Miloš Kopecký

Born August 22, 1922 · Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]

Miloš Kopecký was a Czech actor, active mainly in the second half of the 20th century.  He was born into the family of craftsmen, Kopecký was involved with music and theater throughout his entire life.  Starting on stage in 1939, as a member of an amateur elocution group, Kopecký performed with numerous young artists during the German occupation of then Czechoslovakia.  Near the end of World War II, Kopecký’s mother was murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp for her Jewish heritage, while Miloš was interned in the labor camp Bystřice u Benešova.  He would later credit these experiences as the cause for his struggle with Bipolar Disorder, then known as Manic-Depressive Disease.   Following the liberation, Kopecký began acting in the avant-garde studio Větrník in 1945, before joining the Vinohrady Theatre in 1965 at the behest of then-director František Pavlíček.  Kopecký  continued to make guest appearances at theaters throughout Prague, working with many notable actors of his era before appearing on film and television.  His first minor role was in the historic film Jan Roháč z Dubé (1947), but he quickly graduated to more important characters and gradually became one of the most popular actors in Czechoslovakia.   He may be best known today as Dr. Štrosmajer in the Czech television series Nemocnice na kraji města.  During his career he played mainly negative roles of traitors, lechers, and villain, which he famously depicted with elegance and esprit.   In the mid-1980s Kopecký acted in a politically biased documentary film about emigrants, and also presented very critical speech against current communist régimes in May, 1987, at the Fourth Congress of Dramatic Artists.  He was married five times, at one point to Czech actress Stella Zázvorková.