Thousands of people - actors, politicians and theatre lovers - have attended the funeral of the great Polish actor Gustaw Holoubek at Warsaw’s Powazki cemetery.
He was decorated posthumously by the President with the Order of White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction.
Gustaw Holoubek died on 6 March at the age of 85.
His most famous role was that of Gustaw-Konrad, the main protagonist of Forefathers Eve by the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz at Warsaw’s National Theatre (1967). Following accusations by the communist regime that the production was of an ‘anti-Russian’ and ‘anti-Soviet’ character, it was closed down after 14 performances, leading to wide-spread student protests and the political turmoil of March 1968.
Critics are unanimous in describing Holoubek’s performance in that production as one of the finest in the history of Polish theatre.
Born in 1923, Holoubek fought as a teenager in World War Two, attended clandestine acting classes and started his theatre career in Krakow soon after the war ended. Theatre was his main vocation but he also developed a fine career in the cinema, acting in about 50 films.
He served as Artistic Director of Warsaw’s Dramatyczny and Ateneum Theatres. He was also a prominent public figure, becoming a senator in the first democratically-elected Upper House of the Polish Parliament after the collapse of communism in 1989. (mk)