"Humor is not a gift; it's a way of thinking."
"You can't win the war against human stupidity, but you can't escape it either, because stupidity would flood the world."
"To love people and to cherish people – that's the whole secret, and perhaps the only recipe for happiness. Those who only think of themselves deprive others of themselves, they deprive themselves of others, they wither and die."
He was loved and people enjoyed laughing with him. The popular Czech actor, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, lyricist, and theater director, **Jan Werich**, became a national icon during his lifetime. A significant figure in the interwar theatrical avant-garde and a leading personality of the Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theatre), he entertained audiences alongside his friend Jiří Voskovec as the legendary duo V+W, and in the postwar years, with Miroslav Horníček at the Divadlo Satiry. He was also an actor and screenwriter in films that contributed to the emergence of Czech political film comedy, and as the author of fairy tales that continue to entertain generations of young and old. It has been 120 years since his birth.
He was born on February 6, 1905, in Prague, in the Smíchov district, as the only son of Vratislav Werich, an official at the First Czech Mutual Insurance Company, and Gabriela, née Choděrová, the founder of the Sokol club in Malá Strana. At his baptism, he was given the grand name Jan Křtitel František Serafín Werich.
His childhood was influenced by the early divorce of his parents, as, according to the laws of the First Republic, he was placed in the care of his father, who was quite strict and stern. From a young age, Jan lacked his mother's love and grew up more or less without friends. From that time, his touching letters to his mother have been preserved, in which, alongside sadness, his talent as a humorist and artist is evident. His mother cared for him during World War I, when his father had to go to the front. After some time, the parents reunited.
"I was an only child, and that's a terrible thing, being an only child. I had no one to argue with, no one to fight with, there were no other children around, not many people came to our house, and Christmas looked like that," he recalled.
In 1916, he enrolled at the grammar school in Křemencova Street, where his lifelong friendship with his classmate Jiří Voskovec (then still Wachsmann) began. Even during his school years, he devoted himself to writing poems and short stories. However, he was a rebel and, due to numerous disciplinary offenses and poor grades (he failed Czech and mathematics), he had to leave school in the final year. He completed the final year of the multi-year grammar school at the grammar school in Smíchov, where he graduated in 1924. Voskovec, who had a French grandmother, instead studied at the grammar school in Dijon for the last three years.
After graduating from high school, he and Voskovec both studied law at the Faculty of Law of Charles University and in 1926 formed an artistic duo. They initially collaborated in the editorial office of the magazine Přerod, and soon after, their theatrical collaboration began. In April 1927, they organized an amateur theatrical performance of their first play, *Vest pocket revue*, in the hall of the Umělecká beseda on Malá Strana – the name referred to a small revue that could fit in a vest pocket.
It was a series of cheerful sketches, scenes, songs, and dialogues loosely connected by a plot, designed to entertain Voskovec's friends from Dijon. They performed with their faces painted white, with Voskovec portraying a film heartthrob and Werich a witty satirist. They were made up in black and white, inspired by the famous Fratellini trio from the Parisian Medrano circus. They originally planned to present the play only once, with the premiere also being the final performance, but due to its great success with the audience and some critics, over 200 performances eventually took place. From the third performance onwards, it was presented under the banner of the Free Theatre, which accepted Voskovec and Werich as its members. They directed and designed the sets themselves, and Werich was listed on the posters as J. W. Rich.
Encouraged by the unexpected success, they both decided to leave their studies at the law faculty and dedicate themselves solely to theatre. In May 1928, their second theatrical production, Smoking revue. Vest-pocket in 16 scenes, premiered. What started as a student performance became a phenomenon, and Werich and Voskovec became the driving force behind this artistic endeavor, with the V+W brand becoming a cultural icon of the First Republic.
“At the premieres at the Free Theatre, we used to say that if the ceiling fell during the performance, it would be the end of Czech culture. The audience regularly included the best of Czech culture – and not just theatre. There were writers, painters, sculptors, actors, critics, musicians, and composers – it was as if a general association of Czech culture was organizing the premieres,” recalled František Filipovský.
The commercially successful performances at the Free Theatre initially clashed with the experimental productions of J. Honzl, who left for Brno in 1929, but he returned two years later and directed all the plays of the Free Theatre until its forced closure. He also worked as a theorist of avant-garde theatre.
