- Born
- Birth nameBoleslav Polívka
- Height6′ 1½″ (1.87 m)
- Bolek Polívka was born Boleslav Polívka on July 31, 1949, in Vizovice, Moravia, Czechoslovakia. His father was an amateur actor. Young Bolek Polivka studied acting at the Drama Academy in Brno. He was fond of pantomime and soon began his performances at the theatre "Na Provazku" in Brno.
Polívka began his career in film and television in 1976, in a TV comedy 'Traja chrobáci' (Just Cute). He played leading and supporting roles in more than 30 films and television productions made in Europe, mainly in Czechoslovakia, then in Czech Republic. Some of his film works were actually adaptations of his theatrical plays. Polívka gained popularity during the 1980's for his clownery and comic performances in his TV slapsticks titled 'Mané Bolka Polívky' (The Menage of Bolek Polivka). He has been involved in a continuous and fruitful collaboration with the acclaimed Czech film director Vera Chytilová. Polívka received awards and nominations at several European film festivals, he was also awarded for his theatrical works.
Bolek Polívka is the owner and artistic leader of his theatre in Brno called Divadlo Bolka Polívky (The Theatre of Bolek Polívka). He is known for his cute and witty ideas and a variety of crazy and spectacular competitions, such as the World Championship in Catching Flies or throwing a pop-gun into the rye field. Bolek Polívka collaborated with the renown mime Vyacheslav Polunin. In 2001 Polunin organized the New Carnival within the framework of the World Theatre Olympics, in the Hermitage Gardens in Moscow. There Bolek Polívka performed among some of the best acting comedians of the 20th century, such as Vyacheslav Polunin, Django Edwards, Jérôme Deschamps, Franz-Joseph Bogner, Leo Bassi, Gennadiy Khazanov, Leonid Yarmolnik, the duo of David Shiner and Bill Irwin, and over a hundred of other comediens and mimes from all over the world.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov
- SpouseChantal Poullain (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- He turned down the part of Jolana's father in Úcastníci zájezdu (2006), eventually played by Bohumil Klepl.
- Father of Anna Polívková.
- Father of Vladimír Polívka.
- Father of Kamila Polívková.
- He turned down the part of Lucifer in The Devil Knows Why (2003), eventually played by Csongor Kassai.
- [on cancel culture]: "They say it's a time of cancel culture, of disturbing different things and people. And it's unfortunately true. That there are these quick trials without much judgment, relying on people's moods. That scares me. When someone bans a valuable book that's long been an important part of the culture, or tears down a statue, it makes me sick. Because what wasn't banned then can be banned now; we're in a weird mess and chaos. But I do believe that another movement will arise again that will say "Don't fight!", but that's for another discussion. It seems awkward to me to exclude someone from my circle just because people heard he ran from a bear."
- [on taking notes]: "I have notes in various pockets, then it's a joy to put them together. I used to write on beer coasters, unfortunately nowadays there's advertising on both sides, but they used to be clean on the other side - those were my first floppy disks and I always twisted my notes into the middle. I now have an overabundance of Moleskine notebooks, my daughters buy them for me, they're great too, but you always forget them in another jacket, so I end up with different papers anyway. I also used to take notes on my mobile phone and on my Dictaphone, I went digital for a while, it was a kind of excursion into the digital universe, a mission from which I then quickly returned to the pencil, the trustworthy spear gun of intellectuals."
- [on his first experiences with physical acting]: "Professor Rysánková from JAMU (Brno Academy of Performing Arts), who taught us to move on stage and liked me because I was skilled at it and was already beginning to do my first etudes, used to say to me when I was playing Eugen Onegin as a counterpart: "Bolek, you're playing a nobleman, straighten up!" And then I played Eugene Onegin so beautifully that my classmates Eliska Balzerová and Jana Svandová cried until their shoulders shook and their handkerchiefs were wet. I was proud of myself then. When you make a beauty cry, you're happy, especially at a young age. Only years later did I learn from them that they were hiding fits of laughter behind their handkerchiefs. They kept it a secret for so long!"
- [on what he'd like to ask William Shakespeare]: "The important question we all ask ourselves is, "William, did you really write this?" Or, more insidiously, "William, did you really write it all by yourself?" Or even more insidiously, "Willy, Willy, wait, do you have a minute? Are you in a hurry? Does the name de Vere mean anything to you?" I wonder what he'd say. Because there's a book that says he couldn't have written all those plays himself, that as a merchant he couldn't have had all this knowledge and information about how things work in the royal courts, and also where he got all those various clever quotes... Supposedly written by the learned Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Only Devil knows. That's why I'd ask him these questions and examine his face and eyes carefully. If he'd be like, "Oh, yeah, Bolek, I actually wrote that!" then I'd believe him. But if he said: "Excuse me! De Vere, who's that?", then it would be clear - bullshit!"
- [on text learning] "When I have a script for a movie or a William Shakespeare's play , for example, I read it first, several times, and after that first reading, there are already islands of text that I remember. And then from those islands I slowly get to the other three layers, which are damn hard for me to remember. The last, hardest layer is the short dialogue that you need an acting partner for, or the physical action, I can't learn it at my desk at home. It's hard to remember short dialogue, like in Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot', his dialogue has all sorts of little variations that are important to the construction of the play. I also profess what I call garden acting, where I walk around the garden and I know it all beautifully already. But then I come to the rehearsal room at the theatre and suddenly I start stammering and curling up in various ways... The text simply has to be committed to memory, otherwise it gets lost in the garden and weeds."
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