered. Her later career was only a shadow of her former success.
Antonie Nedošinská
Antonie Nedošinská, née Valečková, was born in Prague. She was originally a seamstress and amateur actor, attending acting lessons. She became a professional actor after marrying another actor, she belonged to the staff of the National Theatre.
She worked on 38 silent movies and it was movies that made her famous.
Růžena Nasková
Růžena Nasková was born in Prague into a very well-off family. She wanted to be in theatre since her childhood but her parents didn’t support this aspiration and so all she could do was recite poetry in secret. She only went on to study singing after her father passed away and after some time acting on an amateur level, she started acting in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
She worked in the National Theatre until 1948 and as for her movie career, she started acting in silent movies in 1915. She was also an author published in several magazines, the author of several chansons and a translator from Slovene.
Lída Baarová
Just like Mandlová, Lída Baarová had beauty, international success as actress in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy and Spain and suffered similar social refusal for her romantic involvement with the Reich Minister of Propaganda J. Goebbels. Baarová was expelled from the conservatory for acting in movies which was forbidden for students at that time. She became a famous actress anyway, starring side by side with stars like Vlasta Burian. She is known for movies like Die Fledermaus, I vitelloni or Barcalore.
Adina Mandlová
Adina Mandlová was the ultimate beauty and the sex-symbol of the 1930s and probably the most admired of all the Czech actresses of that time. Her life was full of turbulences. She was very intelligent and charming, the kind of a lady that men want to be with and women want to be. However, she was also emotionally unstable and rather unhappy, moreover, there were suspicions of her collaborating with the Germans. She was known for movies like Life is a Dog (Život je pes), Camel Through the Eye of a Needle (Velbloud uchem jehly) or Kristián. Mandlová maintained relationships with several Nazi officers which caused refusal by her peers after the war. She emigrated to Canada returning to Czechoslovakia only a year before she died.
Vlasta Burian
Vlasta Burian is known as the king of comedians. His talent for comedy made him the star of his era and he was also very gifted for improvisation. He starred in famous movies like Station Master (Přednosta stanice 1941), Ducháček Will Fix It (Ducháček to zařídí, 1938) or Anton Spelec, Sharp-Shooter (Anton Špelec, ostrostřelec, 1932).
He also made movies in cooperation with other famous actors, for example the fairy-tale Once Upon a Time There Was a King… (Byl jednou jeden král, 1954) which became a Christmas evergreen thanks to Burian’s wit as well as the brilliance of Jan Werich.
He was persecuted by Germans during WWII, his theatre was closed down and later nationalized by the communists who also constructed false accusations against him. He was imprisoned twice and banned from acting for five years.
An interesting and sad fact is that after the WWII the communists tricked many people into believing that Burian collaborated with the Germans. Jan Werich and George Voskovec even released a song called Burian, the collaborator from the US. A deed Werich later regretted as he was acting based on false accusations.
Karel Höger
Karel Höger was born in Brno – Královo Pole and as actor, he was known for his very cultivated way of speaking and pronunciation. He was a dedicated teacher and also performed in Brno until 1940 when he moved to Prague and started performing in the National Theatre.
He was active in the anti-Nazi resistance, although there is an existing photo of him performing the Nazi salute together with other actors in 1942 when they swore loyalty to Nazi Germany (time when people were often forced to do so). His name was cleared thanks to the proof of his anti-Nazi activities.
He used to portray serious characters and also several famous Czech people, for example, Bedřich Smetana. He also appeared in the musical A Night at Karlstein which was one of his last roles.
Hugo Haas
Hugo Haas was born in Brno where he and his brother studied singing at the conservatory. After that, he acted in Brno, Ostrava and Prague until 1939.
As a member of the Czech Jewish community, Haas was fired from the National Theatre after which he and his wife emigrated to France, then Portugal (while his brother and father died in German Nazi camps). His plans to emigrate to the US were cancelled at first because he refused to travel without their three dogs. In the end, they did go to the US where Haas performed in English and also taught acting.
Later in life, he spent a short time in Italy until finally settling down in Vienna, Austria. He had many memorable roles, among them characters from the works of Karel Čapek.
Oldřich Nový
Oldřich Nový was born in Prague and his path to the National Theatre led through the amateur theatre. Since 1918, he was hired in Ostrava and Brno where he also directed. His accomplishments in the world of theatre were especially bringing the plot closer to the audience by making it more realistic.
He managed to keep acting in movies even during German occupation, at least until the deportation of him and his wife who was Jewish and Nový refused to divorce her.
He resumed acting after the war, portraying many more movie characters, although the focus of his career was the theatre.
Jaroslav Marvan
Jaroslav Marvan came from Prague where he worked in administrative positions until being sent to Carpathian Ruthenia (former part of Czechoslovakia) where he started participating in an amateur theatre. He continued this activity after returning to Prague. He didn’t like his job which was enforcing credit payments and fortunately landed a job at the Theatre of Vlasta Burian.
By the age of 27, Marvan was a professional actor. Besides his theatre roles, he played in around 240 movies and other TV works and he was awarded several prestigious art titles.
Marie Rosůlková
Marie Rosůlková, born in 1901 in Pilsen, started acting in theatre, when she was 19 years old and she was active until the age of 91, the time of her passing.
She was also a very active movie actress, let’s mention at least the movies The Little Mermaid (Malá mořská víla, 1975), Four murders are enough, dear (Čtyři vraždy stačí, drahoušku, 1970) and the TV fairy-tale Princess Goldilocks (Zlatovláska, 1973). What was especially captivating about her in her later years was her appearance of a good-hearted grandmother which was especially apparent in the movie mentioned last.
Čeněk Šlégl
Born Vincenc Schlögel in Prague – Žižkov in 1899, this First-Republic actor, movie director and screenwriter came from a Czech-German family but claimed only his Czech heritage. He started out in silent movies and his appearance predetermined him for roles of industrialists and aristocrats. He sometimes co-worked with Oldřich Nový and Vlasta Burian. During occupation, he participated in several pro-nationalistic activities, some of which were forced under the threat of jail. After the WW 2, the people’s court sentenced him to 6 months of forced labor and he was forbidden to pick up artistic activities again. He worked manually until his retirement.
Did you like this article? You might like also Legendary Czech Actors, Legendary Czech Actresses, vol. 1 and Legendary Czech Actresses, vol. 2.
