Biography
Jiří Menzel was a Czech film director, actor and screenwriter. Born in Prague in 1938, he studied directing at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
He made his feature debut with Closely Watched Trains (1966), which he directed and co-wrote with Bohumil Hrabal, and in which he appeared as Dr. Brabec. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Menzel was a leading figure in the Czechoslovak New Wave.
His other notable films as director include Larks on a String (1990), which won the Golden Bear at Berlin, My Sweet Little Village (1985) and I Served the King of England (2007). He died in Prague in 2020.
