Jan Tříska

Tříska was born in Prague. Prior to immigrating, first to Canada (Vancouver, BC) then to the U.S., he performed numerous roles in both theater and film. He had two daughters, Karla and Jana, with actress Karla Chadimová, and also had a grandson named Augustin.

After signing the Charter 77 proclamation, he emigrated to the United States via Cyprus. His most notable film role in the U.S. was probably that of Milos, the loyal butler and personal assistant to Mr. Terry Silver, in The Karate Kid Part III. He also played the assassin in Miloš Forman's The People vs. Larry Flynt, and appeared in Highlander: The Series (season 5, episode 10), Highlander: The Raven, Blizzard, The Osterman Weekend, Ronin, Apt Pupil (as Isaac Weiskopf), and the sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, Peter Hyams' 2010: The Year We Make Contact, among many others.

After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Tříska visited the Czech Republic to perform in movies such as The Elementary School (1991), Horem pádem (2004), the Academy Award nominated Želary (2003) and Máj (2008; based on the poem Máj by Karel Hynek Mácha). In 2002, Tříska received an Alfréd Radok Award for his performance as Lear in King Lear at the Summer Shakespeare Festival at Prague Castle.

Although he occasionally visited the Czech Republic, Tříska remained a resident of the United States.

On 23 September 2017, for reasons yet to be determined, Tříska fell from the Charles Bridge in Prague. Passengers on a nearby boat rescued him from the Vltava river, after which he was resuscitated and hospitalized in serious condition.[1] He died in hospital two days later, on 25 September 2017.[2][3]

• The Children of Herakles .... Iolaus
• The Seagull
• Idiot's Delight

• Master and Margarita
• Zastrozzi

• The Hairy Ape
• Arms and the Man
• Cosmonaut's Last Message

• Srpnová neděle (1959) .... Jirka (Play by František Hrubín, directed by Otomar Krejča)
• Don Juan (1959) .... Young Boy (Molière, directed by Jaromír Pleskot)
• Konec masopustu (1964) .... Rafael (Play by Josef Topol, directed by Otomar Krejča)
• Měsíc na vsi (1965) .... Aleksej N. Beljajev (Play by I. S. Turgenev, directed by Rudolf Hrušínský)

• Kočka na kolejích (1965) .... Véna (Play by Josef Topol, directed by Otomar Krejča)
• Three Sisters (1966) .... Tuzenbach (Play by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, directed by Otomar Krejča)
• Oidipus (1971) .... Oidipus (Play by Sophocles, directed by Otomar Krejča)

• Bílá nemoc (1956-1957) .... first assistant (Play by Karel Čapek, directed by Jaromír Pleskot)
• Maryša (1956-1957) .... Second Man (directed by Zdeněk Štěpánek)
• Saint Jane .... Page (directed by Jaromír Pleskot)
• Romeo and Juliet (1963) .... Romeo (National Theatre, Prague, directed by Otomar Krejča)

• The Cherry Orchard: The Tempest (Guthrie Theater)
• Largo Desolato (Yale Repertory Theatre, Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Male Performance)
• The Third Army (Long Wharf Theatre)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (Long Wharf Theatre)
• King Lear (2002) .... King Lear (Summer Shakespeare Festival, Prague; Spišský hrad, Brno, directed by Martin Huba)
• King Lear (1961) .... Edmund (Smetanovo divadlo, directed by František Salzer)
• Faust (1973) .... Dr. Johann Faust (play by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Divadlo Jaroslava Průchy, Kladno, directed by Václav Špidla)
• Kumšt (2007) .... Mark (play by Yasmina Reza, Divadlo na Jezerce, Prague, directed by Jan Hřebejk)