It is said that death does not choose and is the only fair thing on the planet. We can’t see into that. However, we know that tragic events occur daily. The year 2023 is no exception.
Human loss is always a great tragedy, whether it is a celebrity or the least known being on the planet. However, celebrity departures are often talked about more than anything else. As a reminder of their memory, we decided to create a short list of personalities who said goodbye to us this year.
Notice: It is certainly not a complete list of all publicly known people who lost their lives this year, and it is not 100% dogmatically the most well-known personalities. However, we have selected women and men who we think are worth remembering. The list may be incomplete also because there is still some day left before the end of the year. Thank you for your understanding.
Czechia
Naďa Urbanková
Zdroj: Wiki Commons
We will start with famous Czech personalities. At the very beginning of the year, the world of acting and music was hit with sad news when Naďa Urbánková died at the age of eighty-three.
The singer, actress and presenter, born Naděžda Balabánová, gained great fame in all her interests. The proof can be the first place in the Golden Nightingale poll, which she won five times in a row (1972-1976), roles in films Closely watched trains, Alone by the forest and other films and series, and later also hosting his own radio show. At heart, Urbanková was a country singer, but at the same time, she was also made for the boards that mean the world.
Her life however grown up by the end of February 3, 2023 after complications related to the consequences of breast cancer and covid-19.
Francis Cipro
Source: Marek Podhora / MFDNES + LN / Profimedia
The departure of František Cipro particularly affected Slavia Prague football fans. The legend of Czechoslovak, Czech and Austrian football was a passable footballer, but an even better coach.
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In particular, in Slavia, everyone still fondly remembers the memorable 1995/1996 season, when Cipro, with players such as Vladimír Šmicer, Karel Poborský, Radek Bejbl and Robert Vágner, won the league title and at the same time achieved the best European cup position – the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.
The coach, who during his career later went through a lot of league teams (he stayed the longest in České Budějovice), succumbed at the age of seventy-five, of colon cancer, on February 7, 2023.
Emil Boček
Source: ČTK/Deml Ondřej
A war veteran, Brňák in body and soul. As a trained mechanic, Emil Boček left his homeland in 1939 and intervened in the battles for France in 1940, so that after the evacuation in September 1940, he completed a flight mechanics course as one of the youngest recruits and was accepted into the RAF. But he became famous on the battlefield in a different, more action-oriented way.
He served as a fighter with the Czechoslovak 310th fighter squadron, flying 26 operational flights. He survived the war, but was persecuted as a member of the anti-communist resistance. His car repair shop was nationalized, and as a then successful motorcycle racer, he worked as a turner.
His bravery was not appreciated until after the revolution. In 1993, he became a retired colonel, and even got the opportunity to speak briefly with the British Queen Elizabeth II. In 2010, he received the Order of the White Lion III from President Václav Klaus. class and by the end of 2019 he was promoted to retired army general by President Zeman. In the same year, he was awarded the Order of the White Lion, 1st class.
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In 2019, after the death of Kurt Taussig, he became the only surviving Czechoslovak pilot in the RAF during World War II. But he did not become the last living veteran serving in the RAF, in 2021 it was Bočk’s time. He passed away March 25, 2023 in Brno. The last living Czechoslovak veteran he stayed marksman and radio operator Jiří P. Kafka.
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera. Source: Moravian State Library with the permission of the Czech Center Paris
Few writers from the Czech Republic have achieved such fame in the world as native Brno and stormtrooper Milan Kundera. IN obituary Aktuálně.cz writes that he became “one of the world’s most important novelists of the second half of the 20th century”. And that’s a fact. Even Hrabal or Škvorecký lag behind him.
He began his career as a poet. He was a member of the Communist Party, even twice, and won the Klement Gottwald State Prize. So it cannot be said that his name does not arouse passion. But he defined himself against communism even before the tanks of the Warsaw Pact arrived in Czechoslovakia. He was watched, silenced and forced to emigrate to France in the 1970s.
Here he established himself extremely reliably. He simply became a literary icon. Novels Joke, Immortality a The Unbearable Lightness of Being were translated into all world languages. His work has become a classic on a planetary scale. But when he was in France, he did not want his works to be translated into Czech. That’s why it was done without permission. The first official translations into the native language came only in 2020 with the court translator Anna Karenina.
