- Born
- Died
- Height6′ 1¼″ (1.86 m)
- Josef Abrhám was born on December 14, 1939 in Zlín, Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970), Leaving (2011) and Beauty in Trouble (2006). He was married to Libuse Safránková. He died on May 16, 2022 in Melnik, Bohemia, Czech Republic.
- SpouseLibuse Safránková(1976 - June 9, 2021) (her death, 1 child)
- Children
- RelativesBozena Abrhámová(Sibling)Martin Hollý(Cousin)Martin Hollý(Aunt or Uncle)
- His wife Libuse Safránková was also his most frequent partner on screen.
- Father of Josef Abrhám Jr.
- He turned down the part of Honza in Starci na chmelu (1964), eventually played by Milos Zavadil.
- He was considered for the part of councilor in S certy nejsou zerty (1985), eventually played by Viktor Preiss.
- He turned down the part of Juraj in Kristove roky (1967), eventually played by Jirí Sýkora.
- He was considered for the part of Dimitri in Spring Waters (1968), eventually played by Vít Olmer.
- [on playing Karel Capek in Clovek proti zkáze (1989)]: "Of course, we tried to achieve as much visual similarity as possible, including his spinal disease-marked way of walking and head movement, which in addition caused me an almost constant feeling of pain. I believe that this also helped me to understand his rich but complicated life more closely. The fact that we had the opportunity to film in the authentic setting of Capek's villa had a special effect on me. I had never been there before. I walked through the house on the first day with a kind of heightened sense of the fact that whatever caught my eye or whatever I picked up was in the hands of Karel Capek or Olga Scheinpflugová. And as I sat at his desk, in his chair, writing with his battered wooden pen and drinking coffee from his cup, my knees shook for a long time even sitting down. That was one of the greatest experiences for me."
- [on Audience (1990)]: "It was all crazy. Václav Havel became president in December 1989 and Jirí Menzel thought that we would stage 'The Audience' with Pavel Landovský and me, he took over the direction and we would premiere it at the Drama Club. The play is charming, and so was the reunion with Landovský twenty years later. But there was one mistake, namely that Pavel Landovský knew the text of Audience, because there was an audio recording of Audience, but Landovský and Václav Havel just read it. They didn't have to know anything by heart. At that time, in January 1990, Landák was still playing in Vienna and he said, "You must come to me, I often play, and we will learn it during the day..." I did go to Vienna, but then every night we called Prague to stop it, that we couldn't learn it for the world. With Menzel there were calls, "Cancel it, just cancel it." And Menzel was screaming: "It's impossible, the posters are already up and American TV is coming." So we sat down again with Landák and tried to learn. Well, it was a corrida! Imagine that the premiere was on January 9, 1990. We were slipping from Vienna to Prague by car, the American TV came, it was an event for them too. The theatre was packed to the roof, it was broadcast on the street, people were standing everywhere. Two meters in front of us sat the author of the play and the new president, Václav Havel, watching what we were doing to him. And as far as the eye could see, there was someone important sitting there. Bolek Polívka, for example, was squatting in front of the front row, a meter from my foot. It was simply a happening, and Landák had to read it from time to time, but somehow it worked out. That was my meeting with the President, but it wasn't personal either. An actor and an author. Then I played a big part in The Beggar's Opera (1991) and later Leaving (2011). It's an extraordinary thing I've been given."
- [on acting in comedies]: "I've been very lucky with my boring face to get some good laughing situations. And that directors guessed that I was somewhere remotely similar to those boring faces, from which amazing witticisms come, and that's why they invited me to work with them. I don't look like a comedian. I'm more like a little annoying, a little obnoxious. I know what I look like and I don't really care, but internal fun is the best and also the hardest. Luckily, I've had the opportunity through The Drama Club Theater to try my hand at humor in front of live people. They will tell you "this is funny". When the room is silent, you squirm and cringe in vain and nothing. And then... something. There was the greatest school of humor."
- [on his favorite writers]: "I am less attracted to the stories than to their interpretations. I like, for example, authors like Albert Camus or Hermann Hesse, who formulate things richly, not just realistically. But the closest of them all is Erich Fromm; I can read him all the time, he speaks to my soul. He gives me the answers to questions the way I want to hear them. I understand him very well."
- [on Hospital at the End of the City (1977)]: "I was initially resistant to being cast in this series. I hadn't done anything like this before, and I thought it was against acting ethics to play one role in thirteen episodes and that it would be too memorable. Actors live by playing a different role every night. But the guarantee for me was director Jaroslav Dudek and writer Jaroslav Dietl. I finally got into it and like everyone else, I was taken aback by the immense popularity of the show. The level of 'Hospital', even in terms of top-notch acting, especially stands out when you watch today's B-rated, C-rated shows. It's a disaster! Boring, uninteresting, just handsome mannequins, nothing more. 'Hospital' had one particular feature for me personally. When you play a civilian thing, you do well and then you walk down the street, you act just like the character. You're dressed similarly, you're talking in a convenience store somewhere, you want a kilo of potatoes or something, and people around you say, "Oh yeah, see, he's got the same voice, he's dressed the same, he's probably going to be just like the guy he's playing." And that, unfortunately, is identification. I mean, with hyperbole, if I played it wrong, maybe it would be better. The audience would say, "He's so nice, he can't even act it." But as an actor, I have to be able to imagine a situation that I wouldn't even want to live through in my life and then realize it through my own means. But then the public gets the impression that I can do it privately."
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