RIP Josef Laufer

 

Famous actor and singer Josef Laufer has died, after four years in artificial sleep 

Refle

By Viliam Buchert

April 21, 2024

 

Josef Laufer was born Don José José Francisco Pérez Rodriguez de Montagnes de Laufer in 1939.

Actor, director, singer and screenwriter Josef Laufer has died at the age of 84. The information was confirmed by the director of the Broadway Theatre, Oldřich Lichtenberg. "According to Ester Pep, he died of cardiac arrest," he said, referring to Laufer's daughter. The singer has been in artificial sleep for the past four years.

He was in artificial sleep

Doctors put him into it after a complication from heart valve surgery in March 2020.

Josef Laufer was born Don José José Francisco Pérez Rodriguez de Montagnes de Laufer in 1939. He was born in France to a father of Jewish origin and native Spaniards. His parents met in Spain during the Civil War, where Dr. Maximilián Laufer worked as an interbrigadist in the lazareth.

After the defeat of France by Germany, the family moved to Great Britain, and after 1947 to Czechoslovakia. After his apprenticeship, Josef Laufer worked at a research institute, but during his military service he began acting and directing amateur theater. After returning from the war, he made guest appearances at the ABC Theater and prepared for exams at the theater faculty, where he was recruited.

During his studies at DAMU, he founded the theater company RADAR, performed in films, musicals, and also began to appear on the television screen. He was fluent in English, Spanish and German.

In addition to acting, he also sang, recorded several records, among his most famous compositions are, for example, Goodbye love, I go further or Give me a belt.

Collaborator of the ŠtB

And he also drew attention to himself with the controversial song Letter to Free Europe, in which he celebrated the return of a State Security agent who carried out a bombing on the radio station Free Europe in Munich.

The song was not an initiative of the secret service, as was speculated in the 70s, but an artist's initiative. Laufer was registered by the ŠtB in the category of confidant with the code name Vostrý.

Thanks to his exotic appearance, Josef Laufer was a sought-after film actor, we saw him in films such as Night on Karlštejn, Gentlemen Boys, Old Men on Hops, Day for My Love, Virgin and Monster or the series Kameňák. He also starred in the series Engineering Odyssey and Circus Humberto.

He was married to costume designer Irena Greif, with whom he had a daughter, Esther. Greif died last year at the age of 83.

LAUFER, Josef (Don José Francisco Pérez Rodriguez de Montagnes Laufer)

Born: 8/11/1939, Sables d'Ollone, Vendée, France

Died: 4/20/2024, Prague, Czech Republic

 

Josef Laufer’s western – actor:

Starosta má starosti (TV) – 1989 (sheriff)