Safrankova died shortly after her 68th birthday. The actress withdrew from public life several years ago, when she was diagnosed with lungs cancer. Her death was confirmed by her son Josef Abhram.
Safankova was born on 7th June 1953 in Brno. She played in theatres since her childhood. During her studies in the conservatory she played supporting role of Barunka in Bozena Nemcova’s film adaptation of novel Babicka (Granny). Soon she moved from Brno to Prague, and became one of the most famous actresses.
Her role of Popelka (Cinderella) in Vorlicek’s film Three Nuts for Cinderella / Tri Orisky Pro Popelku (1973) made her legend in German speaking and Scandinavian countries.
Her cute appearance and comedial talent has brought her many roles in comedies and fairy tale films. Very well known are The Prince and the Evening Star / Princ a Vecernice, Salt and Gold / Sul nad Zlato, The Third Prince / Treti Princ and comedy How to Drown Dr. Mracek / Jak Utopit dr. Mracka.
Another classic piece of Czech filmography is Run, Waiter, Run! / Vrchni, Prchni!, where she played a kind and good wife of notorious cheater played by Josef Abrham, her later real life husband. Later they played together in romantic comedy Svatebni cesta do Jilji.
Popular director Jiri Menzel casted her in his famous films The Snowdrop Festivities / Slavnosti Snezenek (1983) and My Sweet Little Village / Vesnicko Ma, Strediskova (1985).
The peak of her actress career was reached in films The Elementary School / Obecna Skola and especially Kolja, which was awarded Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Golden Globe in the same category.
Libuse Safrankova was truly acclaimed actress, whom we will all remember. May she rest in peace.