Name
Jan Werich
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1905-02-06
Deathday
1980-10-31 (75 years old)
Place of Birth
Praha - Československo
Biography
Between 1916 and 1924, Werich attended "reálné gymnasium" (equivalent to high school) in Křemencova Street in Prague (where his future business partner, Jiří Voskovec, also studied). He studied law at the Charles University Law School from 1924 to 1927, from which he made an early departure to begin his artistic career and forge one of the most important partnerships of his life.
For more than 10 years he worked in theatre Jiří Voskovec and Jaroslav Ježek. Their partnership was a platform for their numerous left-wing political satires, most notably in the Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theatre). The trio's work took inspiration from Dada, with its love of the absurd, a reaction against bourgeois values and the horrors of World War I.
In 1955 he begun working in cinema, and 1960s were a peak in his actor career. From the creation of the ABC Theatre he moved to the City Theatres of Prague and then to the Musical Theatre of Karlin and Nusle. Werich was originally cast by producer Harry Saltzman to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Upon his arrival at the Pinewood set, both producer Albert R. Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert felt that he was a poor choice, resembling a "poor, benevolent Santa Claus".
Known For
7.6
A Romanian peasant fights to get back to his family after he's imprisoned by the Nazis.The...
7
The Emperor's mismanagement of his country is provoking some in his court to plot to overt...
8
A selfish self-centered widowed ruler, barely tolerated by his subjects and called appropr...
6.6
Two mischievous frost spirits make things chilly for a pair of travelers in this wintry co...
7
While old Oliva tells a group of children about his life as a sailor and how he met Diana ...
7.3
Adapting Jaroslav Hasek's raucous satirical novel, and also bringing Josef Lada's equally ...
7
Humorous as well as educational stories about magical and everyday problems, about devils,...
7
The film contains three Jan Werich's fairy tales, each directed by one artist. The first s...
- 1968 Assignment K as Dr. Spiegler
- 1962 The Fabulous Baron Munchausen as kapitán holandské lodi
- 1951 The Emperor and the Golem as Emperor Rudolf II / Matheus Kotrba, The Baker
- 2006 Fimfarum 2 as Narrator
- 2002 Jan Werich's Fimfarum as Vypravěč
- 1955 Two Little Frosts as Brave Frost (voice)
- 1955 Once Upon a Time, There Was a King... as král Já I.
- 2011 Fimfarum - To the good of all as (voice)
- 1958 The Creation of the World as Narrator (voice)
- 1932 Your Money or Your Life as Tonda
- 1966 Pražská strašidla as Narrator (voice)
- 1950 The Fall of Berlin as Goering
- 1955 Hudba z Marsu as Nadšený divák
- 1932 Powder and Petrol
- 1934 Heave-Ho!
- 1937 The World Belongs to Us as kamelot
- 1960 Těžká Barbora
- 1963 When the Cat Comes as Oliva
- 1956 The Good Soldier Svejk as Narrator
- 1939 Crisis
- 1934 Here in Kocourkov as Ferdinand Kaplan
- 1963 Uspořená libra as Sam Adams
- 1960 Balada z hadrů as strážný Holofern
- 1964 The Dear Departed as Dědeček
- 1957 Silvestr 1957
- 1991 When the Oak Leaves Fall as Narrator (voice) (archive footage)
- 1967 The 25th Hour as Sgt. Constantin
- 1963 Kočár nejsvětější svátosti
- 1961 Medvěd as statkář Grigorij Stěpanovič Smirnov
- 1965 Magnetické vlny léčí as léčitel Wohu
- 1967 King and Women as Jindřich VIII.
- 1964 The Cry as Narrator (voice)
- 1963 Tears the World Can't See as Fedor Akimič Rjebrotěsov
- 1989 Mean Barbara as Narrator (voice) (archive footage)
- 1961 Italienisches Capriccio as Don Marzio
- 1957 To jsou Bratři v triku as Himself
- 1988 Pan Tau – der Film as (archive footage)
- 1951 The Golden Fish as Narrator (voice)
- 1968 Czechoslovakia: Portrait of a Tragedy as Self
- 1953 Pouť noci silvestrovské
- 1955 Dog's Heads
- 1956 Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka – Švejkova budějovická anabase as Narrator (voice)
- 1955 Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka – Švejkovy nehody ve vlaku as Narrator (voice)
- 1954 Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka – Z Hatvanu na hranice Haliče as Narrator (voice)
- 1956 Jaroslav Hasek's Exemplary Cinematograph as Commentary (voice)
- 2021 Jan Werich: Když už člověk jednou je… as Self (archive footage)
- 1986 Jonáš a Melicharová as (archive footage)
- 1981 Královna Koloběžka první as Narrator (archive footage) (voice)
- 1953 Večer s Jaroslavem Haškem
- 1970 Herecké Vánoce as Jan Werich
- 2026 Cecílie as Voice (archive footage)
- 1983 Echoes of the Blue Room
- 1951 Pekařův císař as Rudolf II. / Matěj Kotrba
- 1951 Císařův pekař as Rudolf II. / Matěj Kotrba
- 1968 Co tomu říkáte, pane Werich? ( 9 episodes ) as Self
- 1970 Pan Tau ( 6 episodes )
- 1968 Přiložte životopis ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 2005 Tři strážníci ( 3 episodes ) as self
- 2012 Voskovec & Werich, paralelní osudy ( 3 episodes ) as self
- 1968 Klapzubova jedenáctka ( 1 episode )
