Nomad Parents and the Life of Petr Kostka: From Itinerant Acting to Adopting in Uganda

NOMAD PARENTS

He was born in Říčany near Prague, his parents were itinerant actors. “They didn’t have permanent housing, furniture, a bed or a wardrobe. They were on vacation for a fortnight, a maximum of a month, and they commuted on again. They had moving theater boxes and that’s where everything they had was stored.” recalled the actor, who comes from an old acting family whose roots go back to the first half of the 19th century.

Petr Kostka a Carmen Mayer celebrated their golden wedding (50 years) not only by dancing to Sinatra’s hit performed by Vojta Lažanský and Petra Kohoutová.

FIRST ROLE – HOOLIGAN

His first film role was in Awakening (1959), director Jiří Krejčík chose him in his first year at DAMU. “I played a hooligan there, as stray children were called back then. And I am grateful to the director for casting me in a contrasting role in the next film. It was Vyšší princip (1960) and I played a schoolboy there, a classmate of three boys who are murdered in the film,” he adds. Right after that, his first daughter Zuzana was born. “Every time I see that movie, I remember being a dad for about two days,” supplies.

A DOUBLE MARRIAGE WITH A GERMAN

He started in the Municipal Theaters of Prague, joined while still at school. “I got paid six hundred and I was happy as a flea.” Here he met with Francis the German, who became his lifelong friend, they even later had a double wedding together. František married for the first time, Petr for the second time – to the actress Carmen Mayerová. They are still together today, for fifty years.

TRAGIC DEATH OF WIFE

He had two daughters Zuzana and Helena with his first wife. Although divorced, he lived with his wife and daughters before the accident. “My first wife died at thirty from carbon monoxide poisoning from poorly made karma. I, although divorced, became a widower with two little girls – eleven and six years old. I started dating Carmen, who took care of my children,” he says. Carmen brought her daughter Kateřina into the relationship. Together they had a daughter, Tereza, an actress.

Carmen Mayer admitted to a collapse in the theater! How is it now?

WHY HE WENT TO UGANDA

He was raising four daughters, but decided to support a fifth and adopt a girl from Uganda from a distance. “It was Carmen’s idea. We adopted an African baby girl Shamim,” explained the actor, saying that they decided to give her a quality education. Because of her, he started learning Ugandan and actually went to the African country. “I had learned a monologue that I’m from Prague, that I like Uganda, so then they drove me from school to school and I had to say it everywhere, they were amazed.”