Josef Vinklář – 15 years since his death. He lived in Smíchov and Kampa
Humorous and dramatic roles. A cheerful appearance and an unmistakable voice and overall expression, thanks to which he also excelled in the field of dubbing. He was like that Josef Vinklař, whose filmography includes an incredible number of roles, not to mention his work in the theater, to which he remained faithful practically all his life. Just like Prague.
Smíchov’s childhood
It actually attracted winegrowers to the capital family misfortune when a family living in PodŁolší burned down House. Josef was still a small boy when his parents decided that they will move to Prague, specifically to Smíchov. “With the forwarding company Knotek, we arrived in the mother city of Prague and wandered through the hundred-year-old beauty until we finally arrived at Smíchov,” recalled Vinklář in his autobiographical book, Attempting a piece of truth.
“At that time, Prague had such a peculiarity – almost every barrack had a sign “be free”. Today you won’t find anything like it, when you would go crazy,” alludes to the present, when Prague is burdened by a housing crisis. The family found a welcome refuge in Kroftova Street No. 3. “This house, we lived in it until 1948like every house, it represented its own world.’
He also went to school in Smíchov, although he himself did not describe himself as an exemplary student. “I was terribly angry and I could do it. I used to be a master in this field,” described the later representative of the unmistakable devil Lucius from the popular fairy tale Playing with the Devil.
“She was my kingdom Kinska garden. Kinská, in addition to being a beautiful park, where a beautiful woman stood at the entrance a celebration of femininity cursed by Štursa into a statue, so it was also paradise. A paradise of pranks and games. I could run up the stairs at the hunger wall in three forty and down in a minute and a half,” he boasted. “I used to go to the seminary and also the monastery gardens to pick pears and apricots.” At the same time, he also got a foothold in football – defending the colors of Malostranský SK. However, he was not destined for sports. In 1948, Josef was already 18 years old and – he had his first acting experience.
As a child, Vinklář used to go to the Kinsky gardens. (illustrative photo)
Author: Eva Fornálova
Fateful Prague
Even as a primary school student, Vinklář got into Disman’s children’s radio choir, at the age of 15 he was already playing in the Satire Theater in Vodičková Street, he also found employment in the Voskovec and Werich theaters. “I really admired those two, V+W. For a long time I could not figure out why they treated me so nicely… perhaps because Voskovec had no children and Werich only had Janička,” recalled the actor years later, who one day moved, like Werich, to Kampa.
I experience constant professional engagement on the threshold of adulthood in East Bohemian Theater in Pardubice. However, at the moment when he was considering another engagement, this time in Olomouc, in 1950 Vinklář received an interesting offer from Zdenek Nejedlý’s Realist Theater in Smíchov – which is today’s Švand Theater. “Desperate, I wrote that I would like to go to Prague.” His wish came true.
“I stood in 1950 in the theater in Smíchov, where I then stayed for thirty-three years and three months of my life.” Paradoxically, not far from his first residence in Prague. “People used to go to the Realists. It was a proper folk theater in the best sense of the word. We were visited by the broadest classes. It wasn’t a theater of stars, but it was a theater of good actors.” He also met his first wife, also a well-known actress, Jana Dítětová (†65), at the Realistý Divadlo.
Josef Vinklář and Jana Dítětová in the theater
Author: hop
»Tříšťka« from Národní
Except for Realisticky, Vinklář also played at the National Theatre. It was the 1980s, and Vinklář had a successful career, a role in films and series, such as Chalupáři, Hříšní města pražského, Nemocnice na krají města or Tajemství Ocelový město zahoří výrobné. “The biggest personalities of Czech acting walked on that stage. For me, the Chapel is simply the highest award for work,” wrote Vinklář.
For the then fifty-one-year-old “Doctor Cvach”, working in the National Theater was for him a dream come true. This is how he remembered his first appearance on the stage of the Estates Theatre. “Suddenly I stand on the stage and realize that I am going to perform a play here. I broke off a piece of splinter from the floor and still have it hidden away as a rare relic,” he wrote in his memoirs, adding: “My respect for this theater and some of the people in it was and will be bottomless.”
Josef Vinklář performed for several years at the National Theatre, whose stages also include the Estates Theatre. From there, he also took a splinter from the stage.
Author: Lightning
At the same time, Vinklář was originally not even allowed to stay in Národní. “The leadership told me that there is a resolution of a kind of district committee of the party that an expelled member of the party is not allowed to come to the first state stageVinklář left the KSČ after the August invasion of 1968, but did not openly condemn the regime – on the contrary, he was among the signatories of the Anticharta. In the end, however, the authorities managed to “persuade”.
Home in Kampa
“One of the strangest friends was, actually still is, Miloš Kopecký. I always admired him. That’s why I argued with him. We went to see women together, but also to the theater and concerts,” Vinklář recalled his famous actor colleague, with whom he played, among other things, in Hospital on the Edge of the City. For years, Vinklář lived in House Street near Malostranské náměstí.
And where exactly was Vinklář, if he didn’t have work duties, after all “docked”? According to the well-known journalist and writer Blanka Kovaříková, they moved to Kampa near the Charles Bridge in 1983. “Vinklář moved between Smíchov and Mala Strana almost all his lifelater he added a walk across the bridge to the National Theatre,’ states.
Josef Vinklář (†76) lived here for more than twenty happy years, even the flood in 2002
Author: Michal Šula and abl
He specifically had his apartment in the picturesque house at Na Kampě 13, from where he actually had everything he needed relatively close. And he lived there until the end of his days, of which the last occurred September 18, 2007 – 15 years ago. Lung cancer became fatal for him.
From the cradle to the grave
However, Vinklář did not allow himself to be buried in Prague. “I am happiest where I was born, in the Czech Paradise“, he said. “For me it is the most beautiful place. Rivers, ponds, streams, mountains. Miracle. Czech paradise,” he described the moments he spent at his cottage in Jinolica.
Therefore, although it was not known for many years, he was a Vinklář buried in Libun, not far from his birthplace – in the Czech Paradise. “Most of Pepík’s relatives lived in Libun, that’s why uhe also laid his parents and his urn was also transported there“, she told the newspaper I see! Some time ago, the actress Ivanka Devátá (86), who was Vinklář’s second wife.
Josef Vinklář’s son (†76) Jakub: Dad was divorced by alcohol and women! Zuzana Bubílková, Jan Jedlička, Lukáš Červený
Josef Vinklář and Jana Dítětová in the theater
Author: hop