The death of Jiří Bartoška shook Czechia. The soul of the Karlovy Vary festival with a heart in the right place has departed.
At the age of 78, Jiří Bartoška, one of the most prominent personalities of Czech culture, died on May 8, 2025. He leaves behind an unforgettable legacy not only on the theater stage and movie screen, but also as the long-time president of the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary. Among people across all generations, he was an integral part of the Czech show business.
Jiří Bartoška was born on March 24, 1947 in Děčín, and everyone remembers him alongside his wife Andrea, with whom he has two children. Despite health complications, when he fought lymph node cancer in 2014, he remained active and continued to be present on the Czech cultural scene.
Theater and film career
His path to acting was not his first choice, he originally wanted to become an art historian. However, this career path did not work out for him as he was not accepted into college and his military service also contributed to his acting career. By chance, he met and befriended actress Jana Švandová, which led him to the entrance exams to the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, where he successfully completed the drama acting field in 1972.
After his studies, he worked at the Goose on a String Theatre in Brno, then at the Drama Studio in Ústí nad Labem and later in the Prague City Theatres. He spent a significant part of his career at the Na Zábradlí Theatre.
His film career is also abundant and unforgettable. He portrayed a number of characters in various genres, from dramas to comedies. Some of his most famous roles include movies like All My Loved Ones from 1999, for which he received the Czech Lion for the best male acting performance in a supporting role, or fairy tales Angel of the Lord and Angel of the Lord 2, where he portrayed the character of God himself.
Karlovy Vary Film Festival
His sense for film-making and art brought him to the very International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, of which he had been president since 1994. Together with Eva Zaoralová, they managed to bring the festival to the world's peak in just a few years and KVIFF Karlovy Vary now belongs to the most prestigious in the world. Thanks to his personality, the festival was also attended by many world film stars such as Johnny Depp, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Jean Reno and many others.
Actor with a heart in the right place
Jiří Bartoška was among the personalities who helped wherever they could. Among his foundation projects is, among other things, support for the Our Lungs foundation fund, with which he handed over an ultrasound probe worth almost 220 thousand crowns for the General Faculty Hospital at Charles Square in Prague at the end of 2020. "I admit that when I saw this device, I had to laugh. It looks like some computer game for teenagers and it's going to save human lives,“ he then commented on the device with his own sense of humor.
The contribution of Jiří Bartoška is unquestionable not only to Czech culture and his departure has left a deep mark in the hearts of many people.
Source: author's text, csfd.cz, naseplice.cz, ČTK