At the end of the 1920s, the composer and conductor of a jazz orchestra, Jaroslav Ježek, joined them. His music was an integral part of the performances, and he composed songs for twenty-one plays. Ježek suffered from severe visual impairment and struggled with various health problems throughout his life, but this did not hinder his talent. The combination of his music with Werich's and Voskovec's lyrics became a significant work of art in itself. Even today, some songs, such as Tmavomodrý svět (Dark Blue World), Babička Mary (Grandma Mary), Svět patří nám (The World Belongs to Us), Život je jen náhoda (Life is Just a Chance), Bugatti step, Nebe na zemi (Heaven on Earth), Tři strážníci (Three Policemen), Klobouk ve křoví (Hat in the Bush), Šaty dělaj člověka (Clothes Make the Man), Ezop a brabenec (Aesop and the Frog), or Stonožka (Centipede), remain timeless.
In 1929, the 24-year-old Werich married his longtime girlfriend, Zdena Housková, a seamstress and costume designer. She was with him from the beginning of his theatrical career, sewing costumes for the Vest pocket revue. Later, at the Free Theatre, she worked as a wardrobe mistress, but she also sometimes worked at the box office. The wedding was quick and informal, which Werich disliked. He told his parents about it through the window of a train. As he himself said, he got married much like he bought cigarettes. In October 1935, they had their only daughter, Jana.
Voskovec left Czechoslovakia on New Year's Eve 1938. He was known by his birth name, Wachsmann, and was labeled as a Jew by the German tabloid press, although there is no evidence to support this. He flew to Zurich and then continued by train to Paris. There, two weeks later, he met with Werich and Ježek, who had flown from Prague on January 9, 1939, just before Werich's passport was confiscated. Had he remained, Werich would likely have ended up in a concentration camp. His mockery of Hitler and warnings about Nazism placed him 16th on their blacklist.
Zdena Werichová refused to leave so quickly and, with her four-year-old daughter, joined her husband in March 1939. Werich, Voskovec, and Ježek arrived in New York on January 20th aboard the ship Aquitania.
They obtained American visas thanks to Lotte Goslar, a dancer from their "Spoutané divadlo" (Chained Theater), who was originally from Dresden. She had moved to the United States in 1936 and established herself in Hollywood, where she taught mime and dance choreography. Incidentally, Norma Jeane, later known as Marilyn Monroe, attended her classes and they became friends.
In New York, Werich, Voskovec, and Ježek took English lessons and performed for various expatriate communities. They recorded anti-war radio sketches for the New York Office of War Information, short segments that combined their dialogues with Ježek's songs. They recorded approximately two thousand of these for the BBC's Czechoslovakian broadcasts.
The trio made their New York theatrical debut in early March with a cabaret and musical evening called "Take It Easy..." Other performances followed in Newark, Baltimore, and Chicago, where Edvard Beneš and his wife attended, and in Cleveland, where they were seen by Frederic McConnell, the director of the local theater, who offered them a contract. In February 1940, they moved to Ohio and became part of one of the best regional theaters, where actors like Alan Alda and Paul Newman began their careers. Before that, they spent the summer with their partners in Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania, renting a house from Arthur Miller, who would later become the husband of Marilyn Monroe.
Jaroslav Ježek, nicknamed "Ježura," did not go to Cleveland with them. He found a girlfriend named Frances, also known as Františka Bečáková, who was from the Moravian region of Slovácko, and remained in New York. His health deteriorated rapidly; he went blind at Christmas and died of kidney failure on New Year's Day 1942, at the young age of 35. Just three days before his death, he married Frances, who cared for him until the end. She returned to Prague with his ashes, which were placed in the family tomb in Olšany Cemetery in January 1947.
In 1942, Werich and Voskovec moved from Ohio to California. They performed two shows in Los Angeles and met Orson Welles, who filmed screen tests with them for the film "Citizen Kane." The film project never materialized, and their paths temporarily diverged; Voskovec went to New York, while Werich, his wife, and daughter spent another year and a half in the town of Mount Kisco.
Each pursued their own careers on the American stage, but they were united by their work on radio broadcasts. From March 1942, the newly established Voice of America broadcast their anti-Nazi programs in Czech to Europe.
A turning point came when they received an offer to play the roles of the jester and the cellar master in Shakespeare's *The Tempest* on the stage of the Alvin Theater on Broadway. The production ran from January to April 1945. Contemporary reviews suggested that V+W would thrive on Broadway, but after the liberation of Prague, Werich decided to leave America. In October 1945, after more than six years of war, he returned home, where he was greeted by crowds of people and journalists. He was also provided with a rental apartment in a villa on Kamp Island, which today bears his name and houses the Werich Exhibition, managed by the Kampa Museum.
Voskovec remained in the USA until September 1946, before his divorce from his first wife, the Frenchwoman Madeleine Main, and his marriage to the theater actress Anne Gerlette. He also applied for American citizenship.
Back in Prague, they attempted to revive the V+W Theater, again in the Novák Palace, but the social climate was not conducive to political satire; after the war, there was more of a spirit of construction than criticism. Both of them, along with hundreds of other artists, signed the call "Forward, no steps back!", urging cultural workers to join the action committees of the National Front.
