Rudolf Hrušínský. The role lived, he was silent with beer and left politics bitter

It is enough to mention the characters of the devilish employee of the crematorium Karel Kopfrkingl in the Corpse Burner directed by Juraj Herce, the communist confidant in Skřivánky on the thread of Jiří Menzel or Dr. Meluzin in Vláčil’s Smoke of the Potato Stump Or also Dr. Radosta in Ball Lightning by directors Ladislav Smoljak and Zdeněk Podskalský, inventor of Orfánik in Leipzig’s Secrets of the Castle in the Carpathians, Mr. France in Menzel’s Snowdrop Festival, ferryman Prošek in Kachyň’s Death of Beautiful Roe Deer and Dr. Skružný in Menzel’s Village of My Center.

Of course, Švejk in Karel Steklý’s films The Good Soldier Švejk and Obediently Report, which were made in 1956 and 1957, must not be missing from the list of roles.

Schweik all his life

What a task, a precisely performed acting, with which Rudolf Hrušínský was able to laugh and, on the other hand, impress or nail himself to a chair.

A few years ago (at the christening of the most extensive sound recording of Hašek’s famous novel), his son Rudolf said a few years ago: “I remember that my father had to gain twenty kilograms because of the role of Švejk to match the idea of ​​the filmmakers. And it’s true that then he never lost weight again and returned to his original weight. “

It is interesting that his father returned to Švejk once again, when in 1986 he made the animated film The Fates of a Good Soldier Švejk.

He learned from the best

For the first time ever, Rudolf Hrušínský st. Jarek Rejlek discovered Líz’s Flight to Heaven (1937) on Václav Bínovec’s melodrama on the film screen as the naughty mayor’s son, and Líz’s Happiness (1939) in his sequel.

He gradually grew from bigger to main roles and collaborated on them with the best Czech directors.

Incidentally, the detective films by Petr Schulhoff, in which he lent his face to the criminalist Kalaš (The Murderer Hides His Face, In the Footsteps of Blood and Diagnosis of Death), are also extraordinary and still attractive to viewers. The culmination of his devotion to acting was that he regularly commuted from the hospital for the filming of his latest television film Night of Decision.

Like adults, the actor has shown service to smaller audiences who know him from the fairy tale Dařbuján and Pandrhola, in which he portrayed the uneaten brewer Pandrhol under the direction of Martin Frič. Or from Leipzig’s Three Veterans – a story about three war veterans, inspired by a literary masterpiece by Jan Werich.

Fear has big eyes can be a TV delicacy among fairy tales, in which Rudolf Hrušínský played the lazy robber Bujón, his partner was the grandmother Magi played by Iva Janžurová. Anyone who has seen this funny studio piece from the “enchanted forest” knows the buzzwords like: “Soup with f or v? F is nicer. “Or:” And I’ll have a butcher’s !!! “

The first is said by Magi when writing the menu, the second by Broth when he goes really tough in the story…

Famous acting family

A separate chapter is the characters that Rudolf Hrušínský, a descendant of the important acting family of Červíček and Budínský, portrayed on stage (production Silver Wind, Crystal Night, What about Love ?, Great Wall of China, Wisdom of Don Quixote, Othello, White Disease and many others).

He worked at the Akropolis Theater, then his next steps were directed to Urania in Prague’s Holešovice, later to the avant-garde theater D 38 of E. F. Burian, the Theater in Vinohrady, the Municipal Theaters of Prague and the National Theater.

“We played together in many productions at Národní,” said actor Jan Tříska in the book Theater with a Pedigree, written by Marie Valtrová on the anniversary of the Na Jezerce Theater (Jan Hrušínský Theater Company).

“After the show, Rudolf said, ‘Let’s go for a beer.’ I never hesitated. We drank beer and kept quiet. Hrušínský did not say much. Then he said, ‘Let’s go for coffee.’ And we went to Nusle. Mrs. Eva (his wife, note) made us coffee. At that time, Nescafé from Tuzex was in vogue. We drank the black mess and kept quiet again. ,So good night’. And I went home. It was a strange intense friendship, I still remember them with love and a kind of astonishment, “he recalled the admired colleague Tříska.

Whimsical years

At the opening of Rudolf Hrušínský, director Jiří Menzel also spoke at the opening of the exhibition of photographs of his late nineties at the Na Jezerce Theater.
“I was happy and very lucky to be able to work with him, for example at Postřižiny or Whimsical Summer. He was a real actor, a man who did not experience the roles, but who lived them. He could always be really different. He had something in him that attracted everyone, something that he added to his characters and that was inimitable and unrepeatable. “

And Hrušínský’s son Jan, the principal of the mentioned theater, added to the exhibition itself: “I wanted to show people who loved him a piece of his life for my father’s undead jubilee. There are a lot of photos and all the material about my father is very rich, so it was not a problem, but a joy. “

It was on this occasion that the idea arose to publish a book for the 100th anniversary of the great actor’s birth. It is called Rudolf Hrušínský – 100 whimsical years. Through photographs, he accompanies the reader with the key moments of his life and professional career.

It is also worth mentioning that the actor for two years (1990–1992) actively participated in the post-revolutionary development of our country, as a member of the then Federal Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic for the Civic Forum.

However, he left politics disappointed and bitter. He died on April 13, 1994.

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