Eduard Cupák – 90 years since his birth: the Nazis executed his father, the communists forbade him to play
Eduard Cupák was an actor with an unmistakable voice. In addition to the film and the series of its viewers, they also know many radio roles. How many times the roles were small, but because of Cupák’s speech unforgettable. Not to mention the apathetic Peter in the series Such a Normal Family, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in FL Age, the character of Reason in the popular fairy tale Immortal Aunt or the in love Vilík in The Moon over the River.
Dad’s execution
A talented actor grew up in Řečkovice in the northern part of Brno. “Ed started going to school on the threshold of the Munich autumn, September 1, 1938. He was good student but even in the first class he did not have only ones, “says theater historian Jindřich Černý in the actor’s biography entitled Eduard Cupák. Unfortunately, the Second World War marked the growth of little Edy, because his father Václav was executed by the Nazis.
“Today, no one will say where the impulse came from for Mr. Cupák to take away the paper on which the food stamps were printed and from his mother’s apartment.y, (…) printing fake tickets, “ states Black. “Producing false identity documents, forging stamps or printing food stamps was a vital activity in the protectorate, enabling the functioning and survival of a branched illegal resistance network. If Václav Cupák was connected to such a network, we will not find out today. “
The Nazis got a scam and the whole family went to jail. Eduard’s mother and older sister were released from prison, but “Václav Cupák and his mother were executed in the autumn of 1942, ”Says Černý. Edward pushed all the more to his mother, who “read and bought him books so that he could read for himself. She also took him to the theater (…). Eda hall, the world of books and the world of theater in full sips. Soon he also started his own theater. “
The way of acting
The dramatic art enchanted him, so when there was an aftermath of school where his next steps would lead, it was in 1947 State Music and Drama Conservatory in Brno, later transferred to the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts, where he soon became one of the most talented students. He soon began playing episodic roles at the Brno National Theater, and as a 19-year-old he also starred in the film Darkness. There was no indication that Cupák would not have a brilliant career.
![Such will be Matějská pout in 2022.](https://1884403144.rsc.cdn77.org/foto/matejska-pout-2022-brezen-vystaviste-vaclav-kocka-eva-kockova/MzAweDIxMC9jZW50ZXIvdG9wL2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg4NSk6bm9fdXBzY2FsZSgpL2ltZw/7534302.jpg?v=0&st=8yByTjC9zpxbFHDmvImHhmQ-ux-mU5ol1HcY2cEzboQ&ts=1600812000&e=0)
Life in ruins
And yet he almost ended up in oblivion. It was the fault of that called Cupák a homosexual. He did not hide his sexual orientation in later years, however, in the 1950s the Communist Party considered “any difference anti-state act, “ notes Black.
![](https://1884403144.rsc.cdn77.org/foto/eduard-cupak/Zml0LWluLzk3OHg5OTk5L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg4NSk6bm9fdXBzY2FsZSgpL2ltZw/1443694.jpg?v=0&st=-8P8YQQmDQeBW-o8t6cuKZXjLdcvH4h0dpNfHIjvzCI&ts=1600812000&e=0)
Eduard Cupák at his beloved cottage with his life partner Václav Květ
Author: Photo archive of Czech Television
Cupák was arrested and interrogated for this reason, and school officials turned their backs on him. What more – they harmed him as much as possible. Due to the faculty disciplinary commission, she lost two arranged theatrical engagements, and there was even an announcement in the State Theater: “Mr. Cupák has access to the theater only as a paying spectator!“A promising career seemed to be in ruins when he joined a factory in Kurim.
The drowning stalks caught
“Christmas 1951 was approaching and the desperate Eduard sent a signal for help to a friend in Prague,” says Černý. At his intercession, director Václav Kršk invited Cupák to audition for the upcoming film Young Years about the youth of Alois Jirásek.A. “From the extras there was later an audition for the character of Thomayer and finally for the title character, the young Alois Jirásek. The young actor won all over, “writes Černý.
![The 45,000-year-old skull can be seen in the National Museum. This is what a woman could look like in life.](https://1884403144.rsc.cdn77.org/foto/narodni-muzeum-lebka-figurina-model-zlaty-kun/MHgwL3NtYXJ0L3RoYg/1-normal300-7022959.jpg?v=0&st=2GG8V7-MetwO8ZNw1pluSnp_x3fX8kJnnek3Dwr2TpY&ts=1600812000&e=0)
That decided that Cupák and his mother he moved permanently to Prague, “to a modest apartment near the gas station in Michle“The disciplinary commission of the Brno JAMU did not like the involvement of Cupák in the role of Jirásek,” she sent the complaint directly to Minister Václav Kopecký. But the film was already spinning, the quality of Cupák’s performance was indisputable, and so the whole affair was canceled in the highest places. “
The first real engagement
In Kršek, who in his time paid for one of the prominent directors to whom they were entrusted historical, today they said high-budget films – e.g. Mikoláš Aleš or Revolutionary Year 1848Cupák found a soul mate. They made several more films together, including the famous Moon Over the Riverwhere she was seconded by Dana Medřická, with whom she met in the 1970s in the series Such a Normal Family, where she introduced his mother-in-law.
![](https://1884403144.rsc.cdn77.org/foto/eduard-cupak/Zml0LWluLzk3OHg5OTk5L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg4NSk6bm9fdXBzY2FsZSgpL2ltZw/6406754.jpg?v=0&st=TJX5Uwt-ynqgvEjPQQLAzvqHkopoeLuoOz25HdWCyQE&ts=1600812000&e=0)
Eduard Cupák in the film Moon over the River
Author: CSFD
Success with the film was one thing, but as an actor he also needed to permanent theatrical engagement. Cupák is known to have never joined the ranks of his others, for example at the Prague National Theater or the Vinohrady Theater, which is one of the most important in the capital. He caught on to others. Its not at all the first theatrical engagement took place under the baton of Emil František Burian in the then newly renamed Army Art Theater in the Archa Palace Na Poříčí – today’s Archa Theater.
Prague forever
In 1955, when his mother died, hehe fulfilled his long-held wish: to live in the historical center of old Prague. And as a born perfectionist, he found non-standard living space in the most beautiful panoramic view of Prague: on Novotný lávka in a narrow house next to Karlovy Lázně, “writes Černý. Cupák did not move from the center of Prague for the rest of his life, he later moved to the other bank of the Vltava, specifically to Parliament Street.
He lived to see the last days in the hospital in Bulovka, suffering from severe emphysema, which required doctors to perform a tracheotomy. The funeral took place in the crematorium in Strašnice.
“At the request of the deceased, the ashes were scattered in the meadow of the Malvazinky cemetery, “Concludes Černý. Thus came true the career of an actor, whose message is still contained in dozens of films, does not talk about foreign ones, which he dubbed, and to whom Prague gave a chance to excel.
![Eduard Cupák in the fairy tale Labakan Eduard Cupák in the fairy tale Labakan](https://1884403144.rsc.cdn77.org/foto/eduard-cupak/NjIweDMyOC9jZW50ZXIvdG9wL3NtYXJ0L2ZpbHRlcnM6cXVhbGl0eSg4NSkvaW1n/6406787.jpg?v=0&st=eTf2TlnaZP9ASgfd2OdKaUQkSQP3V_7KBDbjuxCxxiI&ts=1600812000&e=0)
Eduard Cupák in the fairy tale Labakan
Author: CSFD