Disagreements arose regarding the future direction of the theater, and there were also problems with the cohabitation of their families in the villa on Kamp Island, with Voskovec living on the ground floor and Werich on the upper floor.
In March 1948, the American musical *The Wizard of Oz* premiered at the V+W Theater, having been performed on Broadway a year earlier. They translated and adapted it together for Czech audiences. It was the first American musical performed in Europe and in our country. The main role of Dorothy was played by the then-unknown actress and future opera singer Soňa Červená, and the legendary Munchkin, Čochtana, was played by Jan Werich. Voskovec directed, but did not act. "Jiří Voskovec was a director, and an excellent one; he was the head of everything, while Jan Werich was the heart, the clown in the truest sense," said Soňa Červená later.
After Voskovec's departure from the country in June 1948, the V+W Theater ceased to exist, and the company moved to the People's Art Theater, now the Karlín Musical Theater, where the musical was performed until 1950. The two friends broke off contact for eight years, but they still wrote letters and talked on the phone. Their extensive correspondence was published in a book in 2007. They last met in Vienna in 1974.
Voskovec then went to Paris as an employee of the UNESCO secretariat, and with his wife Anne, he founded his own American Theater, before returning to America in 1950. After his second arrival in the USA, he was detained for 11 months on Ellis Island under the atmosphere of McCarthyism, suspected of spreading communism. With his Americanized name, George Voskovec, he appeared in a number of films, performed on television, and also achieved success on Broadway.
Werich worked as a dramaturge at the Karlín Musical Theater, at the Barrandov Film Studios, at the Central Television Studio, collaborated with the orchestra of Karel Vlach, his voice was heard on the radio in fairy tales and stories, and he performed at touring variety shows.
When the new Soviet ambassador, Nikolai Firyubin, arrived in Prague in 1954, he wanted to see a Werich performance, but was surprised to find that there were none scheduled. In 1955, Werich became the artistic director of the Theater of Satire, which was renamed the ABC Theater two years later. There, he formed a partnership with the new actor Miroslav Horníček. Together, they revived some plays from the repertoire of the Free Theater (Caesar, Ballad of a Drum, Heavy Barbara), and also the famous satirical sketches in which Werich commented on current events.
At that time, he also stood up for some of his friends and colleagues, advocating for their inclusion in his productions, such as Natasha Gollová or Vlasta Burian. These activities and his contacts with dissidents – he, for example, welcomed Václav Havel to the ABC Theater in 1959 – and the satirical allusions in his plays led to him being viewed by the regime as unreliable from the late 1950s.
In the late 1950s, Werich traveled through Italy by car with his daughter Jana, and he described his experiences in the book Italian Holidays, which was published in 1960 (9th edition in 2010).
In 1961, he left his position as director of the ABC Theater, but continued to work at the Karlín Musical Theater. He also dedicated himself to film and television acting, and to writing film scripts and books for children and adults (fairy tales such as Fimfárum, Three Veterans, and Queen of the Scooter). For his close friend Jiří Trnka, he voiced the character of Švejk in his puppet film. Trnka, in turn, created costumes for the film The Emperor's Baker and illustrations for the fairy tale book Fimfárum.
On television, Werich appeared in productions of The Bear, Tears That the World Doesn't See, The Carriage of the Holy Sacrament, The King and the Woman, The Saved Penny, and in the public affairs program What Do You Say About That, Mr. Werich? hosted by Vladimír Škutina.
Perhaps his most famous films, in which he worked as a screenwriter, were the aforementioned comedy The Emperor's Baker and the Baker's Emperor, where he played the dual role of Emperor Rudolf II and the baker Matěj Kotrba, and the fairy tale Once Upon a Time There Was a King. He also appeared in the films The Secret of Blood directed by Martin Frič, Baron Prášil directed by Karel Zeman, and the comedy When the Cat Comes directed by Vojtěch Jasný, where he played the dual role of the castle steward Oliva and the magician.
In 1967, he was selected as the main villain in the fifth James Bond film, You Only Live Twice, where he was to play the leader of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. However, after arriving at the Pinewood Studios in Britain, the main producer, Albert Broccoli, and the director, Lewis Gilbert, thought he looked like "a poor, kindly Santa Claus." Nevertheless, filming continued, but after a week, they decided to replace him because he wasn't intimidating enough. Werich later admitted that, in addition to his appearance, the problem was also his attempts to rewrite his dialogue, which he considered to be quite weak.
In 1963, he was awarded the title of National Artist and received the State Prize. The audience, especially film fans, loved him, but on the other hand, he was effectively sidelined from public cultural life.
