Věra Ferbasová filmed 12 movies a year at the height of her career, totaling 44 films that remain part of the golden fund of Czechoslovak cinematography, Proženy.cz reported.
The untrained actress rose to fame alongside prominent film personalities such as Karel Lamač, Hugo Haas, Oldřich Nový, and Raoul Schránil. Her natural, civilian acting and undeniable comedic talent drew praise from both critics and audiences in hits like Morality above all else (1937) and Andula won! (1938).
A fortunate coincidence brought her to both film and theater after she won the title of Miss Plzeň as a young woman. Following her graduation, she applied for a job opening at Vlasta Burian’s theater, expecting to work in the office rather than perform.
“Originally, I came to his theater thinking I would work in the office because I was good at stenography and typing,” Ferbasová told Ondřej Suchý in 1972.
“However, as soon as I was introduced to him, he says: ‘Listen, wouldn’t you like to try it on stage?’ That was a shock for me! I had never stood on a stage, I had never even done amateur theater, only he offered me such a fee that I immediately agreed without blinking an eye. As a beginner, he gave me 1,500 crowns!”
That initial stage job quickly led to a prolific film career that left no time for theater. Film offers multiplied rapidly, making it impossible to manage both mediums at once.
“I was sorry when I had to leave Burian’s theater, but the films were piling up and it really wasn’t possible to handle it all at once,” she told Suchý. She made her final film appearance with Burian in the 1942 movie Golden bottom, which marked her temporary departure from the screen.
During World War II, she refused to act in German films, a decision she maintained despite subsequent political pressures. Following the communist takeover, her husband, architect Josef Pálka, faced severe persecution due to her political party registration.
“Soon after that, they confiscated our property, took our apartment, we paid a half-million fine, and my husband was locked up for four years,” she recalled of the period. The couple married in 1941 and remained together until Pálka died in 1973. They did not have children.
Ferbasová returned to filmmaking in 1957 with a minor role in Florence 13.30. Subsequent appearances included parts in The star is going south. (1958), the fairy tale Darbujan and Pandrhola (1959), and a small part in director Jiří Menzel’s Larks on a thread (1969).
At the time of her appearance in Larks on a thread, she was only 60 years old, with just two years left to live. In their final years, she and her husband lived in a villa in Ládví near Prague that previously belonged to actress Růžena Nasková.
After falling victim to fraudsters, she lost the property and spent her final days living entirely alone in a Prague garconniere.
“She was kind and all too trusting, and so after the death of her husband she lost not only many treasures that the house in Ládví hid, but finally the house itself,” film historian and publicist Ondřej Suchý wrote in his book Secrets of movie stars, according to Proženy.cz.
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