Biography:

The Czechoslovakian actor Jirí Vrstála was born in Liberec on July 31, 1920. After WWII, he worked at theaters in Liberec and Prague. Vrstála achieved acclaim through the character of Clown Ferdinand, which he and the director Jindrich Polák had created in 1955. As this character he starred in numerous children’s films and also appeared on stage.

When he moved to Berlin in the 1960s, Vrstála continued to play Clown Ferdinand in numerous East German films and television series up to 1975. Vrstála was also to be seen in Czech and East German thrillers. The press praised him as a character actor as lawyer Dr. Hoffmann in the film adaptation of Leonard Frank’s Chronik eines Mordes. In this movie he acted alongside Angelica Domröse, to whom he was also married for some time. He retired from theater and film in 1983 and became a writer. Vrstála died in Berlin on June 10, 1999.