Jiří Suchý recalled that he took it with humor, saying, "I am a National Artist, but they don't let me practice that national artistry."
The year 1968 was a turning point for him. He signed the "Two Thousand Words" manifesto and became one of the leading figures of the Prague Spring. He ended up leaving the theater, his name disappeared from television, and his books stopped being published. Like many others at the time, he decided to use his foreign contacts and move to the West. In 1968, he and his wife went to Vienna, but he couldn't bear to leave his homeland and returned home in early 1969, reportedly persuaded by a letter from President Ludvík Svoboda.
Furthermore, his health was deteriorating. He had a heart condition and was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1961. He refused surgery and had to undergo radiation therapy. The treatment was successful, but he suffered from chronic bronchitis and frequent pneumonia after the radiation. He had to wear a special device, called a "nightingale," in his throat. The avid smoker and lover of good food and drink divided his time between the hospital, a villa in Prague's Kampa district, and a cottage in Velhartice. He loved to fish, and his favorite spot was the valley of the Ostružná stream near Velhartice, where he had a cottage built in the style of old English houses as early as 1938. He would visit this "Valley of Happiness," as he called the secluded corner of South Bohemia, with his wife Zdenka and his dog Héru, where he would fish, relax, write, and recharge. He not only caught fish but also prepared them and hosted numerous visits from famous personalities, such as Zdeněk Štěpánek, Vlasta Burian, or Ljuba Hermanová.
In early September 1969, he broadcast a series of 15 half-hour interviews with his daughter Jana on Czechoslovak Radio, titled Dad, Tell Me. This spontaneous collection of stories about life was released on two records by Panton in 1971 and reissued on eight CDs by Supraphon in 2013. Werich had his last opportunity to appear on camera in several episodes of the series Pan Tau (1970-72).
In 1977, the newspaper Rudé právo published a list of signatories of the so-called Anti-Charter, condemning the Charter 77 declaration, with Werich's name included. His signature remains a subject of debate to this day. He reportedly requested that his name be removed from the list, as he had only signed a presence list, but his request was denied. Whether intentional or not, the signature allowed Werich a dignified farewell to the stage. The packed Prague Lucerna theater could laugh with the wise clown one last time in the spring of 1977. "I love the sight of the audience, when people laugh and sway like a boat in a whirlwind of humor," the actor confessed.
The last years of his life were not easy, and the family life of the Werichs was also strained. His wife, Zdena, suffered from mental illness and alcoholism, underwent electroshock therapy, and attempted suicide. In addition, Werich maintained a relationship with his late love, whom everyone at his home knew and nicknamed "Josef." He had romantic adventures from a young age, and his wife tolerated them. In 1956, a son was born to an unknown woman who was Werich's lover, and he was adopted under the name Jiří Petrášek. They never met, and he probably didn't even know about him. Petrášek learned about his origins only after the death of Jan Werich.
Jana, at her father's request, studied at the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU), becoming an actress and later an assistant director. Initially, she performed under the pseudonym Jana Hálová. She utilized her excellent English skills, acquired during her family's time in American exile, as a translator of librettos and texts for theatrical plays and musicals. In 1966, she married the doctor Jiří Kvapil, and in 1968, they had a daughter named Zdenka, nicknamed Fanča. Werich had a very strong relationship with his granddaughter. "I love Fanča, and everything I do, from breathing to earning money, is for her. And then, of course, for Jana," he declared.
Fanča, or Zdena Kvapilová, later Hulíková, currently lives in Switzerland. Although she played a small role in the film Let the Ghosts Live as a child, and in the mid-1970s, at her grandfather's request, she performed at the Semafor theater, she never considered attending DAMU. She studied pedagogy and nursing at the Faculty of Philosophy and now works as a physiotherapist in a hospital.
In the 1970s, Jana moved with her family to her parents' home on Kampa to care for them. Her husband struggled with living with her critical and grumpy father, began drinking, and left her for another woman. Caring for her young daughter and her ailing parents was demanding, and Jana also coped with the emotional strain through alcohol. When she decided to enter an alcohol rehabilitation program in Bohnice for her father's 75th birthday, she quickly relapsed. During a medical examination, she was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer.
In April 1980, her mother suffered a stroke. She was unable to speak, walk, or see. After four days in the hospital, she died. Jan Werich survived her by only a few months, passing away on October 31, 1980. He suffered a perforated ulcer and never woke up after surgery. In May of the following year, their daughter Jana also succumbed to cancer at the age of 45, and on July 1, 1981, Jiří Voskovec also passed away at the age of 76.
In the Olšany Cemetery in Prague, Werich and Voskovec share a common grave.
Wikipedia/Facebook/ Gnews.cz – Jana Černá
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