Biography

October 3, 1936 · Holice, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]

May 24, 2024 · Czech Republic

He was considered for the part of Michal Exner in Poklad byzantského kupce (1967), eventually played by Jirí Vala.

His name is pronounced "Yahn Kah-tcher".

He was a Czech actor and film director, and he appeared in more than sixty films from 1960 onwards.

Kacer was a parliamentary representative in the Federal Assembly from 1990 to 1992.

He was an actor and a director in The Drama Club and later Theatre on the Balustrade.

[on Údolí vcel (1968)] A project for which I had to study Latin, learn how to ride a horse and keep a diet. On top of that, we travelled to Germany with another film during pre-production, so for once in my life I was staying at a fancy hotel, being offered fancy food on a daily basis, and I had to feast to lose weight! I remember people asking me whether I was unhappy with the screening because I didn't eat or drink anything. But these were sacrifices which payed off great.

[on Courage for Every Day (1964)] This film which screened at festivals around the world was banned at home, and I remember reading ridiculously conflicting reviews. In Czechoslovakia, they said that my role was not believable and that "workers like this didn't exist", whereas a French reviewer was glad that someone had finally captured the soul of the worker, pronouncing that this was the way that future worker would look!

[on Smrt si ríká Engelchen (1963)] It was shot for 132 days and I had my family at home, rehearsed in Ostrava all day, took the train at midnight, got to Prague, where a car was parked and took me to Liberec, where the Beskydy Mountains were filmed, although the real ones were behind Ostrava. But the director of photography had a cottage in the Krkonoše Mountains, so we filmed there. I hated that film from the bottom of my heart.