Josef Vlastimil Burian, better known as Vlasta Burian, (9 April 1891, in

Liberec Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well prese ...

– 31 January 1962, in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

) was an internationally renowned Czechoslovak film and stage actor, singer, comedian, footballer and film director. In the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, he is known as Král komiků (King of Comedians).

Biography

He is well known in the Czech Republic for his comic roles in many movies before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. His films are still shown regularly on Czech television, being particularly popular around Christmas time. He ran a popular comic theater until 1944, when the Nazis closed down all Czech-language theaters. After the war Burian was charged and convicted of collaboration with the Nazis. He was briefly imprisoned, and then not permitted to return to the stage until 1950. He was officially exonerated of all charges in 1994. His famous movie partner was

Jaroslav Marvan Jaroslav Marvan (11 December 1901 – 21 May 1974) was a Czech actor. He was born in Prague. He was married since the 1920s with Marie Marvanová and had a daughter (Alena Marvanová) with Alena Jančaříková. He passed his school-leaving ...

, with whom he made the following films: * ''To neznáte Hadimršku'' * '' Funebrák'' * '' Anton Špelec, ostrostřelec'' * '' Pobočník Jeho Výsosti'' * '' Revizor'' * '' Hrdinný kapitán Korkorán'' * ''Nezlobte dědečka'' * '' Hrdina jedné noci'' * '' U pokladny stál...'' * ''Ulice zpívá'' * '' Katakomby'' * '' Baron Prášil'' * '' Přednosta stanice'' * ''Provdám svou ženu'' * ''Ryba na suchu'' * ''Zlaté dno''

Early career

Before getting established in his acting and film career, Burian played as a professional football goalkeeper firstly for Viktoria Žižkov and then for

AC Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

from 1916 to 1926.

References

External links

Biography (in Czech)
*
Photographs of Vlasta Burian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burian, Vlasta 1891 births 1962 deaths Actors from Liberec People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Czechoslovak male actors Association football goalkeepers Czechoslovak footballers FK Viktoria Žižkov players AC Sparta Prague players Burials at Vyšehrad Cemetery Sportspeople from Liberec