For many, she was forever the enchanting girl from the cult film “Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella”: the Czech actress Libuse Safrankova died at the age of 68.
The news channel CNN Prima News reported this Wednesday, citing her son.
The DEFA co-production from 1973, which was also shot against the backdrop of Moritzburg Castle in Saxony, has become an integral part of the Christmas program on German television. The film, based on a model by the Czech national author Bozena Nemcova, also has a loyal following in many other countries such as Norway. In the end, how could it be otherwise, the prince (Pavel Travnicek) finds his way to his Cinderella in a snowy landscape.
For Safrankova, the role was both a blessing and a curse, because the then twenty-year-old actress was committed to fairy tale films for a long time in her roles.
It was followed by strips like "The Little Mermaid" and "The Prince and the Evening Star".
She has appeared in almost 150 cinema and television films.
Later she was able to live out her acting talent to a greater extent on the stage of the Prague Chamber Theater "Cinoherni klub" (Drama Club).
Home by freight train
In the drama "Kolya" from 1996, which received an Oscar for best foreign film, she won over in the role of singer Klara.
Safrankova was married to fellow actor Josef Abrham, who was seen as a doctor in "The Hospital on the Edge of the City".
The two have long been considered the dream couple on Czech television.
Czech President Milos Zeman was deeply touched and expressed his condolences to the relatives. Prime Minister Andrej Babis wrote on Twitter that he appreciated Safrankova very much. "Three hazelnuts for Cinderella" he had seen perhaps a hundred times. He couldn't imagine Christmas without this film. The director Zdenek Sverak ("Kolya") paid tribute to the deceased as an "incredibly talented actress". "She touched us and she made us laugh," he told the CTK agency.
In 2014, Safrankova contracted lung cancer and had to undergo major surgery. She was unable to attend the award ceremony for the Czech Medal of Merit in autumn 2015 in person. “I was very surprised by the award, because I have the feeling that I should really still achieve something,” she told the newspaper “Blesk” at the time. In the past few years she has largely withdrawn from the public eye and has rarely given interviews.
Safrankova was born on June 7, 1953 in Brno into a family of teachers. As a child she was drawn to the theater. She stood in front of the television camera for the first time at the age of seventeen and impressed with her charm and temperament. Starry airs were still alien to her. As a young woman, she once remembered taking the freight train home after evening theater performances. "The trains always slowed down near us - and I jumped off while driving."