Voskovec, George, 1905-1981

Overview (4)
Born June 19, 1905 in Sázava, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]
Died July 1, 1981 in Pearblossom, California, USA (heart attack)
Birth Name Jirí Wachsmann
Height 5' 11" (1.8 m)
Mini Bio (1)
Czech actor/producer/director/author George Voskovec was born Jirí Wachsmann on June 19, 1905, the son of Jirina Valentina Marie (nee Pinkasová) and Vilem Eduard Voskovec (Wachsmann). His ancestry was Czech, German, and French. Prior to George's birth, the spelling of the family name was Vaksman (Russian). By the time he was born, which was shortly after their return to Bohemia--then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire--it had been changed to Wachsmann. In 1920, the family again changed the name from Wachsmann to Voskovec, a Czech translation, and his father changed his name to Václav Voskovec. George received his education at Lycée Carnot in Dijon and Charles University (School of Law) in Prague. He made his stage début in Prague in 1927 in "Vest Pocket Revue" and subsequently formed a solid partnership with fellow actor/lyricist Jan Werich. For the next 11 years they wrote, produced and performed 26 productions for the avant-garde Liberated Theatre of Prague, Osvobozene divadlo. He also established himself in Czech comedy films as both performer and writer in tandem with Werich.

In the late 1930s, he left his homeland following the German invasion and emigrated to America. Rebuilding his status as a performer/writer/director, he débuted at the Cleveland Playhouse in 1940 in "Heavy Barbara" and "The Ass and the Shadow," again in collaboration with Werich. During the war years he and Werich wrote and broadcast a host of radio programmes for the "Voice of America". He also made his Broadway début in "The Tempest" in 1945. He returned to Prague after the war in 1946 and worked for a time in the theatre before traveling to Paris, where he first worked for UNESCO, later founded the American theatre of Paris in 1949 and served as producer/director.

Upon his return to America in 1950, he was detained for 11 months on Ellis Island on suspicion of being a communist sympathizer. After he was allowed to enter USA, Voskovec appeared in New York with "The Love of Four Colonels," which he later toured. He went on to accumulate a formidable list of theatre credits including "The Seagull," "Festival" and, notably, "Uncle Vanya" for which he won an Obie award in the title role. He made his London stage début as Otto Frank in "The Diary of Anne Frank" in 1956, and was a continued presence on the 1960s Shakespearean stage with "Caesar and Cleopatra" (as Caesar) and John Gielgud's production of "Hamlet" as the Player King, the latter play was filmed.

In films, he played supporting roles in the U.S. from 1952. Affair in Trinidad (1952), The Iron Mistress (1952), The 27th Day (1957), The Bravados (1958), BUtterfield 8 (1960), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and The Boston Strangler (1968) all benefited from his imposing presence and professional stature. He also played one of the jurors in the classic drama 12 Angry Men (1957) alongside Lee J. Cobb and Henry Fonda. Voskovec was indeed a vital ethnic presence during the "Golden Age of Television" during the 1950s and in episodic 1960s TV. Voskovec was also a songwriter, being the lyricist of some 300 popular songs over his career. He continued to thrive in all three mediums throughout the 1970s practically until his death in 1981 at age 76. One of his final theatrical highlights was in Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days" in which he shared the stage with Irene Worth. This was followed by regular TV stints on Skag (1980) and Nero Wolfe (1981).

Divorced from his first wife and the widower of his second, Broadway stage actress Anne Gerlette, Voskovec later wed poet/journalist Christianne McKeown. He was survived by his third wife and two daughters from his second marriage: Victorie (adopted, born in 1954) and Georgeanne (adopted, born in 1956). He never returned to Prague.

Jiří Voskovec (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjɪr̝iː ˈvoskovɛts] (About this soundlisten)), born Jiří Wachsmann and known in the United States as George Voskovec (June 19, 1905 – July 1, 1981)[1] was a Czech actor, writer, dramatist, and director who became an American citizen in 1955. Throughout much of his career he was associated with actor and playwright Jan Werich. In the U.S., he is best known for his role as the 11th juror in the 1957 film 12 Angry Men.

Life and career
Voskovec was born as Jiří Wachsmann in Sázava, Czechia. He was the son of Jiřina (Pinkasová) and Václav Wachsmann.[2] His granduncle was Bedřich Wachsmann and his cousin was Alois Wachsman, both painters and architects, while his uncle was Austrian painter Julius Wachsmann (1866–1936). He immigrated to the US in 1939 and again in 1948 with the onset of the National Socialist and Stalinist regimes, respectively, in Czechoslovakia.

He attended school in Prague and Dijon, France. In 1927, together with Werich, he joined the Osvobozené divadlo (Liberated Theater), which had been created two years earlier by members of the avant-garde Devětsil group, Jiří Frejka and Jindřich Honzl. After disagreements led Frejka to leave the group in 1927, Honzl asked Voskovec and Werich, 22-year-old law students who had created a sensation with their Vest Pocket Revue that year, to join the theatre. When Honzl, who had directed their productions, left in 1929, Voskovec and Werich took control of the theatre and changed its name to the Liberated Theatre of Voskovec and Werich, assuming all responsibility for direction, writing, librettos, and other artistic decisions. The Liberated became a center for Czech clownery, a reaction to contemporary political and societal problems. Their performances began with the primary goal of evoking laughter through fantasy, but with the changing political situation in Germany their work became increasingly anti-fascist, which led to the closure of the Liberated Theater after the Munich agreement in 1938. Both Voskovec and Werich fled to the United States in early 1939. For the rest of his life, Voskovec lived primarily in the United States, interrupted only by brief stays in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and in France from 1948 to 1950. Until the mid-1940s, Voskovec worked and wrote mostly with Jan Werich, but after Werich's return to Socialist Czechoslovakia, they met only a few more times. After his return to the United States in 1950, Voskovec was detained at Ellis Island for eleven months for his alleged sympathy for Communism.

Although Voskovec lived in three countries and his maternal grandmother was French, he always maintained that "I am a born and bred Czech." In 1955, he became an American citizen. As a result of his naturalization, he is sometimes referred to as "George Voskovec".

Voskovec acted in 72 movies. Only the first five of these were Czech; the rest were American or British. His most famous American movie role was as the 11th juror in 12 Angry Men (1957), in which being a European immigrant to the U.S. was central to his role. His other famous films included The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and The Boston Strangler (1968), as renowned psychic Peter Hurkos. His last movie was Barbarosa (1982), with Willie Nelson and Gary Busey. In 1975, he published the Czech spoken LP record "Relativně vzato", where he reflects on his life and world in general. A sleeve note for this LP was written by another notable Czech émigré, author Josef Škvorecký. Voskovec also appeared in the 1978 television film The Nativity and the 1980 film Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In 1981 Voskovec played Fritz Brenner in the NBC TV series Nero Wolfe with William Conrad as Nero Wolfe. Voskovec also starred on Broadway in 1961 along with Hal Holbrook in Do You Know the Milky Way by German playwright Karl Wittlinger. In 1964 Voskovec appeared in an episode of The Fugitive.

Death
Voskovec died in 1981 of a heart attack in Pearblossom, California, at the age of 76. He is survived by two daughters, Victoria and Georgeanne. His interment was at Olšany Cemetery in Prague.

Minor planet 2418 Voskovec-Werich discovered by Luboš Kohoutek is named after him and Jan Werich.[3]