Zdeněk Svěrák

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Zdeněk Svěrák born 28 March 1936 in Prague is a Czech actor humorist and scriptwriter He is one of the most popular Czech cultural personalities In 1989 he was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival In 1958 he graduated in Czech language and literature at the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague He has worked in a wide variety of capacities His work contains more than 300 musical texts plays and more than ten movies Among his film scripts are Kolya Czech Kolja Academy Award winning film and The Elementary School Czech Obecná Škola nomination for Academy Award both directed by his son Jan Svěrák With his close friend Ladislav Smoljak he created the fictional personality universal genius inventor sportsman criminalist poet writer and philosopher Jára Cimrman who won the voting for The Greatest Czech in 2005 only the fact that Cimrman is fictional prevented him from actually winning Zdeněk Svěrák also founded a charity organization Paraple in English Umbrella which focuses on helping paralyzed individuals