Entertainer, Playwright. A legendary figure of the Czech stage and screen. Nicknamed "The Wise Clown", his career was frequently rocked - and finally destroyed - by his country's turbulent 20th Century history. Werich was born in Prague and abandoned law studies for the stage. In 1927 he and his friend Jiri Voscovec formed a unique comedy act and quickly became stars of Prague's new Liberated Theatre, the First Republic's most dazzling political cabaret. Dressed as clowns and engaging in Dadaesque jokes and wordplay, the roly-poly Werich and skinny Voscovec pointedly, and often profoundly, satirized all aspects of post-World War I life. Fascism was a frequent target, but so was Communism, Nationalism, Depression-era woes, and basic human foibles. Along with the third member of their team, the brilliant composer Jaroslav Jezek, they wrote and produced 20 hit plays and revues between 1928 and 1938, among them "Fata Morgana" (1929), "Don Juan & Co." (1930), "Golem" (1931), "Caesar" (1932), and "Robin Hood" (1933). Songs from these shows are still Czech standards. Unluckily the Nazis didn't find them amusing and with the 1938 Munich Agreement the Liberated Theatre was shut down. Werich, Voscovec and Jezek fled into American exile, where Jezek died in 1942. After World War II the comedians returned to Prague and reopened their theatre in 1947, but with the Communist takeover the following year Voscovec left his homeland for good. (He went on to a successful American career as character actor George Voskovec). Werich carried on with a new partner, Miroslav Hornicek, and then as a solo act, albeit with the teeth taken out of his humor by government censorship. His film work of this period is more noteworthy. He co-wrote and starred in the fairy tale feature "Once Upon a Time There Was a King" (1955), which acquired the status of a Yuletide classic and is still shown annually on Czech TV; and he lent his voice to a 1954 series of puppet films based on Hasek's "Good Soldier Svejk" by the great animator Jiri Trnka. The gradual de-Stalinization of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s led to a resurgence in Werich's topical humor and he allied himself with Dubcek's "Prague Spring" liberal reforms. Once these were crushed by the 1968 Soviet invasion, the comedian was virtually banned from performing for the rest of his life. He was restored to official honor, posthumously, after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989. A bit of trivia for fans of the James Bond films: Werich was originally cast as archvillain Blofeld in "You Only Live Twice" (1967), but had to bow out at the last minute due to illness. He was replaced by Donald Pleasance.