Famous Czechs

A film director who is considered one of the most significant directors in the world today. He received Oscars for his films "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"(1975) and "Amadeus"(1984). He also directed "Ragtime"(1981), "Valmont"(1989), "The People vs. Larry Flynt"(1996), "Man on the Moon"(1999) and a film version of the anti-war musical "Hair"(1979). After the Soviet occupation of 1968, he emigrated to the United States.

A world-renowned dramatist, essayist, philosopher and President of the Czech Republic. The central theme of his literary texts is human identity and the mechanisms of dehumanized power. In the 1970's and 1980's he was something of a spiritual leader for the dissidents. After the fall of the Communist regime he was elected President of Czechoslovakia* in December 1989. Three years later he became the President of the Czech Republic.

Prime Minister and economist, one of the principal fathers of the system of economic transformation of the Czech Republic and the driving force behind its implementation. In 1990 he became the Minister of Finance and since 1992 he has been the chairman the Civic Democratic Party, the strongest conservative party in Central Europe.

A writer who reached international fame thanks to his novels published in exile. His best novels - "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" ( 1985) and "Immortality" (1990) were translated into many languages. He received a number of prestigious literary awards for his work and he is acknowledged as one of the world's best contemporary writers.

Professional Czech tennis player born in Prague, Czechoslovakia*. Started playing professional tennis in 1972 and emigrated to the USA in 1975. She has won Wimbledon nine times (six times in a row: 1982-1987) and set several records during her career. Won 167 singles championships and 158 professional tennis titles, and became the oldest tennis player who beat a no. 1 ranked tennis professional (Monica Seles) at the age of 37. Retired from playing singles in 1994.

Professional tennis player, born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia*. Emigrated to the USA in the 1980s. His active tennis career lasted from 1979 to 1994. Many consider him the best male tennis player of all time. He stayed on the top of the ATP rankings for 270 weeks (1983 - 1989), which is the longest time a single tennis player was ranked no. 1 since the ATP rankings were started in 1973. He is a passionate collector of Alphonse Mucha paintings.

Ice-hockey goalie nicknamed "the Dominator", born in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia*. He was voted NHL Most Valuable Player and awarded the Hart Trophy in 1997 and 1998, the Vezina Trophy in 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998, and the Jennings Trophy in 1994. He plays for the NHL Buffalo Sabres.

Professional ice-hockey player born in Kladno, Czechoslovakia*. He plays for the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins (Right Wing). He's Gretzky's heir apparent, a formidable skater with powerful stick-handling skills. 28-year-old right-winger Jaromir Jagr, with an Olympic gold medal, two Stanley Cups, and three NHL scoring championships to his credit, has already shown the hockey world that he's the best.

Madeleine Korbel Albright was born on May 15, 1937, in Prague. At the age of 11 she came to the United States, joining her father, a diplomat Josef Korbel, who was on an official assignment for his country at the U.N. but who then used the opportunity to seek political asylum in the United States for himself and his family. Becoming a naturalized citizen, Albright pursued an academic career. Madeleine Albright was nominated by President Clinton in 1996 for the position of Secretary of State. Albright became the first female to hold this position and the highest-ranking female within the US government.

A Czech chemist who specialized in plastics, developed the soft contact lens (firstly in his kitchen, using the motor from an old phonograph and a children's building kit.) He was a prestigious scientist, but in 1958 Czech authorities dismissed him from his deanship at the Institute for Chemical Technology in Prague. The Czech government sold the rights to Americans for a few hundred thousand dollars. Wichterle remained unrecompensed, despite the fact that more than 100 million people worldwide wear soft contacts.

One of the world's best photographers. In his works the subjective and objective points of view are intermixed. His fragile and pellucid photographs present, in afascinating manner, the harmonious beauty of everyday objects, nature and human life.

University professor, philosopher, sociologist and politician who is often called "Father of the Nation".During the First World War,he formed a Czechoslovak government abroad that was recognized by European powers, thus creating one of the basic conditions for the establishmentof an independent Czechoslovakia. Between 1918 and 1935 he was the first President of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Czech poet. Starting as a revolutionary "proletarian" poet, Seifert soon began to emphasize fantasy and enchantment as antidotes to modern technological civilization. After signing an anti-Stalinist manifesto, he was expelled from the Communist party, and his verse then addressed itself more directly to social themes. Seifert was a signatory of the Czech Charter 77 manifesto. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984.

Czech writer and playwright. He and his brother Josef first introduced the word "robot" in their science-fiction play R.U.R. in 1921. The abbreviation stands for "Rossum's Universal Robots" and the word itself comes from an old Czech word "robota" (hard work, drudgery), which is still used in some Czech dialects.

A Czech painter based in Paris whose pictures in "Art Nouveau" style were so successful that the movement was originally called the "Mucha style". He is best known for his theatre posters of Sarah Bernhardt; he also designed many costumes for this actress.

Although not Czech by nationality, the "father of psychoanalysis" was born in a town called Pribor (Freiberg), which was then a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and today is located in the north-eastern part of the Czech Republic - Moravia. Freud spent the first three years of his life there (1856-1859) before his family moved to Leipzig (today's Germany), and then to Vienna (today's Austria). In 1937 the Nazis annexed Austria, and Freud, who was Jewish, was allowed to leave for England.

A major figure in modern European music. In his works Janacek was inspired by Czech folk music while at the same time he became one of the first composers to abandon the traditional tonal major-minor system. The operas "Jenufa" and "Katya Kabanova" are among his best compositions. Another famous work of his is an orchestral rhapsody "Taras Bulba".

The most famous and favourite Prague writer. Although he was Jewish and wrote in German, he spent his entire life in Bohemia. His best works are "Metamorphosis", "The Trial" and "The Castle", reflecting the desperate alienation of individuals in the 20th century world.

* The term "Czechoslovakia" was officially used from 1918 through 1992. On January 1, 1993, the country split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.