RIP Karel Fiala

 The movie star of Lemonade Joe died. Karel Fiala celebrated his greatest success at the Karlín Theater, reaching the age of 95

iROZHLAS

October 3, 2020 

Actor Karel Fiala, known as the film Lemonade Joe, died at the age of 95. This was confirmed to Radiožurnál on Saturday by Blahoslav Mikolášek from the hospital for the long-term sick in Vršovice, Prague. There Fiala spent the last years of his life. The actor has celebrated his greatest success since the 1950s on the stage of the Musical Theater in Karlín. In 2013, Karel Fiala received the Thalia Award for lifetime contribution in the field of musicals.

Karel Fiala literally acquired his life role at the last minute. It was originally supposed to be played by Jiří Kodet, but his mother Jiřina Steimarová recommended to the director her colleague from the Karlín Theater, who was exactly the right type for the sleek and comically noble Lemonade.

Karel Fiala did not sing in the film, because the playbacks have already been shot by Karel Gott. But he would certainly be able to handle demanding singing parties, because his domain was operetta and musical. For thirty-eight years he was a member of the Musical Theater in Karlín, where he played, for example, in Rose Marie, On the Green Meadow, or Hello, Dolly. And he also performed in negative roles, for example in the musicals Cabaret or Mazlíčková, where he played a ruthless manager.

Karel Fiala was very active even in his old age, he still played tennis after the age of eighty-eight and enjoyed great family reunions.

After the year 2000, he still played in the magnificent musical Count Monte Christo and said goodbye in 2010 again in Karlín in a new production of Lemonade Joe as his old father Kolalok.

FIALA, Karel

Born: 8/3/1925, Hrušov, Ostrava, Czechoslovakia

Died: 10/3/2020, Vršovice, Prague, Czech Republic

Karel Fiala’s westerns – actor:

The Noble Cowboy Sandy or Gamble Bride (TV) – 1963 (postmaster)

Lemonade Joe – 1964 (Lemonade Joe)