Jan Vodňanský (19 June 1941 – 10 March 2021) was a Czech writer, songwriter, singer and humorist. He was best known for his collaboration with musician

Petr Skoumal Petr Skoumal (7 March 1938 – 28 September 2014) was a Czech musician and composer. Skoumal focused on film music. He also composed music for animated shorts (i.e. '' Maxipes Fik''). In the past he made several stage performances with Jan V ...

Biography

Vodňanský was born on 19 June 1941 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 ...

. He studied at Construction Faculty of the

Czech Technical University Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, cs, České vysoké učení technické v Praze, ČVUT) is one of the largest universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Central Europe. It ...

, later he studied philosophy and history at

Faculty of Arts, Charles University The Faculty of Arts, Charles University ( cs, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy), is one of the original four faculties of Charles University in Prague. When founded, it was named the Faculty of the Liberal Arts or the Artistic Faculty. The ...

and obtained PhDr title. After his studies, he started working in radio and in 1964 he met composer and pianist

, with whom he began to collaborate. After Vodňanský signed

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech and Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Něm ...

and became an enemy of the

Communist regime in Czechoslovakia Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, the duo had to stop working. After the breakup of the duo, Vodňanský worked in Bratislava and performed in programs for children. After the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

, he lectured philosophy at the

, and performed in theatres and on foreign tours. He died on 10 March 2021, at the age of 79 from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic The COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first three confirmed cases in the Czech Republic were report ...

Work

Playing with words and ironic humor were typical for Vodňanský's work. He started by writing texts based on absurd humor, he also wrote songs and texts for children. With Petr Skoumal he composed several songs for radio fairy tales and for films for children. The breakthrough was their full-length program in the Drama Club called ''S úsměvem idiota'' ("With an Idiot's Smile"), which was also published as an audio recording and as a book.

References

{{authority control 1941 births 2021 deaths Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic Artists from Prague Czech writers Czech songwriters Czech humorists Charter 77 signatories Charles University alumni