Zdeněk Svěrák (born 28 March 1936) is a Czech actor, humorist, playwright and scriptwriter, and one of the most well-known and popular Czech cultural personalities. Since 1968 he has appeared in 32 films.

Career

In 1958, he graduated in

Czech language Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech R ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

from the Faculty of Education of Charles University in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. His work consists of more than 300 musical texts and plays, and he has appeared in 32 feature films. Among his film scripts are the Academy Award-winning ''

Kolya ''Kolya'' ( cs, Kolja) is a 1996 Czech drama film about a man whose life is reshaped in an unexpected way. The film was directed by Jan Svěrák and stars his father, Zdeněk Svěrák, who also wrote the script from a story by Pavel Taussig. ''Ko ...

'' and ''

The Elementary School ''The Elementary School'' ( cs, Obecná škola) is a 1991 Czechoslovak comedy-drama film directed by Jan Svěrák. The screenplay comes from the pen of his father Zdeněk Svěrák. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign L ...

'', both directed by his son

Jan Svěrák Jan Svěrák () (born 6 February 1965 in Žatec) is a Czech film director. He is the son of screenwriter and actor Zdeněk Svěrák. He studied documentary filmmaking at the FAMU. He and his films have received awards including the Academy Award ...

as well as ''

My Sweet Little Village ''My Sweet Little Village'' ( cs, Vesničko má středisková) is a 1985 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel. In 1987 it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Plot The film's main storyline follows the lif ...

''. With his close friend

Ladislav Smoljak Ladislav Smoljak (9 December 1931 – 6 June 2010) was a Czechs, Czech film and theater director, actor and screenwriter. He was born in Prague. Smoljak tried to study at an art academy but failed the admission process. He went on to study phys ...

and their radio colleague Jiří Šebánek, he created the fictional

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

Jára Cimrman Jára Cimrman or Jára da Cimrman (officially Jaroslav Cimrman) (), also known as "the Master", is a fictional Czech polymath, created by Ladislav Smoljak, Jiří Šebánek and Zdeněk Svěrák. The fictional personality is presented as a univer ...

for the radio programme ''Vinárna U pavouka'' in 1966. Cimrman was voted The Greatest Czech in 2005, but barred from winning because of being a fictional character. Zdeněk Svěrák also founded a charity organization, Paraple, which focuses on helping paralyzed individuals. Svěrák has won three

Magnesia Litera Magnesia Litera is an annual book award held in the Czech Republic since 2002. The prize covers all literary genres in eight genre categories: prose, poetry, children's book (since 2004), non-fiction, essay/journalism (since 2007), translation, pu ...

awards for his writing. In 2004 he won the Readers' Choice award for his book ''Jaké je to asi v čudu''. He went on to win the same award in 2012 for the book ''Nové povídky''. His third Readers' Choice award came in 2014 for ''Po strništi bos''. In 1989, he was a member of the jury at the

39th Berlin International Film Festival The 39th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 10 to 21 February 1989. The Golden Bear was awarded to American film ''Rain Man'' directed by Barry Levinson. The retrospective was dedicated to German film producer Erich Pommer a ...

Filmography

Acting

References

External links

*
overview of Zdeněk Svěrák comedies

CRo-Tatinek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sverak, Zdenek 1936 births 20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Czech male actors 20th-century Czech male singers 20th-century Czech poets 21st-century Czech dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Czech male actors 21st-century Czech male singers 21st-century Czech poets Living people Male actors from Prague Charles University alumni Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Czech male dramatists and playwrights Czech male film actors Czech male poets Czech male singers Czech male stage actors Czech screenwriters Male screenwriters Czech theatre directors Recipients of the Thalia Award