Vladek Sheybal

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Vladek Sheybal
Sheybal as Kronsteen in From Russia with Love (1963)
Born
Władysław Rudolf Zbigniew Sheybal

(1923-03-12)12 March 1923
Zgierz, Poland
Died16 October 1992(1992-10-16) (aged 69)
London, United Kingdom
Resting placePutney Vale Cemetery, London
51°26′12″N 0°14′34″W / 51.436588°N 0.242655°W / 51.436588; -0.242655
NationalityPolish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Alma materMerton College, Oxford
Occupation(s)Actor, singer
Years active1957–1992
Websitewww.vladeksheybal.com

Vladek Sheybal (born Władysław Rudolf Zbigniew Sheybal; 12 March 1923 – 16 October 1992)

James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963), a role for which he had been personally recommended by his friend Sean Connery, and as Otto Leipzig in Smiley's People (1982).[3][4] He also had notable recurring roles as Dr. Douglas Jackson in Gerry Anderson's UFO, Captain Ferreira in the NBC miniseries Shōgun and as Gen. Bratchenko in the 1984 version of Red Dawn
.

He became a naturalised British citizen, but remained "fiercely proud of his homeland and its culture."[2]

Life and career

Sheybal was born in

Kanał (1957, credited as Władysław Sheybal), directed by Andrzej Wajda, before departing for Paris and then Vienna in 1958 owing to his political opposition to the Communist Party.[6][1]

Having difficulty finding work, he immigrated to Britain in 1959 where his reputation from Polish films lent him enough credibility to support himself teaching acting.

ITV Play of the Week in 1961 and 1962 and as well as productions for the BBC.[1] In 1964, he had a triumphant success on the British stage as "He" in Leonid Andreyev's He Who Gets Slapped at the Hampstead Theatre.[1]

In 1963, he made his British cinema debut playing the evil secret agent Kronsteen in the

The Debussy Film (1965), one of Russell's composer biopics for the BBC.[8] Other Russell films in which he appeared were Billion Dollar Brain (1967), Women in Love (1969), and The Boy Friend (1971).[9]

His other films include Casino Royale (1967), Doppelgänger (1969), The Last Valley, Puppet on a Chain, Innocent Bystanders, The Wind and the Lion, The Lady Vanishes (1979), Fire and Sword, and Red Dawn.[10]

Sheybal's other TV credits include

Supernatural (1977), Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy, Shōgun, Smiley's People,[11] and The Man in Room 17
.

A granite headstone with a cross inscribed on it and a bunch of red and white flowers next to it, among many other gravestones
Sheybal's grave at Putney Vale Cemetery, London, in 2015

In 1977, he won the

Night of the Marionettes, part of the Supernatural series, in which he played a sinister Austrian innkeeper whose life-size puppets supposedly inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.[12][13] Sheybal's final stage appearance was as Friedrich Nietzsche in the Pierre Bourgeade play The Eagle and the Serpent at London's Offstage Downstairs Theatre in 1988.[14]

He died in London in 1992, aged 69, from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. He is buried in Putney Vale Cemetery.[9]

In years 1950-1957,[15] he was in a relationship with actress Irena Eichlerówna. In England, Sheybal dated both men and women, but formed no long-term relationship.[16]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Obituaries: Vladek Sheybal". The Stage and Television Today. 11 February 1993. p. 29.
  2. ^ a b Flintoff, Ian (30 October 1992). "Vladek Sheybal: A very Polish practitioner". The Guardian. Manchester.
  3. ^ "Home and Bio English - Vladek Sheybal Online". www.vladeksheybal.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  4. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Smiley's People (1982)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  5. ^ "Vladek Sheybal". The Times. London. 16 November 1992.
  6. ^
    ISBN 9781526111968
    – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "'Qb Vii' (1974)". Archived from the original on 12 January 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  8. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Debussy Film, The (1965)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  9. ^ a b "Vladek Sheybal". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  10. ^ "Vladek Sheybal - Movies and Filmography". AllMovie.
  11. ^ "Vladek Sheybal". www.aveleyman.com.
  12. ^ "The Hamilton Deane Award". www.thedraculasociety.org.uk.
  13. ^ "Night of the Marionettes (1977)". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019.
  14. ^ "Google Translate". translate.google.com.
  15. ^ Bobka, Leslav. "Vladek o Lenie; Irena Eichlerówna we wspomnieniu Władysława Sheybala" [Vladek about Lena; Irena Eichlerówna in Władysław Sheybal's memory] (PDF). Teatr (in Polish). No. 12. pp. 40–42.
  16. ISSN 1896-3617
    . (Vladek był biseksualny; jeszcze w Polsce związany był z Ireną Eichlerówną, w Anglii z nikim nie związał się na stałe, miał romanse zarówno z kobietami, jak i mężczyznami).

External links
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