During Christmas, great Czech actress Jana Stepankova, born in 1934, passed away. She was a great-granddaughter of the Czech poet Vitezslav Halek and a sister of actors Petr and Martin Stepanek. Her career began as an amateur actress alongside her father. After studying at DAMU she began her career as a theater actress on the stage of Pardubice Theater. Between 1952 and 1972 she played at the Prague Liben Theater of S. K. Neumann. From 1972 to 2000, she played in Vinohrady Theater. In 2000, she hosted in the Mladá Boleslav Theater. Her husband was television director Jaroslav Dudek.
The audience first noticed her in the role of daughter Pavla in a very successful series Takova normalni rodinka. Six years later, her next big role came with Hospital at the End of the City series, where we could see her as Dana Kralova, a doctor who has decided for a strictly professional life. This role was further developed in the continuation of the series, Hospital at the End of the City Twenty Years On, and most recently in Hospital at the End of the City - new fates. Jana Stepankova didn’t have to worry about television films or other series. In Ranc u zelene sedmy series she starred as a flippant and active grandmother who eventually married grandfather Jerabek, played by Lubomir Kostelka.
Jana Stepankova also played with great pleasure in children's films. It was, for example, in the film tato sezen stene, where she played a doctor. She also appeared in another children’s film Ghosts of the Dormers/Strasidla z vikyre, where she played Grandmother, or Twins at the Zoo/Dva lidi v zoo, where she took the role of the main zoologist.
She has recently appeared in a very successful fairytale Angel of The Lord/Andel pane where she played cook Roza. In comedy Holiday Makers/Ucastnici zajezdu, based on the book by Michal Viewegh, she performed alongside with Kveta Fialova as her charming friend.