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He apparently resented the Czech Republic. He did not physically return to his homeland, but reportedly thought about it a lot. He died after a long illness on July 11, 2023 in Paris. He wanted to be buried in his native Brno.
Yvonne Prenosilová
Yvonne Přenosilová Source: Czech Television
A Czech singer whose musical influence is sometimes overlooked by the general public. Not right. Here, Prěnosilová paved the way for an unusual American genre, the original R&B. She started her career in the 1960s, and even though she didn’t make it to the Semafor Theater after an audition, Karel Mareš discovered her (just as, for example, he discovered for the Karel Gott Theater) and put her in the band Olympic.
She spent a year in England, where she appeared on the radio and had concerts, after returning to Czechoslovakia she performed at the Apollo Theater and went on regular musical trips to Western Europe.
But in 1968 after signing the petition Two thousand words she emigrated first to Britain and then to Germany, where she lived for 26 years. She tried to restart her career, which she did not succeed abroad. As a British Airways ground stewardess, she later found a husband, nobleman and lawyer Andreas von Schuckmann, with whom she had a child and became a baroness.
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In the nineties, Karel Kryl got her to Free Europe, where she moderated music programs. In 1994, she returned to Prague.
Death came for the well-known singer on September 11, 2023, she succumbed lung cancer. She was 76 years old.
Roman Čechmanek
Source: HC Energie Karlovy Vary
A tragic fate was in store for Czech hockey goalie Roman Čechmánek. But we will start with his greatest achievements. The hockey player, who also made himself known in the NHL, was a substitute who covered Dominik Hašek’s back with Milan Hnilička in 1998 during the memorable Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Subsequently, he became the hockey world champion three years in a row.
The bad came after the end of the career. Former player of Los Angeles or Vsetín unsuccessfully did business, subsequently invested in a development project abroad, he also owned some apartments. However, he did not escape trial for alleged fraud. He returned to hockey as a coach of the second division Hodonín.
Ultimately, his life’s journey ended prematurely. At the age of fifty-two, he was found by his son without signs of life, on November 12, 2023, in an apartment in Všemin. It speculated about suicide or death committed by someone else’s hand, but the investigators ultimately refuted this.
Karel Schwarzenberg
Source: TASR/Michal Svítok
On the same day, November 12, 2023, Czech politician, former presidential candidate and foreign minister, co-founder of the TOP 09 party and chancellor of President Václav Havel Karel Schwarzenberg died. The iconic face of center-right domestic politics was a member of the Czech branch of the Schwarzenberg family.
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The prince, whose name according to family tradition was Charles VII. from Schwarzenberg, was a native of Bubenec, Prague. The educated aristocrat spoke five languages and opened the Czech Republic to Western diplomacy after the communist coup in 1989.
His connections were crucial for the establishment of good international relations, which his friend Václav Havel was also very aware of. Schwarzenberg had influence mainly because he had to emigrate to Austria after 1948, as his family’s property was confiscated. He then actively socialized in the neighboring country.
He was praised for his services to the post-socialist republic, but at the same time he had his detractors mainly because of his influence, noble origin and large property. He even almost became president, but in the second round of the 2013 presidential election Miloš Zeman defeated him by nine percent. Just before his death, he received the Order of the White Lion from President Petr Pavel, but did not accept the award.
His health deteriorated rapidly in September 2023. He died in a hospital in Vienna after two weeks in critical condition. On 9 December 2023, he had a church funeral with state honors in St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle.
Ladislav Županič
Source: ČTK / Michal Doležal
In December, the Czech acting world lost another personality. On December 9, 2023 suddenly he died actor and voice actor Ladislav Županič. The winner of the Thalia Award, whom the audience especially remembers in the role of Žán (Jean) from the fairy tale The Princess from the Mill or from movies The village has a center, A friend in the rain, Night at Karlštejn whether The secret of the castle in the Carpathians.
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As far as serials are concerned, he played, for example, in District championshipv Respond or in Savage land. He later lent his voice to, for example, Clint Eastwood, Paul Hogan or Mel Gibson.
What exactly happened to Županič is currently unclear. All that is certain is that he died in Vinohrady Hospital in Prague.
2023-12-29 15:00:00
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