Karel Roden

Karel Roden
Karel Roden
	Roden at the 43rd KVIFF in July 2008
Born	18 May 1962 (age 61); České Budějovice, Czechoslovakia
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1982–present
Partner	Ivana Chýlková (1985-1994)

Karel Roden (born 18 May 1962) is a Czech actor, popularly known for his roles in Hellboy and The Bourne Supremacy, and his voice work in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Life and career[edit]

Roden followed his father and grandfather into acting. Roden first graduated from the Comprehensive Art Secondary School for Ceramics before being admitted to the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

Roden's feature film career began almost simultaneous with his theatre work in 1984 as Honza, a medical student in the 2nd part of a trilogy entitled "How the poets are losing their illusions" (Jak básníci přicházejí o iluze), a lighthearted, comic look at life through the lives of young university students. Roden's Honza also appeared in the final installation of the trilogy, "How poets are enjoying their lives" (Jak básníkům chutná život).

Other comic turns include Roden's Captain Tuma in Who's That Soldier?, a humoristic look at life as a soldier in the socialist Czech army, the character Dragan in the action-thriller Dead Fish with Gary Oldman and Terence Stamp. In the comedy crime-thriller Shut Up and Shoot Me, Roden plays the hen-pecked husband hired to assassinate a grieving widow.^[1]

During the 1990s, he spent some time in London, which improved his English and gave him necessary exposure and access to the international scene. Hence, since being outside of Czechoslovakia he has become known mostly for his character actor roles which began in 2001 when Roden secured his first major role in the American psychological thriller, 15 Minutes, where he played the criminal Emil Slovak partnered with Oleg Taktarov opposite NYPD cop Flemming played by Robert De Niro. This was followed by a similar role, as the lawyer Carter Kounen, in the service of a vampire clan, in the movie Blade II in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

This was followed by what became a series of typecast roles, including the action movie Bulletproof Monk, where he plays the Nazi megalomaniac Strucker. This was no doubt due to his heavy accent and distinct features, which bring him close to the stereotyped Hollywood villain, although his voice was dubbed over by another actor in Blade II. This greatly understates, however, the plethora of characters he has portrayed throughout his career, particularly in Czechoslovakia.^{[citation needed]}

His movie roles to date include 15 Minutes (2001), Blade II (2002), Bulletproof Monk (2003), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), as Grigori Rasputin in Hellboy (2004), Running Scared (2006), Largo Winch (2008), RocknRolla (2008), and Orphan (2009). He also played the Russian movie critic Emil Dachevsky in the film Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007). He played Noble Thurzo in Bathory (2008), co-production movie filmed by Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko, A Lonely Place to Die (2011) and a role as the Czech mobster Karel Benes in the TV series McMafia (2019).

For his main character in Guard No. 47, Karel Roden received the Czech Lion Award for Best Actor in Leading Role.^[2] 8 years later, he received the same award for the portrayal of Jan Masaryk in A Prominent Patient. He also received Alfréd Radok Award in 1998 for performing Bruno in Le Cocu Magnifique by Fernand Crommelynck. Other notable role was Don Juan in Grabbe's Don Juan and Faust (Divadlo v Dlouhé). He also appeared in two plays with his brother Marian. He was also a member of the prestigious Prague National Theatre. At the moment he can be found at Theatre Studio DVA in several performances.^[3]

Roden has also voiced Mikhail Faustin and Wade "The Fixer" Johnson in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year	Film	Role	Country
1987	Who's That Soldier?	Captain Tůma	Czechoslovakia
1990	Masseba	Tall Youth	Czechoslovakia
1997	Pták Ohnivák	Skeleton	Czech Republic
2000	Wild Flowers	Dead Man - Soldier	Czech Republic
2001	15 Minutes	Emil Slovák	United States, Germany
2002	Blade II	Karel Kounen	United States
2003	Bulletproof Monk	Strucker	United States
2004	The Bourne Supremacy	Yuri Gretkov	United States
2004	Hellboy	Grigori Rasputin	United States
2005	Dead Fish	Dragan	United States
2005	Shut Up and Shoot Me	Pavel Zeman	Czech Republic
2006	Running Scared	Anzor Yugorsky	United States, Germany
2006	The Abandoned	Nikolai	Bulgaria, Spain, United Kingdom
2007	Mr. Bean's Holiday	Emil Duchevsky	France, United Kingdom, Germany, United States
2008	Bathory	György Thurzó	Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, United Kingdom
	Guard No. 47	Frantisek Dousa	Czech Republic
	Largo Winch	Michail Korsky	France
	RocknRolla	Uri Omovich	United Kingdom
2009	Orphan	Dr. Värava	United States, Canada, Germany, France
2010	Habermann	Karel Březina	Czech Republic, Germany, Austria
2011	Lidice	František Šíma	Czech Republic
	A Lonely Place to Die	Darko	United Kingdom
	Alois Nebel	The Mute	Czech Republic
2013	Frankenstein's Army	Dr. Viktor Frankenstein	United States, Czech Republic, Netherlands
2015	Sword of Vengeance	Durant	United Kingdom
2015	Photographer	Jan Saudek	Czech Republic
2016	Murder in Polná	Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk	Czech Republic
	A Prominent Patient	Jan Masaryk	Czech Republic
	We Are Never Alone	Father	Czech Republic
2017	Little Crusader	Bořek	Czech Republic
2020	The Racer	Viking	Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium
2021	Večirek	Richard Crha	Czech Republic
2022	Medieval	Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia	Czech Republic
TBA	The Way of the Wind	Mamon	United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey

Television[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Country
2003	Spooks	Miroslav Gradic	United Kingdom
2011	Terapie	Dr. Marek Pošta	Czech Republic
2012	Missing	Viktor Azimoff	United States
2013	The Wrong Mans	Marat Malankovic	United Kingdom
2018	McMafia	Karel Benes	United Kingdom

Video Game[edit]

Year	Title	Role
2008	Grand Theft Auto IV	Mikhail Faustin / Wade "The Fixer" Johnson

References[edit]

^ "Karel Roden – Juraj Thurzo – Actors – Bathory – Czech Television – Czech Television". Ceskatelevize.cz. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
^ Spáčilová, Tereza; Efler, Vojtěch; Záhorková, Jana (7 March 2009). "Filmem roku se stali Karamazovi, pro Českého lva si došel i Havel". idnes.cz (in Czech). Mladá fronta DNES. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
^ "Roden Karel « Studio DVA divadlo". www.studiodva.cz. Retrieved 4 March 2019.

External links[edit]

Biography, including list of roles (in Czech)
Karel Roden at IMDb
Karel Roden – Juraj Thurzo

[1] "Karel Roden – Juraj Thurzo – Actors – Bathory – Czech Television – Czech Television". Ceskatelevize.cz. Retrieved 3 June 2012.

[2] Spáčilová, Tereza; Efler, Vojtěch; Záhorková, Jana (7 March 2009). "Filmem roku se stali Karamazovi, pro Českého lva si došel i Havel". idnes.cz (in Czech). Mladá fronta DNES. Retrieved 16 March 2012.

[3] "Roden Karel « Studio DVA divadlo". www.studiodva.cz. Retrieved 4 March 2019.

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