Biography:

Josef Laufer , originally Don José Francisco Pérez Rodriguez de Montagnes ^[2] Laufer , ( 11 August 1939 Les Sables-d’Olonne , France – 20 April 2024 Prague ^[3] ) was a Czech singer , actor , screenwriter , director , interpreter , moderator and lyricist .

Life

He was born just before the Second World War to a father of Jewish origin from Slovakia (born in 1911 in the village of Váhovce ), who was a doctor , and a mother who was a native Spaniard . His parents met in Spain during the civil war (1936–39), where MUDr. Maxmilián Laufer worked as an interbrigadist within the Czechoslovak infirmary of JA Komensky. After the defeat of the Republicans, he went to France with his wife and they stayed near the Spanish border in Argelès-sur-Mer . In January 1940, MUDr. Laufer to the Czechoslovak of the Army in France (F-1985). And after the defeat of France by Nazi Germany, he evacuated to Great Britain with his wife and son Josef. Josef spent his childhood in England , where his father was a military doctor with the RAF . Only in 1947 did the whole family return to Czechoslovakia .

His father, Maxim Laufer, continued to work in his homeland as a doctor – a pediatric orthopedist , young Josef first trained at Tesla in Vrchlabsk ^[4] and then started working at a research institute. But already during his basic military service he started acting in amateur theater and directing. After the military service, he was a guest at the ABC Theater and worked as an interpreter and translator from Spanish . He then studied acting at DAMU (graduated in 1965) ^[5] and founded the theater troupe RADAR . Since then, he began performing regularly in various musicals , teaching pantomime at a dance conservatory , appearing on Czechoslovak television . He also acted or sang in several films , started a professional career as a pop music singer , and gave concerts with his own group Golem . Throughout his professional career, he has successfully used his language skills, speaking English , Spanish and German fluently . He also often worked as a screenwriter and television director in foreign television stations .

In 1974, he composed  the song Ten strom je náš with Karl Zich for the 30th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising . ^[6] His controversy surrounding the song Dopis Svobodné Europa , which he sang for the former communist regime in 1976 in celebration of the secret agent Minařík, ^[7] is well known . Laufer was also the author of the text, together with the composer of the music, Bohuslav Myslík. The recording from the archive of Czech Radio allegedly disappeared without a trace, but Czech Television has this recording ^[8] . Because of this song, Jan Vyčítal refused to perform with him . ^[9]

His wife was costume designer Irena Greifová ( 21 April 1939 Michalovce – 22 December 2022 Prague ), with whom he had a daughter Ester (born 22 July 1969).

Since 2020, he has been in a coma in a Prague hospital in Motola after heart surgery, during which he suffered a cardiac arrest , after which doctors put him into artificial sleep.

Cooperation with STB

Josef Laufer was registered as an employee of the State Security in the category of confidant, codename Vostrý, registration number 14,075. His colleague from Semafor , Pavel Bobek , also testified about his allegedly bad moral qualities. ^[10]

Credits: